STANDARD COURSE OUTLINE (11/05/03)

College of Liberal Arts

Department of Geography

I. General Information

A. Course Number: Geography 545

B. Title: Palaeoclimatology:

C. Units: 4

D. Prerequisites: Geography 444 or permission of instructor

E. Course Classification: 3 units at C-5 and 1 unit at C-13

F. Responsible Faculty: Porinchu

G. Terms Offered: spring

H. Prepared by: Porinchu and Rodrigue

I. Date of Submission/revision: 11/11/03

II.  Catalogue Description:

GEOG 444 or permission of instructor. A survey of the methods and techniques used to describe past climates and climate change and describe their impact on the natural environment with an emphasis on the last 2 million years. This course will examine the use of proxy records, such as marine and lacustrine sediment sequences, ice cores, tree rings, corals and documentary data, to reconstruct past climate. Means of dating past climatic events will also be reviewed. The possible causes of these events will be evaluated in relation to Earth’s changing orbital parameters and to internal forcing mechanisms. (Lecture 3 hours, lab activities 2 hours.)

III. Expected Outcomes

Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be able to:

A. Recognize concepts and terminology that are fundamental to understanding and describing past climates

B. Identify and understand the physical processes that are responsible for modifying Earth’s climate

C. Acquire practical, hands-on training in using geographic tools to analyze past climates through laboratory exercises

D. Demonstrate improved technical writing skill through term papers and exams.

IV. Course Outline

A. The Earth-Ocean-Atmosphere System and Climate Change (1-2 weeks)

1. The climate system

2. Feedback mechanisms

3. The nature of climate and climate change

4. Causes of climate change

B. Introduction to Palaeoclimatic Reconstruction (1-2 weeks)

1. Sources of palaeoclimatic information

2. Timescales of climatic variation


C. Dating Methods (1-3 weeks)

1.  Radioisotopic methods

2.  Paleomagnetism

3.  Chemical dating methods

4.  Biological dating methods

D. The Quaternary Period – An Overview (1 week)

1. Tectonic and volcanic setting

2. Polar Ice sheets

3.  Development of glacial theory

E. Review of Palaeoclimate Reconstruction Data and Methods (6-8 weeks)

1. Ice Cores (1-2 weeks)

a. Stable isotope analysis

b. Dating ice cores

c. Palaeoclimatic reconstruction

2. Marine Sediment

a. Palaeoclimatic information preserved in marine sediments – an

overview

b. Oxygen Isotope Studies

c. Relative Abundance Studies

d. Alkenone studies

3. Corals

a. Coral growth rate studies

b. Stable isotopes and trace elements

c. Ocean circulation and glacial-interglacial variability

4. Non-marine geological evidence

a. Loess

b. Periglacial features

c. Snowlines and glacial features

d. Lake-level fluctuations

e. Lake sediments

f. Speleothems

5. Non-marine biological evidence

a. Plant macrofossil

b. Insects

6. Pollen Analysis

a. Pollen analysis – overview

b. Vegetation response to past climate change

c. Quantitative palaeoclimatic reconstructions

7. Dendroclimatology

a. Basics of dendroclimatology

b. Dendroclimatologic reconstructions

c. Isotope dendroclimatology

8. Documentary data

a. Historical records

b. Regional Studies based on historical data

c. Historical records of climatic forcing factors

F. Palaeoclimate Models (1-3 weeks)

1. Types of models

2. Sensitivity experiments using General Circulation Models

3. Model simulations

4. Comparison of palaeoclimate simulations and palaeorecords

V. Methods of Presentation (A through D required)

A. Lecture and discussion

B. Hands-on physical demonstration of field and laboratory equipment used

in palaeoclimate research

C. Hands-on data entry and computer-based analysis of data, using

spreadsheets, pollen databases, and statistical and modeling software

D. Hands-on design of data presentation in tabular, graphic and

cartographic forms

VI. Methods of Evaluation (A through D required)

A.  A minimum of two exams including quantitative and essay questions

B.  Lab reports showing all computational work and analyses, relevant graphic material and maps, competent technical writing skills and mastery of the scientific method as applied to research questions in palaeoclimatology

C.  Develop, research, and write a substantial term paper describing a methodological or conceptual issue related to climate change or palaeoclimate research

D.  Oral presentation summarizing the results of term paper discussing a palaeoclimatic research problem

VII. Bibliography

A. Textbooks commonly used in Geography 445

1. Bradley, R. S. 1999. Palaeoclimatology: Reconstructing climates of

the Quaternary. Academic Press.

2. Lowe, J. J. and Walker, M. J. C. 1997. Reconstructing Quaternary

Environments. Longman Press.

3. Dawson, A. G. 1992. Ice Age Earth. Routledge.

4. Imbrie, J. and Imbrie, K. P. 2000. Ice Ages: Solving the mystery.

Harvard.

VIII. Justification

The Department of Geography has identified three core areas in geography as emphases, one of which is physical and environmental geography. It has hired five faculty within the last four years with expertise in this critical disciplinary area (Porinchu, Laris, Wechsler, Lee, and Rodrigue, in reverse order of hire) and is now expanding its curricular offerings in this area, with more attention paid to sequencing of courses in the various subfields of physical and environmental geography. The proposed course fits into this initiative, serving as an advanced specialty course in the physical and environmental area especially suited to a sequence consisting of general introductory physical geography (Geog 140); climatology (Geog 444), which expands on the climate content of Geog 140; and now Geog 445, which expands on the climate change and palaeoclimate content of Geog 444. The Department sought to hire a palaeoclimatologist (Dr. Porinchu) and create this course after discussions with the chair of the Department of Anthropology and other archaeologists, who requested that we develop a course that would help their students understand the palaeoenvironmental contexts of the archaeological sites with which they work. This course is, thus, critical to the curricula of two departments.