The Upper Pleistocene to Holocene sediments on the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa (Italy)

The island of Lampedusa lies on the northern edge of the African continental shelf, but during some Quaternary marine lowstands it was joined to the African continent. The study and dating of the aeolian, alluvial, detrital sediments, calcareous crusts and speleothems have established that the climatic–environmental variations recorded on the island can be related chronologically to those known for northern Libya, Tunisia and the Italian peninsula. During the Last Glacial Maximum, phases of Saharan dust accumulation on Lampedusa occurred, and were coeval with dust accumulation in crater lakes and on high mountains in central‐southern Italy, and with phases of glacial advance in the Apennines and in the Alps. During the late Holocene, accumulation of Saharan dust on Lampedusa occurred but there was little accumulation of dust on the northern side of the Mediterranean Sea. With the new data from Lampedusa, it is possible to envisage two different scenarios of atmospheric circulation relating to the Last Glacial Maximum and to the late Holocene. During the Last Glacial Maximum, southerly atmospheric circulation brought rainfall to the southern slopes of the Alps and to the Apennines. During the late Holocene, a prevalent westerly atmospheric circulation became established in the northern Mediterranean. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

小波气候突变的检测--应用范围及应注意的问题

气候突变及其检测是气候变化研究的一个重要方面。气候突变的表现多种多样,目前也有许多检测气候突变的方法,但这些方法能否准确地检测出气候突变现象,他们的适用范围如何,是一个值得注意的问题。研究表明,尽管小波分析方法在检测序列突变方面具有严格的数学意义,但因为其检测到的是序列的均值突变,因此,在应用于气候突变的检测方面应该特别注意,数学上的严格并不等同于气候意义上的严格。因为某些情况下有些突变点并没有一定的气候意义。     

Palynological Evidence on Climate Changes in the East China Sea During Mid and Late Holocene

The pollen analysis of DGKS9617 core in the East China Sea (covering about the last 6800 years) shows five obvious pollen assemblages and seven sub-assemblages. Combined with the sediment and the result of diatom analysis, the climate changes are reconstructed during the Middle and Late Holocene. Corresponding to the pollen assemblages, the climate shifts just as follows: Assemblage Ⅰ-Warm and Dry Stage, Assemblage Ⅱ-Cool and Humid Stage, Assemblage Ⅲ-Hot and Dry Stage (the mean annual temperature is 2～3 ℃ higher than that today ), Assemblage Ⅳ-Cool and Humid Stage, Assemblage Ⅴ-Wann and Dry Stage. The third stage is divided into three substages i.e. a slight colder and dry one, a slight wanner and humid one and a slight warmer and dry one. During the fifth stage, the climate becomes similar to that today with three warm substages and two cool substages.     

Sea level and diagenesis: a case study on Pleistocene beaches,Whalebone Bay,Bermuda

Pleistocene fluctuations of sea level have left marine and aeolian limestones intercalated with glacial red soils on the Bermuda Carbonate Platform (Atlantic, 64°50W, 32°20N). Successive eustatic highstands of similar amplitude drowned the tectonically stable platform and piled up similar sets of sediments. Up to three Pleistocene beaches are stacked in shorelines sections. Post-depositional diagenetic histories of these beaches can be linked to repeated changes in sea level and pore waters.This paper presents field evidence and petrographic results (microscope, X-ray, cathodoluminescence, SEMEDAX) for the diagenetic histories of two superimposed Pleistocene beaches in Whalebone Bay, Bermuda North Shore. The younger beach was deposited during isotopic stage 5e, about 120 ka ago. The age of the older beach may be isotopic stage 9 or older.Diagenesis drastically altered the older beach before the stage 5e transgression. Primary high-Mg calcite (HMC) and aragonite were no longer present. Marine skeletal grains were instead leached or recrystallized to low-Mg calcite (LMC). Primary and secondary pore space were largely reduced by LMC cement. Lines of needle relics reminiscent of marine aragonite cement occur as inclusions within syntaxial rim cements around echinoderm grains, indicating that a marine influence had at least once interrupted this period of freshwater alteration. Finally, before the rocks became buried by the sediments of the younger beach, a crust of marine, bladed HMC cement was precipitated throughout the pore space.The younger beach consists of skeletal grains that are, apart from the effects of non-selective dissolution, essentially unaltered. The sediments are only weakly lithified by cryptocrystalline LMC showing an alveolar texture, tangential fibres and other features characteristic of calichification. A younger post-depositional marine influence is not recorded.These results suggest that, under favourable conditions, diagenetic processes can document sea-level fluctuations. The recorded fluctuations, however, are difficult to assess because even major sea-level highstands may not produce a diagenetic imprint. Correspondence to: R. Vollbrecht     

