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Module Title
LM Palaeoclimates
School
School of Geog Earth & Env Sci
Department
Earth and Environ Sciences
Module Code
03 26366
Module Lead
James Bendle
Level
Masters Level
Credits
10
Semester
Semester 2
Pre-requisites
Co-requisites
Restrictions
None
Exclusions
Description
This module will provide the basis for detailed understanding of the controls on palaeoclimatic change and to contextualise projections of future climate change.
How are climate archives like sediments, ice-cores, corals and tree-rings used to reconstruct past climates?
How and why has climate changed on various timescales?
How are palaeoclimate studies used to understand Earth’s climate sensitivity (e.g. how do temperatures and sea-levels respond to a change in CO2 or other climate forcing?).
What does this all mean for the future?
The course will teach fundamental concepts including: forcings, responses, feedbacks and the greenhouse effect, before moving on to explain how palaeoclimatic proxies (microfossils, biomarkers proxies, stable isotopes) and computer models are used to reconstruct past conditions.
We will look palaeoclimatic change on different timescales (tectonic and orbital) before going “Back to the Future” and focusing the Cenozoic Era and the role of CO2 and methane in past Greenhouse climates and the implications for Earth System sensitivity, sea-level rise and ‘target’ CO2 levels.
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the module students should be able to:
Frame climate change appropriately within geological time-scales.
Use an understanding of key components and interactions within the modern climate system to inform to paleoclimate analyses (the greenhouse effect, deepwater formation, climate zones etc).
Describe (to order of magnitude) the characteristic response times of climate system components.
Describe how the components of the climate system are interactive players in a dynamic system (and give examples from palaeoclimate case-studies).
Describe the small number of natural external forcing factors to the climate system, their timescales of operation and relative magnitude.
6) Be able to contrast the above with anthropogenic forgings (semi-quantitatively in W/m2).
Name and describe the most commonly used palaeoclimate archives (e.g. sediments, ice-cores etc) and the tools available for palaeoceanographic reconstruction (e.g. microfossils; biomarkes, stable and radiogenic isotopes and computer models).
Distinguish that the crucial interaction in the climate system is the amplification or dampening of forcings by feedbacks. Be able to describe a range of positive and negative feedbacks, their timescales and efficacy.
Place climate changes within a long-term, deep time and solar-system perspective.
. Moreover, recognise key climate events and trends in the past 65 million years, as seen in the benthic δ18O record.
Describe the evidence for and hypotheses relating to the orbital control of monsoons and ice-sheets in the Quaternary.
Describe the evidence for and hypotheses relating to deep ocean circulation - "the conveyer belt"; Heinrich Events and Dansguard-Oerschger cycles, the ocean biological CO2 pump and iron fertilization in the Quaternary.
Give detailed ‘back to the future’ case-studies on paleo-analogues for a warmer world (the Quaternary Interglacials, Pliocene, Eocene etc). They will be able to demonstrate the implications for climate sensitivity and sea-level as well as the limitations of such analogues.
Be able to use palaeoclimate studies as a basis to analyse and contextualise projections of future climate change.
Compare and contrast estimates of climate sensitivity from models (Charney sensitivity) with palaeoclimate studies.
