scholarly journals Climatic history of the northeastern United States during the past 3000 years

2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (10) ◽  
pp. 1355-1379 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Marlon ◽  
Neil Pederson ◽  
Connor Nolan ◽  
Simon Goring ◽  
Bryan Shuman ◽  
...  

Abstract. Many ecosystem processes that influence Earth system feedbacks – vegetation growth, water and nutrient cycling, disturbance regimes – are strongly influenced by multidecadal- to millennial-scale climate variations that cannot be directly observed. Paleoclimate records provide information about these variations, forming the basis of our understanding and modeling of them. Fossil pollen records are abundant in the NE US, but cannot simultaneously provide information about paleoclimate and past vegetation in a modeling context because this leads to circular logic. If pollen data are used to constrain past vegetation changes, then the remaining paleoclimate archives in the northeastern US (NE US) are quite limited. Nonetheless, a growing number of diverse reconstructions have been developed but have not yet been examined together. Here we conduct a systematic review, assessment, and comparison of paleotemperature and paleohydrological proxies from the NE US for the last 3000 years. Regional temperature reconstructions (primarily summer) show a long-term cooling trend (1000 BCE–1700 CE) consistent with hemispheric-scale reconstructions, while hydroclimate data show gradually wetter conditions through the present day. Multiple proxies suggest that a prolonged, widespread drought occurred between 550 and 750 CE. Dry conditions are also evident during the Medieval Climate Anomaly, which was warmer and drier than the Little Ice Age and drier than today. There is some evidence for an acceleration of the longer-term wetting trend in the NE US during the past century; coupled with an abrupt shift from decreasing to increasing temperatures in the past century, these changes could have wide-ranging implications for species distributions, ecosystem dynamics, and extreme weather events. More work is needed to gather paleoclimate data in the NE US to make inter-proxy comparisons and to improve estimates of uncertainty in reconstructions.

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jennifer R. Marlon ◽  
Neil Pederson ◽  
Connor Nolan ◽  
Simon Goring ◽  
Bryan Shuman ◽  
...  

Abstract. Many ecosystem processes that influence Earth system feedbacks, including vegetation growth, water and nutrient cycling, and disturbance regimes, are strongly influenced by multi-decadal to millennial-scale variations in climate that cannot be captured by instrumental climate observations. Paleoclimate information is therefore essential for understanding contemporary ecosystems and their potential trajectories under a variety of future climate conditions. With the exception of fossil pollen records, there are a limited number of northeastern US (NE US) paleoclimate archives that can provide constraints on its temperature and hydroclimate history. Moreover, the records that do exist have not been considered together. Tree-ring data indicate that the 20th century was one of the wettest of the past 500 years in the eastern US (Pederson et al., 2014), and lake-level records suggest it was one of the wettest in the Holocene (Newby et al., 2014); how such results compare with other available data remains unclear, however. Here we conduct a systematic review, assessment, and comparison of paleotemperature and paleohydrological proxies from the NE US for the last 3000 years. Regional temperature reconstructions are consistent with the long-term cooling trend (1000 BCE–1700 CE) evident in hemispheric-scale reconstructions, but hydroclimate reconstructions reveal new information, including an abrupt transition from wet to dry conditions around 550–750 CE. NE US paleo data suggest that conditions during the Medieval Climate Anomaly were warmer and drier than during the Little Ice Age, and drier than today. There is some evidence for an acceleration over the past century of a longer-term wetting trend in the NE US, and coupled with the abrupt shift from a cooling trend to a warming trend from increased greenhouse gases, may have wide-ranging implications for species distributions, ecosystem dynamics, and extreme weather events. More work is needed to gather paleoclimate data in the NE US, make inter-proxy comparisons, and improve estimates of uncertainty in the reconstructions.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetsuro Taranczewski ◽  
Johannes Freitag ◽  
Olaf Eisen ◽  
Bo Vinther ◽  
Sonja Wahl ◽  
...  

