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Description Published on behalf of The Micropalaeontological Society. For TMS titles discounts apply to Geological Society of London or The Micropalaeontological Society members only. (Please see the Login Help page for instructions). This book unites climate modelling, palaeoceanography and palaeontology to address fundamental events in the climate history of Earth over the past 600 million years. Understanding the 'tipping points’ that have lead to rapid changes in the Earth’s climate is vitally important with the realization that humans modify global climate. In an effort to better understand past and future climate change, general circulation models have become the forerunners of attempts to simulate future climate. Although extraordinarily sophisticated, they remain imperfect tools that require ‘grounding’ in geological data. In this, the study of past major climate transitions like the Palaeozoic icehouse worlds and the extreme greenhouse of the Cretaceous are invaluable. Both the mechanisms that forced changes in the Earth's climate as well as the proxies that track these changes are discussed. The central message of the book is that general circulation models tested with geological data in an iterative 'ground truth' process provide the best estimates of the Earth's ancient climate.

Contents Deep time perspectives on climate change: an introduction, Williams, M. Haywood, A. M. Gregory, J. Schmidt, D. N. • Climate and geology - a Phanerozoic perspective, Vaughan, A. P. M. • Reconstructing Neoproterozoic palaeoclimates using a combined data/modelling approach, Sohl, L. E. Chandler, M. A. • Early Cambrian origin of complex marine ecosystems, Vannier, J. • On the cause of the Ordovician glaciation, Armstrong, H. A. • Were transgressive black shales a negative feedback modulating glacioeustasy in the Early Palaeozoic Icehouse?. Page, A. A. Zalasiewicz, J. A. Williams, M. Popov, L. • Modelling climates of the Late Palaeozoic, Kiehl, J.T. • The Early Permian fossil record of Gondwana and its relationship to deglaciation: a review, Stephenson, M. H. Angiolini, L. Leng, M.J. • Climate change across the Permian/Triassic boundary, Twitchett, R. J. • Mesozoic climates, Sellwood, B. W. Valdes, P. J. • New approaches for quantifying the Cretaceous terrestrial climate record, Price, G. D. Grimes, S. T. • Late Cretaceous climates and foraminiferid distributions, Hart, M. B. • The palaeogeographic and palaeoclimatic significance of climate proxies for data-model comparisons, Markwick, P. J. • Mg/Ca palaeothermometry: a new window into Cenozoic climate change, Lear, C. H. • The Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum super greenhouse: biotic and geochemical signatures, age models and mechanisms of global change, Sluijs, A. Bowen, G. J. Brinkhuis, H. Lourens, L. J. Thomas, E. • The Eocene-Oligocene transition, Coxall, H. K. Pearson, P. N. • The Oligocene-Miocene boundary - cause and consequence from a Southern Ocean perspective, Pfuhl, H. A. McCave, I. N. • The origin of modern oceanic foraminiferal faunas and Neogene climate change, Kucera, M. Schoenfeld, J. • The closure history of the Central American seaway: evidence from isotopes and fossils to models and molecules, Schmidt, D. N. • The mid-Pliocene warm period: a test-bed for integrating data & models, Haywood, A. M. Valdes, P. J. Hill, D. J. Williams, M. • The PRISM palaeoclimate reconstruction and Pliocene sea-surface temperature, Dowsett, H. J. • Latitudinal climatic gradients in the Western European and Mediterranean regions from the Mid-Miocene (c. 15 Ma) to the Mid-Pliocene (c. 3.5 Ma) as quantified from pollen data, Fauquette, S. Suc, J-P. Jiménez-Moreno, G. Micheels, A. Jost, A. Favre, E. Bachiri-Taoufiq, N. Bertini, A. Clet-Pellerin, M. Diniz, F. Farjanel, G. Feddi, N. Zheng, Z. • Neogene flora, vegetation and climate dynamics in southeastern Europe and the northeastern Mediterranean, Jiménez-Moreno, G. Popescu, S.-M. Ivanov, D. Suc, J-P. • Characterizing ice sheets during the Pliocene: evidence from data and models, Hill, D. J. Haywood, A. M. Hindmarsh, R. C. A. Valdes, P. J. • The application of the alkenone organic proxy to the study of Plio-Pleistocene climate, Lawrence, K. T. Herbert, T. D. Dekens, P. S. Ravelo, A. C. • Onto the ice ages: proxy evidence for the onset of Northern Hemisphere glaciation, Ravelo, A. C. Billups, K. Dekens, P. S. Herbert, T. D. Lawrence, K. T.

Reviews

Most contributions are written in a review-style, which makes this book a valuable source for up-to-date literature search and global palaeodata syntheses.

...highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in getting a comprehensive overview of deep-time palaeoenvironments and climate modelling.  The book is very useful for "data collectors" who need an update or summary on state-of-the-art deep time geology and also to modellers for whom it provides a rich source of data to validate and test their simulations.

Ulrich Salzmann

This review was featured in Antarctic Science 20 (2008)

This review was submitted by:
Mrs Julie Webster
27 February 2009