Climate variability in the Spanish Pyrenees during the last 30,000 yr revealed by the El Portalet sequence

Palynological, sedimentological and stable isotopic analyses of carbonates and organic matter performed on the El Portalet sequence (1802 m a.s.l., 42°48′00?N, 0°23′52?W) reflect the paleoclimatic evolution and vegetation history in the central-western Spanish Pyrenees over the last 30,000 yr, and provide a high-resolution record for the late glacial period. Our results confirm previous observations that deglaciation occurred earlier in the Pyrenees than in northern European and Alpine sites and point to a glacial readvance from 22,500 to 18,000 cal yr BP, coinciding with the global last glacial maximum. The patterns shown by the new, high-resolution pollen data from this continental sequence, chronologically constrained by 13 AMS ¹⁴C dates, seem to correlate with the rapid climate changes recorded in Greenland ice cores during the last glacial-interglacial transition. Abrupt events observed in northern latitudes (Heinrich events 3 to 1, Oldest and Older Dryas stades, Intra-Allerød Cold Period, and 8200 cal yr BP event) were also identified for the first time in a lacustrine sequence from the central-western Pyrenees as cold and arid periods. The coherent response of the vegetation and the lake system to abrupt climate changes implies an efficient translation of climate variability from the North Atlantic to mid latitudes.     

广西单季种植巴西旱稻的气候可行性研究分析

根据巴西旱稻的生物学特性及其对气候条件基本要求,从气候角度对广西单季种植巴西旱稻的可行性进行论证分析,并提出巴西旱稻高产的技术措施建议,为广西推广巴西旱稻提供决策参考。     

坝上高原安固里淖粒度年纹层与环境变化

在安固里淖湖心区获取一未扰动沉积物样柱，分析发现了由冬季风搬运物与湖心沉积共同形成的粒度年纹层，建立了纹层年表，恢复了安固里淖湖区8507aB.P，以来的环境变化过程。8507-5429aB.P。冬季风活动较弱，后期的所波动；5429-3244aB.P.冬季风活动较强，3244-2494aB.P。冬季风活动减弱；2494-1165aB.P。冬季风活动略有增强；1165aB.P以来，冬季风活动减弱。安固里小淖粒度年纹层反映的冬季风变化情况与我国北方地区同期的环境变化和海平面变化有很好的对应关系。     

广西2002年度气候特点及其影响评价

2002年度(2001年12月～2002年11月),广西各地平均气温17.1～23.5℃,大部地区偏高0.3～1.2℃。年度降水量1035.0～2897.1mm,桂东大部偏多1～4成,桂西大部正常。日照时数1019～2323h,大部地区偏少10～412h。2002年度主要气候事件以春旱、暴雨洪涝、热带气旋、寒露风较为突出,年度内气候条件对各行业的影响有利有弊。     

塑膜温室油桃休眠期的温度变化

本文详尽分析了冰岛低压和大西洋高压的长期变化规律，发现两者均具有明显的阶段性变化，而且冰岛低压和大西洋高压的强度具有明显的反相关。同时，还分析了大西洋高压和冰岛低压与我国气候的关系，发现大西洋高压与我国冬季气温基本呈正相关，而冰岛低压与我国气温大致呈反相关，但均没有显著影响，所以两者都不是影响我国气候变化的重要天气系统。