Abstract. An ice core drilled in 2015 on the Renland ice cap at the eastern margin of Greenland has been inspected with regard to its melt content. The thickness of a melt layer reflects the temperature level at the time of melt generation. Hence the melt layers are an indicator of past regional summer temperatures in East Greenland, a region where paleoclimate records are sparse. Melt layers have been identified almost along the whole core, resulting in a melt record reaching back 10,000 years. By gathering additional information about melt rates as well as high-resolution densities in two shallow cores, we developed an approach to correct the annual melt content for the ice volume that gets lost by the thinning process. The result is a melt record with decadal- to centennial- scale resolution for the last two millennia, and the most accurate Holocene climate record for Eastern Greenland so far. The observed changes of annual melt rates show a warm early Holocene, with melt rates higher than in the recent past century, and minimum melting during the Little Ice Age. Current melt rates show a strong increase for the early 20th century as well as for the time since the end of the past century, with the recent 2012 extreme melting of the Greenland Ice Sheet being the strongest melt event in the past 500 years.


2018 ◽  
Vol 91 (2) ◽  
pp. 665-678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karen Neil ◽  
Konrad Gajewski

AbstractDiatom assemblages in lake sediments of Lac Noir, southwestern Québec, were studied at a resolution of 10 yr to determine principal drivers of primary producers for the past ~1000 yr. Generalized additive modeling revealed strong links between broadscale climate intervals of the late Holocene, forest composition, and diatom flora. During the Medieval Warm Period (~AD 1200) and onset of the Little Ice Age (~AD 1450), increases in Tabellaria flocculosa str. IIIp at the expense of Discostella stelligera reflected low lake productivity. At AD 1630, an abrupt shift to cooler temperatures and dry conditions triggered a decline in hemlock (Tsuga), replaced by disturbance and cool-adapted taxa. Greater nutrient availability and soil erosion in the catchment led to a corresponding and rapid increase in diatoms with higher optima for nitrogen, such as Asterionella formosa and Fragilaria crotonensis. After AD 1870, an increase in pollen of taxa associated with disturbances signaled the arrival of Euro-Canadians, and associated nutrient inputs to the lake triggered increases in Stephanodiscus minutulus and Achnanthidium minutissimum. Overall results of the study indicate that climate played an important underlying role in lake-ecosystem dynamics; however, disturbances affecting forest composition had more direct influences on the diatom communities of Lac Noir.


2011 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. e1
Author(s):  
Fulvio Melia

I have recently had the privilege of being appointed Editor-in-Chief of this very exciting and innovative Open Access Journal, and hereby extend a warm welcome to everyone as we launch Astronomy Studies Development, which will seek to publish high quality, peer-reviewed, original manuscripts in all fields of astronomy and astrophysics, though with a particular focus on mathematical techniques and methodology and innovative ideas for instrumental development and modeling in astronomy and astrophysics. The journal will also seek to publish simulations in all areas, including cosmology, particle astrophysics, accretion, and diffuse media. Our journal will include both full length research articles and letter articles, and its coverage extends over solar, stellar, galactic and extragalactic astronomy and astrophysics, and will report original research in all wavelength bands. Astronomy and Astrophysics are rather mature disciplines, with a history of quality journals over the past century or more. So one may reasonably ask why a new journal such as this is needed. Obviously, I myself have answered this question in the affirmative. After a long career in research and publishing, I have the perspective to provide several good reasons for helping to promote the evolution of publishing in Astronomy and Astrophysics to a place more in line with present technology..........


Author(s):  
Konstantinos I. Kakoudakis ◽  
Katerina Papadoulaki

Abstract This chapter illustrates the process of social tourism development in Greece, from the interwar years until the present day. The chapter first sets the discussion within the context of the country's turbulent political, social and economic background, throughout most of the past century, which has exercised significant influence on the development of Greek tourism in general, and social tourism specifically. It then identifies and presents two main phases of social tourism development, highlighting important initiatives and key players that contributed to the incremental evolution of social tourism programmes in Greece, and also events that impeded their implementation and smooth running. Specific emphasis is given to the past four decades, since this time period has largely shaped the contemporary form of Greek social tourism programmes. Therefore, the chapter explicates the close linkages between the establishment of the modern Greek welfare state in the early 1980s, and the development of social tourism as we know it today. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion on the developmental process of contemporary Greek social tourism over time, and the important socioeconomic implications of its current practice in the aftermath of the Greek financial crisis, and in the midst of the refugee crisis in Europe, and the Covid-19 pandemic.


