Overview

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.

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9780121240103

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Reviews

This thorough, well referenced text will prove to be indispensable to anyone involved in the study of past and current climate change and modeling. -SOUTHEASTERN NATURALIST, 2005 Praise for the first edition: An indispensable work of reference for scientists and students alike. --Quarternary Science Reviews There can be little doubt that overall this book is a great success in the way the information is assimilated, explained and placed in a global context. --Journal of Quarternary Science A book which ought to be read as a primer by anyone with a critical interest in the field. --Earth Surface Processes and :Landforms Unrivaled in the sophistication with which it examines a wide range of methods. --K.W. Butzer, Journal of Archeological Science A resounding success... indispensable reading for anyone involved in paleoclimatic reconstruction or paleoclimatic modeling. --L.D.D. Harvey, University of Toronto Published Review As reviewed in CHOICE, October 1999 Bradley's new edition (1st ed., Quaternary Paleoclimatology, CH, Jul'85) is a thorough update; there is new material on ice cores, better dating, marine sediments, ocean circulations, corals, and paleoclimate models. About 2,000 references are listed, with more than half newer than 1985. This is an excellent compilation of figures and tables covering the entire subject. Many subtopics are of interest to casual readers: El Ninos (Ninos) since 1525; extent and seasonal changes in snow-ice cover; paleomagnetism--dates of major reversals in polarity; dust veil index since 1500, corresponding to volcanic activity; information from tree rings; ocean temperatures and salinity affecting the conveyor belt circulation; lake and sea level fluctuations; pollen analysis; and variability in flowering dates of plants and grape harvests. Surprisingly, some climate changes have been rapid and vegetation changes lag behind climate changes by 100 to 150 years. One of the problems in coupled ocean-atmosphere models is that response times for various components vary by six to seven orders of magnitude. This new edition is needed by college libraries. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. - A. E. Staver, Northern Illinois University

This thorough, well referenced text will prove to be indispensable to anyone involved in the study of past and current climate change and modeling. -SOUTHEASTERN NATURALIST, 2005 Praise for the first edition: An indispensable work of reference for scientists and students alike. --Quarternary Science Reviews There can be little doubt that overall this book is a great success in the way the information is assimilated, explained and placed in a global context. --Journal of Quarternary Science A book which ought to be read as a primer by anyone with a critical interest in the field. --Earth Surface Processes and :Landforms Unrivaled in the sophistication with which it examines a wide range of methods. --K.W. Butzer, Journal of Archeological Science A resounding success... indispensable reading for anyone involved in paleoclimatic reconstruction or paleoclimatic modeling. --L.D.D. Harvey, University of Toronto Published Review As reviewed in CHOICE, October 1999 Bradley's new edition (1st ed., Quaternary Paleoclimatology, CH, Jul'85) is a thorough update; there is new material on ice cores, better dating, marine sediments, ocean circulations, corals, and paleoclimate models. About 2,000 references are listed, with more than half newer than 1985. This is an excellent compilation of figures and tables covering the entire subject. Many subtopics are of interest to casual readers: El Ninos (Ninos) since 1525; extent and seasonal changes in snow-ice cover; paleomagnetism--dates of major reversals in polarity; dust veil index since 1500, corresponding to volcanic activity; information from tree rings; ocean temperatures and salinity affecting the conveyor belt circulation; lake and sea level fluctuations; pollen analysis; and variability in flowering dates of plants and grape harvests. Surprisingly, some climate changes have been rapid and vegetation changes lag behind climate changes by 100 to 150 years. One of the problems in coupled ocean-atmosphere models is that response times for various components vary by six to seven orders of magnitude. This new edition is needed by college libraries. General readers; upper-division undergraduates through faculty. - A. E. Staver, Northern Illinois University

Author Information

"Raymond S. Bradley has been involved in many national and international activities related to paleoclimatology, most notably as the current Chair of the Scientific Steering Committee for the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program on Past Global Changes (IGBP-PAGES). He has published dozens of articles in scientific journals, and has edited several important books in paleoclimatology. The first edition of Quaternary Paleoclimatology has been the definitive text in this field for over a decade. His research is in climatology, specifically in climatic change and the evidence for how the earth’s climate has varied in the past. He has carried out research on climate variation, both on the long (glacial and interglacial) time-scale and on the short (historical and instrumental) time-scale, involving the analysis of data from all over the world. In recent years he has been involved in studies of natural climate variability, to provide a background for understanding potential anthropogenic changes in climate resulting from rapid increases in ""greenhouse gases"" over the last century or so. R.S. Bradley has been a professor in the Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA, since 1984. He has been Head of the Department of Geosciences since 1993. Additionally, he is a member of Clare Hall at Cambridge."

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