The Holocene: an environmental history

"The Holocene provides students, researchers and lay-readers with the remarkable story of how the natural world has been transformed since the end of the last Ice Age around 15,000 years ago. This period has witnessed a shift from environmental changes determined by natural forces to those dominated by human actions, including those of climate and greenhouse gases. Understanding the environmental changes - both natural and anthropogenic - that have occurred during the Holocene is of crucial importance if we are to achieve a sustainable environmental future.

Revised and updated to take full account of the most recent advances, the third edition of this classic text includes substantial material on the scientific methods that are used to reconstruct and date past environments, as well as new concepts such as the Anthropocene. The book is fully-illustrated, global in coverage, and contains case studies, a glossary and more than 500 new references."--Pub. desc.

Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction -- Sources of information on past environments -- Nature and society -- The significance of the Holocene -- References -- 2. Reconstructing Holocene environments -- Dating the past -- Historical and archaeological dating -- Radiometric dating methods -- Dendrochronology and radiocarbon calibration -- Other dating methods -- Conclusion -- Palaeoecological techniques -- Pollen analysis -- Plant remains -- Creatures great and small -- Freshwater and marine organisms -- Geological techniques -- Ice and ocean -- Stable isotope analysis -- Geomorphology and climate -- Geo-archaeology -- Modelling the past -- Models of environmental reconstruction -- Computer model simulations -- Conclusion -- References -- 3. The Pleistocene prelude (>11700 Cal. yr BP) -- Ice Age environments -- The glacial--interglacial cycle -- Understanding the causes of long-term climatic change -- The Last Glacial Maximum and after.

Contents note continued: The terminal Pleistocene (15000--11700 Cal. yr BP) -- The Late Glacial in the North Atlantic region -- Terminal Pleistocene climatic oscillation: A globally synchronous event? -- Adjustment of geomorphic systems …