CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Beaudoin, A.B.
Date : 2002.
Title : On the identification and characterization of drought in postglacial palaeoecological records.
Publication : Geological Association of Canada and Mineralogical Association of Canada Joint Annual Meeting, May 27 - 29, 2002. Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
Issue : 27:
Page(s) : 7.
Abstract
Say "drought" to people now living on the prairies, and the term conjures up a mental image of menacing dust storms overwhelming communities, crop failure, and economic disaster. Yet human history in this region spans most of the postglacial interval and palaeoecological records indicate that drought has been prevalent throughout that time. Drought is a term that is susceptible to many different definitions. It is often defined operationally depending on the application (e.g., crop success in agriculture, moisture deficits). Postglacial palaeoecological records offer many different proxy indicators of drought. Not all indicators respond to dry conditions in the same way. Often, drought is interpreted in generalized and qualitative terms ("drier than present", "drier than the average for the record as a whole"). Because of varying response times or record resolution, the measures of drought produced from different palaeoecological records may not be comparable. Moreover, it may be difficult to define what drought inferred from palaeoecological records means in terms of practical operational definitions. Does this matter? I argue that it does, especially if we are going to try and convince policy makers of the importance of the results of our studies. It is too easy to dismiss palaeoecological studies as "merely academic" or irrelevant, if they are couched in terms that are meaningless to the man on the combine or the irrigation manager in her office.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology