Solar Variations, Climatic Change and Related Geophysical Problems

Application of Geophysical Techniques to Minerals-related Environmental Problems

Geophysical, archaeological, and historical evidence support a solar-output model for climate change.

Although the processes of climate change are not completely understood, an important causal candidate is variation in total solar output. Reported cycles in various climate-proxy data show a tendency to emulate a fundamental harmonic sequence of a basic solar-cycle length (11 years) multiplied by 2(N) (where N equals a positive or negative integer). A simple additive model for total solar-outpu...

Forensic entomology and climatic change.

Forensic entomology establishes the postmortem interval (PMI) by studying cadaveric fauna. The PMI today is still largely based on tables of insect succession on human cadavers compiled in the late 19th- or mid-20th centuries. In the last few years, however, the gradual warming of the climate has been changing faunal communities by favouring the presence of thermophilous species. To demonstrate...

Long Term Variations in the Length of Day and Climatic Change

The long-period (greater than about 10 yr) variations in the length-of-day (LOD) observed since 1820 show a marked similarity with variations observed in various climatic indices; periods of acceleration of the Earth corresponding to years of increasing intensity of the zonal circulation and to global-surface warming: periods of deceleration corresponding to years of decreasing zonal-circulatio...

Terrestrial ecosystems, increased solar ultraviolet radiation and interactions with other climatic change factors.

Based on research to date, we can state some expectations about terrestrial ecosystem response as several elements of global climate change develop in coming decades. Higher plant species will vary considerably in their response to elevated UV-B radiation, but the most common general effects are reductions in height of plants, decreased shoot mass if ozone reduction is severe, increased quantit...