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Books in Quaternary geology

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    • Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science

      • 3rd Edition
      • Scott A. Elias
      • English
      Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Third Edition, Six Volume Set brings together the multidisciplinary expertise needed to understand the history of humans, life, environmental, and climate change to understand what we may expect over the coming decades. Since publication of the previous edition, our understanding of many topics has been revolutionized by new discoveries and new techniques. The development of ancient DNA studies, for example, has revolutionized our thinking about the origins, dispersal, and population dynamics of our ancestors. Every new aDNA analysis from ancient human remains causes the story to become more complex.We are the sole survivors of the genus Homo, yet we harbor genetic fragments from other closely related but long-extinct lineages. The Quaternary is uniquely situated as a laboratory in which to study the shaping of the modern world, including biotic responses to large-scale environmental change. This new edition of this book is the most comprehensive account of state-of-the-art research in this field.

    • Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science

      • 2nd Edition
      • Cary Mock + 1 more
      • English
      The second revised edition of the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, Four Volume Set, provides both students and professionals with an up-to-date reference work on this important and highly varied area of research. There are lots of new articles, and many of the articles that appeared in the first edition have been updated to reflect advances in knowledge since 2006, when the original articles were written. The second edition will contain about 375 articles, written by leading experts around the world. This major reference work is richly illustrated with more than 3,000 illustrations, most of them in colour.

    • Ostracoda as Proxies for Quaternary Climate Change

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 17
      • English
      Ostracod crustaceans, common microfossils in marine and freshwater sedimentary records, supply evidence of past climatic conditions via indicator species, transfer function and mutual climatic range approaches as well as the trace element and stable isotope geochemistry of their shells. As methods of using ostracods as Quaternary palaeoclimate proxies have developed, so too has a critical awareness of their complexities, potential and limitations. This book combines up-to-date reviews (covering previous work and summarising the state of the art) with presentations of new, cutting-edge science (data and interpretations as well as methodological developments) to form a major reference work that will constitute a durable bench-mark in the science of Ostracoda and Quaternary climate change.

    • Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology

      A Closer Look
      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 15
      • J. Ehlers + 2 more
      • English
      The book presents an up-to-date, detailed overview of the Quaternary glaciations all over the world, not only with regard to stratigraphy but also with regard to major glacial landforms and the extent of the respective ice sheets. The locations of key sites are included. The information is presented in digital, uniformly prepared maps which can be used in a Geographical Information System (GIS) such as ArcView or ArcGIS. The accompanying text supplies the information on how the data were obtained (geomorphology, geological mapping, air photograph evaluation, satellite imagery), how the features were dated (14C, TL, relative stratigraphy) and how reliable they are supposed to be. All references to the underlying basic publications are included. Where controversial interpretations are possible e.g. in Siberia or Tibet, this is pointed out. As a result, the information on Quaternary glaciations worldwide will be much improved and supplied in a uniform digital format.The information on the glacial limits is compiled in digital form by the coordinators of the project, and is available for download at: http://booksite.else...

    • Advances in Quaternary Entomology

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 12
      • Scott A. Elias
      • English
      Advances in Quaternary Entomology addresses the science of fossil insects by demonstrating their immense contribution to our knowledge of the paleoenvironmental and climatological record of the past 2.6 million years. In this comprehensive survey of the field, Scott A. Elias recounts development of scholarship, reviews the fossil insect record from Quaternary deposits throughout the world, and points to rewarding areas for future research. The study of Quaternary entomology is becoming an important tool in understanding past environmental changes. Most insects are quite specific as to habitat requirements, and those in non-island environments have undergone almost no evolutionary change in the Quaternary period. We therefore can use their modern ecological requirements as a basis for interpreting what past environments must have been like.

    • Tropical and sub-tropical West Africa - Marine and continental changes during the Late Quaternary

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 10
      • P. Giresse
      • English
      West Africa and the eastern Atlantic stretching from Mauritania in the north to Namibia in the south offer a large latitudinal stretch incorporating nearly symmetrical climatic gradients from the Equator. On the time scale of Quaternary Glacial and Interglacial cycles, today, we possess well-documented and recently published marine sedimentary records showing changes in oceanic and atmospheric circulations and terrestrial fluxes. Deep-sea sediment records contain a wide range of palaeoenvironmental indicators like oxygen and carbon isotopes, alkenones, foraminiferal and other planktonic assemblages over time periods up to and greater than 125,000 years. These are signals of temperature and circulation shifts and allow Interglacial and Glacial comparisons on a regional and inter-hemispheric scale. However, this effort to synthesize the existing knowledge cannot yet aspire to a global modelling. Linking with terrestrial records, albeit spatially patchy and generally lacking a firm chronology, this book points to shorter time scale chronologies from lakes, marshes and river deposits. Diverse and not very wellknown literature, both French and English, is reported here. Lastly, the book records recent knowledge of the first steps of human occupation of frequently hostile environments and considers the environmental impact of ancient and modern societies.

    • Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 9
      • D.B. Madsen + 2 more
      • English
      Due to political pressures, prior to the 1990s little was known about the nature of human foraging adaptations in the deserts, grasslands, and mountains of north western China during the last glacial period. Even less was known about the transition to agriculture that followed. Now open to foreign visitation, there is now an increasing understanding of the foraging strategies which led both to the development of millet agriculture and to the utilization of the extreme environments of the Tibetan Plateau. This text explores the transition from the foraging societies of the Late Paleolithic to the emergence of settled farming societies and the emergent pastoralism of the middle Neolithic striving to help answer the diverse and numerous questions of this critical transitional period.

    • Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science

      • 1st Edition
      • Scott A. Elias
      • English
      The quaternary sciences constitute a dynamic, multidisciplinary field of research that has been growing in scientific and societal importance in recent years. This branch of the Earth sciences links ancient prehistory to modern environments. Quaternary terrestrial sediments contain the fossil remains of existing species of flora and fauna, and their immediate predecessors. Quaternary science plays an integral part in such important issues for modern society as groundwater resources and contamination, sea level change, geologic hazards (earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis), and soil erosion. With over 360 articles and 2,600 pages, many in full-color, the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science provides broad ranging, up-to-date articles on all of the major topics in the field. Written by a team of leading experts and under the guidance of an international editorial board, the articles are at a level that allows undergraduate students to understand the material, while providing active researchers with the latest information in the field. Also available online via ScienceDirect (2006) – featuring extensive browsing, searching, and internal cross-referencing between articles in the work, plus dynamic linking to journal articles and abstract databases, making navigation flexible and easy. For more information, pricing options and availability visit www.info.sciencedire...

    • Iceland - Modern Processes and Past Environments

      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 5
      • C. Caseldine + 3 more
      • English
      Iceland provides an unique stage on which to study the natural environment, both past and present, and it is understanding both aspects of reconstructing the past and observing and interpreting the present that form the focus of the contributions to this volume. The papers are all written by active researchers and incorporate both reviews and new data. Although concentrating largely on the recent Quaternary timescale a wide range of topics is explored including subglacial volcanism, onshore and offshore evidence for the Last Glacial Maximum and subsequent deglaciation, current glacial characteristics including jökulhlaups and glacial landsystems, soil development, Holocene ecosystem change, current oceanography, impacts of volcanic sulphur loading, chemical weathering and the CO2 budget and documentary evidence for historical climate. The key element of the volume is that for the first time it provides a wide overview of a range of topics for which Iceland provides an almost unparalleled laboratory emphasizing the importance of research on this small island for studies over a much broader global scale. These reviews point the way to future research directions and are supplemented by extensive illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography.

    • Quaternary Glaciations - Extent and Chronology

      Part I: Europe
      • 1st Edition
      • Volume 2
      • J. Ehlers + 1 more
      • English
      This book is the first of three volumes in which the recent knowledge of the extent and chronology of Quaternary glaciations has been compiled on a global scale. This information is seen as a fundamental requirement, not only for the glacial workers, but for the wider user-community of general Quaternary workers. In particular the need for accurate ice-front positions is a basic requirement for the rapidly growing field of palaeoclimate modelling. In order to provide the information for the widest-possible range of users in the most accessible form, a series of digital maps was prepared.The glacial limits were mapped in ArcView, the Geographical Information System (GIS) used by the work group. Digital maps, showing glacial limits, end moraines, ice-dammed lakes, glacier-induced drainage diversions and the locations of key sections through which the glacial limits are defined and dated are included. For major parts of Europe also the extent of the maximum Eemian transgression has been indicated. The digital maps in this volume cover all of Europe and parts of northwestern Siberia. Both overview maps and more detailed maps are provided.