GEOL 5700-9 (Spring 2003)

GEOLOGICAL TOPICS SEMINAR

Recent Developments in Rapid Climate Change Research

This course will survey and critically evaluate recent developments in the analysis of rapid climate changes during the past 150,000 years (covering the last interglacial period to the present). We will examine various modes of natural climate variability on interannual (e.g., El Niņo-Southern Oscillation, North Atlantic Oscillation) to millennial (e.g., Dansgaard-Oeschger, Little Ice Age) timescales. Current and emerging theories regarding forcing mechanisms, both internal and external to the Earth system, will be discussed. Present and predicted future climate trends will be considered in the context of this past variability.

The course will be conducted in seminar format with interspersed background lectures by the instructor. Students will be required to make presentations on assigned readings from the current literature. A term project, in the form of an annotated bibliography on a relevant topic of the student's choosing, will also be required.

Instructor: Tom Marchitto
Office: RL1 152, East Campus
Phone: 2-7739
E-mail: tom.marchitto@colorado.edu
Office hours: tba
Class meetings: M/W 2:30-3:45 (M: RL3 248, W: Benson 240D)
Credit: 3 credit hours

Syllabus

Fitter and Fitter, Rapid changes in flowering time in British plants, Science 296: 1689-1691, 2002. (Tom)

Doran et al., Antarctic climate cooling and terrestrial ecosystem response, Nature 415: 517-520, 2002. (Tom)

Lynch-Stieglitz et al., Weaker Gulf Stream in the Florida Straits during the Last Glacial Maximum, Nature 402: 644-648, 1999. (Trevor)

Martin et al., Quaternary deep sea temperature histories derived from benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca, Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 198: 193-209, 2002. (Annie)

Adkins et al., The salinity, temperature, and d18O of the glacial deep ocean, Science 298: 1769-1773, 2002. (Yarrow)

Muscheler et al., Changes in deep-water formation during the Younger Dryas event inferred from 10Be and 14C records, Nature 408: 567-570, 2000. (Greta)

Moreno et al., Interhemispheric climate links revealed by a late-glacial cooling episode in southern Chile, Nature 409: 804-808, 2001. (Ken)

Morgan et al., Relative timing of deglacial climate events in Antarctica and Greenland, Science 297: 1862-1864, 2002. (Angel)

van Kreveld et al., Potential links between surging ice sheets, circulation changes, and the Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles in the Irminger Sea, 60-18 kyr, Paleoceanography 15: 425-442, 2000. (Jessica)

Pailler and Bard, High frequency palaeoceanographic changes during the past 140,000 yr recorded by the organic matter in sediments of the Iberian Margin, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 181: 431-452, 2002. (Tom)

Allen et al., Rapid environmental changes in southern Europe during the last glacial period, Nature 400: 740-743, 1999. (Yarrow)

Peterson et al., Rapid changes in the hydrologic cycle of the tropical Atlantic during the last glacial, Science 290: 1947-1951, 2000. (Trevor)

Altabet et al., The effect of millennial-scale changes in Arabian Sea denitrification on atmospheric CO2, Nature 415: 159-162, 2002. (Ken)

Hendy and Kennett, Tropical forcing of North Pacific intermediate water distribution during Late Quaternary rapid climate change?, Quaternary Science Reviews, in press. (Annie)

Kudrass et al., Modulation and amplification of climatic changes in the Northern Hemisphere by the Indian summer monsoon during the past 80 k.y., Geology 29: 63-66, 2001. (Angel)

Wang et al., A high-resolution absolute-dated late Pleistocene monsoon record from Hulu Cave, China, Science 294: 2345-2348, 2001. (Angel)

Kiefer et al., North Pacific response to millennial-scale changes in ocean circulation over the past 60 kyr, Paleoceanography 16: 179-189, 2001.

Blunier and Brook, Timing of millennial-scale climate change in Antarctica and Greenland during the last glacial period, Science 291: 109-112, 2001. (Trevor)

Kanfoush et al., Millennial-scale instability of the Antarctic Ice Sheet during the last glaciation, Science 288: 1815-1818, 2000. (Trevor)

Stocker, Past and future reorganizations in the climate system, Quaternary Science Reviews 19: 301-319, 2000.

Schmittner et al., Instability of glacial climate in a model of the ocean-atmosphere-cryosphere system, Science 295: 1489-1493, 2002. (Yarrow)

Keeling and Stephens, Antarctic sea ice and the control of Pleistocene climate instability, Paleoceanography 16: 112-131, 2001 (see also Correction, 16: 330-334). (Yarrow)

Ganopolski and Rahmstorf, Abrupt glacial climate changes due to stochastic resonance, Physical Review Letters 88.038501, 2002.

