The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History

The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History
Author: Sam White
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 651
Release: 2018-08-10
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1137430206

This handbook offers the first comprehensive, state-of-the-field guide to past weather and climate and their role in human societies. Bringing together dozens of international specialists from the sciences and humanities, this volume describes the methods, sources, and major findings of historical climate reconstruction and impact research. Its chapters take the reader through each key source of past climate and weather information and each technique of analysis; through each historical period and region of the world; through the major topics of climate and history and core case studies; and finally through the history of climate ideas and science. Using clear, non-technical language, The Palgrave Handbook of Climate History serves as a textbook for students, a reference guide for specialists and an introduction to climate history for scholars and interested readers.

The Cambridge History of China

The Cambridge History of China
Author: Denis Crispin Twitchett
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 1240
Release: 1978
Genre: China
ISBN: 9780521243339

International scholars and sinologists discuss culture, economic growth, social change, political processes, and foreign influences in China since the earliest pre-dynastic period.

Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years

Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2007-01-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0309102251

In response to a request from Congress, Surface Temperature Reconstructions for the Last 2,000 Years assesses the state of scientific efforts to reconstruct surface temperature records for Earth during approximately the last 2,000 years and the implications of these efforts for our understanding of global climate change. Because widespread, reliable temperature records are available only for the last 150 years, scientists estimate temperatures in the more distant past by analyzing "proxy evidence," which includes tree rings, corals, ocean and lake sediments, cave deposits, ice cores, boreholes, and glaciers. Starting in the late 1990s, scientists began using sophisticated methods to combine proxy evidence from many different locations in an effort to estimate surface temperature changes during the last few hundred to few thousand years. This book is an important resource in helping to understand the intricacies of global climate change.

Climatic Variability in Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social Dimension

Climatic Variability in Sixteenth-Century Europe and Its Social Dimension
Author: Christian Pfister
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 352
Release: 2013-03-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9401592594

A multidecadal cooling is known to have occurred in Europe in the final decades of the sixteenth-century. It is still open to debate as to what might have caused the underlying shifts in atmospheric circulation and how these changes affected societies. This book is the fruit of interdisciplinary cooperation among 37 scientists including climatologists, hydrologists, glaciologists, dendroclimatologists, and economic and cultural historians. The known documentary climatic evidence from six European countries is compared to results of tree-ring studies. Seasonal temperature and precipitation are estimated from this data and monthly mean surface pressure patterns in the European area are reconstructed for outstanding anomalies. Results are compared to fluctuations of Alpine glaciers and to changes in the frequency of severe floods and coastal storms. Moreover, the impact of climate change on grain prices and wine production is assessed. Finally, it is convincingly argued that witches at that time were burnt as scapegoats for climatic change.

Reconstruction of High‐resolution Climate Data Over China from Rainfall and Snowfall Records in the Qing Dynasty

Reconstruction of High‐resolution Climate Data Over China from Rainfall and Snowfall Records in the Qing Dynasty
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2018
Genre:
ISBN:

Abstract : In recent years, researchers studying historical climates have given an increasing amount of attention to the Yu‐Xue‐Fen‐Cun record of the Qing Dynasty of China. These records play an important role in the quantitative reconstruction of the climate from the past 300 years in China due to their uniform recording formats and measurement methods. As a result of collective effort, methods for climate reconstruction are constantly improving, and regions with reconstructed high‐resolution historical climate data are expanding. This study reviews the features of the Yu‐Xue‐Fen‐Cun record and summarizes the progress and primary results achieved over the past 20 years. Studies showed that temperature variations over eastern China had three stages: a relatively cold phase in the 18th century, the coldest phase in the 19th century, and the warmest phase during and after the 20th century. However, the amplitudes between the maximum and minimum temperatures differed from 4.2 to 5.7 °C among different regions and sites. The variation in annual precipitation in North China showed an opposite phase to the Meiyu rainfall in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in the periods of 1736–1767, 1916–1948, and after 1955, and a consistent phase in the periods of 1792–1836 and 1845–1885. The rainband regularly moved away from South China in early May to the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in mid‐June, and then finally arrived in North China in early July. This article is categorized under: Paleoclimates and Current Trends > Modern Climate Change Abstract : High‐resolution climate reconstruction from Chinese rainfall and snowfall archives.

Paleoclimatology

Paleoclimatology
Author: Raymond S. Bradley
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 631
Release: 1999-02-22
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0080538347

Raymond S. Bradley provides his readers with a comprehensive and up-to-date review of all of the important methods used in paleoclimatic reconstruction, dating and paleoclimate modeling. Two comprehensive chapters on dating methods provide the foundation for all paleoclimatic studies and are followed by up-to-date coverage of ice core research, continental geological and biological records, pollen analysis, radiocarbon dating, tree rings and historical records. New methods using alkenones in marine sediments and coral studies are also described. Paleoclimatology, Second Edition, is an essential textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students studying climatology, paleoclimatology and paleooceanography worldwide, as well as a valuable reference for lecturers and researchers, appealing to archaeologists and scientists interested in environmental change. * Contains two up-to-date chapters on dating methods* Consists of the latest coverage of ice core research, marine sediment and coral studies, continental geological and biological records, pollen analysis, tree rings, and historical records* Describes the newest methods using alkenones in marine sediments and long continental pollen records* Addresses all important methods used in paleoclimatic reconstruction* Includes an extensive chapter on the use of models in paleoclimatology* Extensive and up-to-date bibliography* Illustrated with numerous comprehensive figure captions