scholarly journals The World Heritage Naracoorte Caves beyond 500 ka: U-Pb dating and charcoal analysis from speleothems with implications for Pleistocene vertebrate fossil deposits

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rieneke Weij ◽  
Jon Woodhead ◽  
Liz Reed ◽  
Kale Sniderman ◽  
John Hellstrom ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
World Heritage ◽  
Charcoal Analysis ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
The Past ◽  
Spin Resonance ◽  
The World ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
First Time ◽  
Insight Into

<p>Under the current rapid global warming, studying how environments responded to past climate change becomes increasingly important to better understand what impact climate variability has on regional flora and fauna. Our new multi-proxy study to the World Heritage Naracoorte Caves in southern Australia provides a unique window into the past climate as they are heavily decorated with speleothems but also contain in-fill deposits rich in Pleistocene vertebrate fossils including the extinct Australian megafauna. Until now, these speleothems have been dated using U-Th series and the fossil-bearing sediments with Optical Stimulated Luminescence and Electro Spin Resonance techniques, but only up to ca. 500 ka. We have U-Pb dated speleothems from the Naracoorte Caves for the first time and extended the record beyond 500 ka. We combined precise chronology with analyses of pollen and charcoal within the speleothems which allows us to better understand how southern Australia’s climate and its vegetation changed during the Quaternary. It also provides a unique insight into the timing and extent of cave opening with important potential for much older vertebrate fossil deposits than previously thought.</p>

Alone, Together

2022 ◽  
pp. 77-95
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
International Cooperation ◽  
International Community ◽  
The Past ◽  
The World ◽  
Cooperative Institutions ◽  
Insight Into

This chapter provides insight into the contemporary problems plaguing the international community, including climate change and terrorism, and examines how international cooperation has worked to combat issues in the past. The chapter will highlight the criticality of cooperative institutions and organizations within the international community and how those organizations may stand up to the rising tide of nationalism around the world.

scholarly journals Rapid diversification of the Australian Amitermes group during late Cenozoic climate change

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bastian Heimburger ◽  
Leonie Schardt ◽  
Alexander Brandt ◽  
Stefan Scheu ◽  
Tamara R Hartke
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Wide Distribution ◽  
Monsoon Region ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Face ◽  
Rapid Diversification ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
First Time

Late Cenozoic climate change led to the progressive aridification of Australia over the past 15 million years. This gradual biome turnover fundamentally changed Australia's ecosystems, opening new niches and prompting diversification of plants and animals. One example is the Australian Amitermes Group (AAG), consisting of the Australian Amitermes and affiliated genera. Although it represents the most speciose and diverse higher termite group in Australia, little is known about its evolutionary history. We used ancestral range reconstruction and diversification analyses to illuminate 1) the origin and phylogenetic relationships of the AAG, 2) biogeographical processes leading to the current continent-wide distribution, and 3) timing and pattern of diversification in the context of late Cenozoic climate change. By estimating the first time-calibrated phylogeny, we show that the AAG is a monophyletic group, whose ancestor arrived ~11-10 million years ago from Southeast Asia. Ancestral range reconstruction indicates that Australia's monsoon region was the launching point for a continental radiation that has been shaped by range expansions and within-area speciation rather than vicariance. We found that multiple arid species diversified from mesic and tropical ancestors in the Plio-Pleistocene, but also observed diversification in the opposite direction. Finally, we show that two pulses of rapid diversification coincided with past climate change during the late Miocene and early Pliocene. Consistent with rapid diversification, species accumulation then slowed, likely caused by progressive niche saturation. This study provides a stepping stone for predicting the future response of Australia's termite fauna in the face of human-mediated climate change.

scholarly journals Past Climate Change Affected Mountain Building in the Andes

Eos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah Stanley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Mountain Building ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
The Past ◽  
The North ◽  
The Andes ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
Patagonian Andes ◽  
Tectonic Dynamics

Increased glaciation in the North Patagonian Andes may have influenced tectonic dynamics over the past 7 million years, suggesting a connection between climate change and mountain-building processes.

scholarly journals The Time Machine: challenging perceptions of time and place to enhance climate change engagement through museums

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 183-217
Author(s):  
Henry McGhie ◽  
Sarah Mander ◽  
Asher Minns
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Psychological Distance ◽  
Time Machine ◽  
Past Climate ◽  
The Past ◽  
Collective Response ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Past Climate Change

This article explores how museums can help empower people to engage constructively with climate change, through applying a range of time-related concepts to their exhibitions and events. Museums are mostly collections of the past. Climate change now and future presents particular challenges as it is perceived to be psychologically distant. The link between this distance and effective climate action is complex and presents an opportunity for museums, as sites where psychological distance can be explored in safe, consequence-free ways. This paper explores how we can use museums to help develop understanding within the rhetoric of climate change to assist visitors with their personal or collective response to the climate challenge. Time-related concepts including Foucault’s heterotopia, long-term thinking as advocated in the History Manifesto and the ‘Big Here and Long Now’, are explored in relation to museums as potential tools for constructive climate change engagement. 

scholarly journals Ice-affected soil systems under rapid climate warming - insights from the past

2021 ◽  
Vol 135 (2) ◽  
pp. 27-36
Author(s):  
Ph.E.F. Collins ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Climate Warming ◽  
Ice Core ◽  
Climate Forcing ◽  
The Holocene ◽  
The Past ◽  
Soil Systems ◽  
High Magnitude ◽  
Past Climate Change ◽  
Insight Into

Current climate warming is expected to lead to ongoing geotechnical change in ice-affected soils. Examining past climate change, particularly cold stage:warm stage transitions can provide an insight into the potential nature of this change and may inform assessments of sites. The evidence is sometimes ambiguous, with periglacial and seismic processes producing similar results. Ice core evidence suggests that cold-warm transitions, such as during the onset of the Greenlandian stage of the Holocene can be high magnitude, but also may feature reversals that add instability to soil systems. Consideration of future geotechnical change in ice-affected soils must therefore take into account potentially complex climate forcing.

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