Effects of Past Global Change on Life

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• Publisher: National Academies Press
• Year: 1995
• eBook ISBN:
  9780309176811
• Edition: 0
• Topic: Physical Sciences

What can we expect as global change progresses? Will there be thresholds that trigger sudden shifts in environmental conditions--or that cause catastrophic destruction of life?Effects of Past Global Change on Life explores what earth scientists are learning about the impact of large-scale environmental changes on ancient life--and how these findings may help us resolve today's environmental controversies.Leading authorities discuss historical climate trends and what can be learned from the mass extinctions and other critical periods about the rise and fall of plant and animal species in response to global change. The volume develops a picture of how environmental change has closed some evolutionary doors while opening others--including profound effects on the early members of the human family.An expert panel offers specific recommendations on expanding research and improving investigative tools--and targets historical periods and geological and biological patterns with the most promise of shedding light on future developments.This readable and informative book will be of special interest to professionals in the earth sciences and the environmental community as well as concerned policymakers.

Table of contents

• COVER PAGE
• Panel on Effects of Past Global Change on Life
• Board on Earth Sciences and Resources
• Commission on Geosciences, Environment, and Resources
• Studies in Geophysics
• Preface
• Contents
• Overview and Recommendations
• Background
• 1 Oxygen and Proterozoic Evolution: An Update
• 2 Impact of Late Ordovician Glaciation-Deglaciation on Marine Life
• 3 Global Change Leading to Biodiversity Crisis in a Greenhouse World: The Cenomanian-Turonian (Cretaceous) Mass Extinction
• 4 Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) Mass Extinction: Effect of Global Change on Calcareous Microplankton
• 5 Terminal Paleocene Mass Extinction in the Deep Sea: Association with Global Warming
• 6 Tropical Climate Stability and Implications for the Distribution of Life
• 7 Neogene Ice Age in the North Atlantic Region: Climatic Changes, Biotic Effects, and Forcing Factors
• 8 The Response of Hierarchially Structured Ecosystems to Long-Term Climatic Change: A Case Study using Tropical Peat Swamps of Pennsylvanian Age
• 9 The Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic History of Vegetation and Climate at Northern and Southern High Latitudes: A Comparison
• 10 The Impact of Climatic Changes on the Development of the Australian Flora
• 11 Global Climatic Influence on Cenozoic Land Mammal Faunas
• 12 Biotic Responses to Temperature and Salinity Changes During Last Deglaciation, Gulf of Mexico
• 13 Pollen Records of Late Quaternary Vegetation Change: Plant Community Rearrangements and Evolutionary Implications
• 14 Climatic Forcing and the Origin of the Human Genus
• Index