Tudhope et al., Variability in the El Niņo-Southern Oscillation through a glacial-interglacial cycle, Science 291: 1511-1517, 2001. (Annie)

Beaufort et al., ENSO-like forcing on oceanic primary production during the Late Pleistocene, Science 293: 2440-2444, 2001. (Annie)

Koutavas et al., El Niņo-like pattern in Ice Age tropical Pacific sea surface temperature, Science 297: 226-230, 2002.

Visser et al., Magnitude and timing of temperature change in the Indo-Pacific warm pool during deglaciation, Nature 421: 152-155, 2003. (Greta)

Stott et al., Super ENSO and global climate oscillations at millennial time scales, Science 297: 222-226, 2002. (Greta)

Kienast et al., Synchronous tropical South China Sea SST change and Greenland warming during deglaciation, Science 291: 2132-2134, 2001.

Andrus et al., Otolith d18O record of Mid-Holocene sea surface temperatures in Peru, Science 295: 1508-1511, 2002. (see also Comment and Response) (Jessica)

Moy et al., Variability of El Niņo/Southern Oscillation activity at millennial timescales during the Holocene epoch, Nature 420: 162-165, 2002. (Jessica)

Noren et al., Millennial-scale storminess variability in the northeastern United States during the Holocene epoch, Nature 419: 821-824, 2002. (Angel)

Gupta et al., Abrupt changes in the Asian southwest monsoon during the Holocene and their links to the North Atlantic Ocean, Nature 421: 354-357, 2003. (Angel)

Bond et al., Persistent solar influence on North Atlantic climate during the Holocene, Science 294: 2130-2136, 2001.

Baker et al., The history of South American tropical precipitation for the past 25,000 years, Science 291: 640-643, 2001. (Jessica)

Thompson et al., Kilimanjaro ice core records: Evidence of Holocene climate change in tropical Africa, Science 298: 589-593, 2002. (Jessica)

Maslin and Burns, Reconstruction of the Amazon Basin effective moisture availability over the past 14,000 years, Science 290: 2285-2287, 2000.

Verschuren et al., Rainfall and drought in equatorial east Africa during the past 1,100 years, Nature 403: 410-414, 2000. (Yarrow)

Haug et al., Southward migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone through the Holocene, Science 293: 1304-1308, 2001. (Yarrow)

Hendy et al., Abrupt decrease in tropical Pacific sea surface salinity at end of Little Ice Age, Science 295: 1511-1514, 2002.

Cook et al., A well-verified, multiproxy reconstruction of the winter North Atlantic Oscillation Index since A.D. 1400, Journal of Climate 15: 1754-1764, 2002. (Angel)

Neff et al., Strong coherence between solar variability and the monsoon in Oman between 9 and 6 kyr ago, Nature 411: 290-293, 2001. (Annie)

Shindell et al., Solar forcing of regional climate change during the Maunder Minimum, Science 294: 2149-2152, 2001. (Annie)

Rind, The Sun's role in climate variations, Science 296: 673-677, 2002.

Cuffey and Marshall, Substantial contribution to sea-level rise during the last interglacial from the Greenland ice sheet, Nature 404: 591-594, 2000. (Jessica)

Kukla et al., Last interglacial and early interglacial ENSO, Quaternary Research 58: 27-31, 2002. (Jessica)

Rioual et al., High-resolution record of climate stability in France during the last interglacial period, Nature 413: 293-296, 2001.

Alley et al., Abrupt climate change, Science 299: 2005-2010, 2003.

Moritz et al., Dynamics of recent climate change in the Arctic, Science 297: 1497-1502, 2002. (Trevor)

Thompson and Solomon, Interpretation of recent Southern Hemisphere climate change, Science 296: 895-899, 2002. (Trevor)

Barnett et al., Detection of anthropogenic climate change in the world's oceans, Science 292: 270-274, 2001.

Rignot and Thomas, Mass balance of polar ice sheets, Science 297: 1502-1506, 2002. (Yarrow)

Dickson et al., Rapid freshening of the deep North Atlantic Ocean over the past four decades, Nature 416: 832-837, 2002. (Yarrow)

Cabanes et al., Sea level rise during past 40 years determined from satellite and in situ observations, Science 294: 840-842, 2001.

Menon et al., Climate effects of black carbon aerosols in China and India, Science 297: 2250-2253, 2002. (Annie)

Gillett et al., Detection of human influence on sea-level pressure, Nature 422: 292-294, 2003. (Trevor)

Roderich and Farquhar, The cause of decreased pan evaporation over the past 50 years, Science 298: 1410-1411, 2002.

Stott and Kettleborough, Origins and estimates of uncertainty in predictions of twenty-first century temperature rise, Nature 416: 723-726, 2002. (Angel)

Palmer and Raisanen, Quantifying the risk of extreme seasonal precipitation events in a changing climate, Nature 415: 512-514, 2002. (Angel)

IPCC Projections of Future Climate Change Executive Summary (2 html pages) and General Summary (figure).

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