CGRG Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology
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Author : Gajewski, K.
Date : 1993
Title : The role of paleoecology in the study of global climatic change.
Publication : Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology
Issue : 79(1-2):
Page(s) : 141-151
Abstract
In this paper, the importance of the interaction between theory, observations and models for the analysis of climatic changes is illustrated for three timescales: 10 (super 4) yr (those of Quaternary ice ages), 10 (super 3) yr (the Holocene) and 10 (super 2) yr (the Little Ice Age). Using paleoclimate results to help explain past vegetation patterns, or using climates reconstructed from the fossil record to verify climate models produces the most acceptable results when attention is paid to the spatial and temporal scales of action of both systems. The long discussion of the pollen-climate "equilibrium question" showed that models underlying results such as pollen diagrams, migration fronts or isopoll maps impose limits on the interpretations obtained from the fossil record. Our interpretations of the sensitivity of vegetation to changes in climate and the nature of climatic impacts on vegetation is determined in part by the structures we impose on the data.
Bibliography of Canadian Geomorphology