Reconstructing Quaternary Environments

This third edition of Reconstructing Quaternary Environments has been completely revised and updated to provide a new account of the history and scale of environmental changes during the Quaternary. The evidence is extremely diverse ranging from landforms and sediments to fossil assemblages and geochemical data, and includes new data from terrestrial, marine and ice-core records. Dating methods are described and evaluated, while the principles and practices of Quaternary stratigraphy are also discussed. The volume concludes with a new chapter which considers some of the key questions about the nature, causes and consequences of global climatic and environmental change over a range of temporal scales. This synthesis builds on the methods and approaches described earlier in the book to show how a number of exciting ideas that have emerged over the last two decades are providing new insights into the operation of the global earth-ocean-atmosphere system, and are now central to many areas of contemporary Quaternary research.

This comprehensive and dynamic textbook is richly illustrated throughout with full-colour figures and photographs. The book will be of interest to undergraduates, postgraduates and professionals in Earth Science, Environmental Science, Physical Geography, Geology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Archaeology and Anthropology

The years since the second edition of Reconstructing Quaternary Environments have seen an exponential increase in the volume of literature written on the Quaternary. New methods and technological advances have given rise to a number of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary research groups able to offer startling insights in to short- and long- term climatic changes.

This third edition has been revised and updated to address these developments and to freshly examine the various forms of evidence that can be used to establish the history and scale of environmental changes during the Quaternary. Building on the format previously established it reviews the geomorphological, lithological and biological evidence that compromises the Quaternary record, describes and evaluates dating methods and considers how these elements can be bought together in a robust stratigraphic framework. A new final chapter demonstrates how results using these different methods and approaches can by synergised to provide an overview of global environmental change. Compelling new evidence from the integration of polar ice and marine isotopes records allow the authors to examine a series of themes relating to climate change at a number of spatial scales and over a series of time intervals that become progressively shorter towards the present day.

Clearly Illustrated to demonstrate key concepts and with progressive learning techniques employed throughout this new edition will be of interest to undergraduate students and professionals of Earth Science, Environmental Science, Physical Geography, Geology, Botany, Zoology, Ecology, Archaeology and Anthropology.