1975 ◽  
Vol 25 ◽  
pp. 137-156 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. M. Kennedy

Yet another survey of the much-traversed field of Anglo-German relations will seem to many historians of modern Europe to border on the realm of superfluity; probably no two countries have had their relationship to each other so frequently examined in the past century as Britain and Germany. Moreover, even if one restricted such a study to the British side alone, the sheer number of publications upon this topic, or upon only a section of it like the age of ‘appeasement’, is simply too great to allow a compression of existing knowledge into a narrative form that would be anything other than crude and sketchy. The following contribution therefore seeks neither to provide such a general survey, nor, by use of new and detailed archival materials, to concentrate upon a small segment of the history of British policy towards Germany in the period 1864–1939; but instead to consider throughout all these years a particular aspect, namely, the respective arguments of Germanophiles and Germanophobes in Britain and the connection between this dialogue and the more general ideological standpoints of both sides. In so doing, the author has produced a survey which remains embarrassingly summary in detail but does at least attempt to offer a fresh approach to the subject.


Author(s):  
Rachel Hallote

When the artistic canon of the Southern Levant coalesced in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, scholars thought of the region, then Ottoman Palestine, as the locus of the Bible. The small-scale nature of the archaeological finds as well as their relative dearth reinforced a reliance on biblical narratives as a framework for understanding the culture of the region. Moreover, early scholarship did not recognize the complex regionalism of the Southern Levant or the diversity of its populations. Consequently, the artistic canon that developed did not represent the historical and archaeological realities of the region. This chapter examines the history of how the artistic canon of the Southern Levant formed over the past century of scholarship, why various scholars of the early and middle twentieth century included particular items in the canon, and why these now entrenched representations may or may not be helpful to the discipline’s future.


Author(s):  
Changming Duan ◽  
Kristen Sager

Empathy, one of the most studied and most multidisciplinary theoretical constructs, has garnered the attention of scholars from psychology as well as the social and biological sciences. The scholarship of empathy has developed significantly in the past century, with the most notable knowledge emerging in the areas of the neuroscience of empathy and the interplay between race/culture and empathy in recent decades. The positive psychology of empathy also continues to occupy researchers, as the links between empathy and individual and societal health abound. Future empathy research by socially and scholastically responsible scientists must overcome a long history of Euro-ethnocentric biases and integrate social justice into the understanding of this important construct. The scholarship and application of empathy will continue to be an important source of positivity for humans and for society as a whole.


2020 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 219-225
Author(s):  
Kelsey Cheshire ◽  
Jennifer Stout

Purpose This study aims to explore the question of whether or not librarians can ethically remain politically neutral in the wake of the 45th administration. The authors take a critical look at the American Library Association’s Code of Ethics, as well as the concept of vocational awe, and recommend challenging the “sacredness” of neutrality as a core tenet of the profession. Additionally, the authors describe the history of white privilege within libraries and argue that it is time to actively fight white supremacy and disavow the profession’s history of replicating racist social structures. Design/methodology/approach This study is a researched think piece designed to encourage critical thought about long-held idealistic beliefs in the profession. Findings This study suggests that despite the profession’s history of outwardly valuing “neutrality,” libraries are not and have never been neutral. Libraries have chosen, time and again, to value white privilege and a white frame of reference to the detriment of librarians and patrons of color. Because many librarians also see the profession as upholding “sacred” ideals like neutrality, we fall into the trap of being unable to criticize our own profession and practices and, therefore, are unable to make much needed changes. Research limitations/implications This study is based on the opinions of the authors and on the opinions of authors they have cited. It contains no original quantitative or qualitative research. Originality/value This study challenges the long-held assumptions that the profession has taken for granted over the past century. The authors argue that it is good and necessary to question the Code of Ethics, vocational awe and neutrality with the goal of improving the profession in light of the current cultural and political climate.


2002 ◽  
Vol 26 (4) ◽  
pp. 123-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Welsh ◽  
Martin Deahl

‘The practice of psychiatry is more vulnerable to criticism than any other area of medicine’ (Mason & McCall Smith, 1999). The interventionist philosophy of psychiatry and the legacy of the psychiatric practices of the past century have left an imprint on society's mind of coercive treatments against a background of unscientific evidence of benefit. Other medical specialities conversely are forgiven their history of barbarism (has anyone been to a medical museum lately?) on the grounds that they were using the only tools available to them at the time. Public attitudes, including stigma and suspicion, make it more difficult for us to claim a similar defence, and modern day psychiatrists appear to bear the indelible scars of our predecessors' actions.


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