The Antarctic climate system varies on timescales from orbital, through millennial to sub-annual, and is closely coupled to other parts of the global climate system. We review these variations from the perspective of the geological and glaciological records and the recent historical period from which we have instrumental data (the last 50 years). We consider their consequences for the biosphere, and show how the latest numerical models project changes into the future, taking into account human actions in the form of the release of greenhouse gases and chlorofluorocarbons into the atmosphere. In doing so, we provide an essential Southern Hemisphere companion to the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment.

/pdf/antarctic-climate-change-and-the-environment-3mdc1ymkfh.pdf

Antarctic climate change and the environment

Using full-colour palaeogeographical maps from the Cambrian to the present, this interdisciplinary volume explains how plate motions and surface volcanism are linked to processes in the Earth's mantle, and to climate change and the evolution of the Earth's biota. These new and very detailed maps provide a complete and integrated Phanerozoic story of palaeogeography. They illustrate the development of all the major mountain-building orogenies. Old lands, seas, ice caps, volcanic regions, reefs, and coal beds are highlighted on the maps, as well as faunal and floral provinces. Many other original diagrams show sections from the Earth's core, through the mantle, and up to the lithosphere, and how Large Igneous Provinces are generated, helping to understand how plates have appeared, moved, and vanished through time. Supplementary resources are available online, making this an invaluable reference for researchers, graduate students, professional geoscientists and anyone interested in the geological history of the Earth.

Earth History and Palaeogeography

Determining the timing of diversification of modern birds has been difficult. We combined DNA sequences of clock-like genes for most avian families with 130 fossil birds to generate a new time tree for Neornithes and investigated their biogeographic and diversification dynamics. We found that the most recent common ancestor of modern birds inhabited South America around 95 million years ago, but it was not until the Cretaceous-Paleogene transition (66 million years ago) that Neornithes began to diversify rapidly around the world. Birds used two main dispersion routes: reaching the Old World through North America, and reaching Australia and Zealandia through Antarctica. Net diversification rates increased during periods of global cooling, suggesting that fragmentation of tropical biomes stimulated speciation. Thus, we found pervasive evidence that avian evolution has been influenced by plate tectonics and environmental change, two basic features of Earth’s dynamics.

/pdf/a-new-time-tree-reveals-earth-history-s-imprint-on-the-53nfhe3c7m.pdf

A new time tree reveals Earth history’s imprint on the evolution of modern birds

Properties and Management of Forest Soils

International stratigraphic guide

The evolution of Antarctic climate from a Cretaceous greenhouse into the Neogene icehouse is captured within a rich record of fossil leaves, wood, pollen, and flowers from the Antarctic Peninsula and the Transantarctic Mountains. About 85 million years ago, during the mid-Late Cretaceous, flowering plants thrived in subtropical climates in Antarctica. Analysis of their leaves and flowers, many of which were ancestors of plants that live in the tropics today, indicates that summer temperatures averaged 20°C during this global thermal maximum. After the Paleocene (~60 Ma) warmth-loving plants gradually lost their place in the vegetation and were replaced by floras dominated by araucarian conifers (monkey puzzles) and the southern beech Nothofagus, which tolerated freezing winters. Plants hung on tenaciously in high latitudes, even after ice sheets covered the land, and during periods of interglacial warmth in the Neogene small dwarf plants survived in tundra-like conditions within 500 km of the South Pole.

/pdf/100-million-years-of-antarctic-climate-evolution-evidence-aa8ec1qkqa.pdf

100 Million Years of Antarctic Climate Evolution: Evidence from Fossil Plants

Fossil soils are present within mid-Cretaceous fluvial sediments of the Fossil Bluff Group, Alexander Island, Antarctica. The palaeosols contain in situ fossil trees and rooted plants. These palaeosols are typically composed of two dominant horizons: an upper organic-rich horizon with identifiable plant remains, and a lower horizon with well-developed blocky ped structures, clay cutans and mottling. These features are typical of modern soils in seasonally dry climates. Although evidence of flooding is apparent from interbedded fluvial sandstones and mudstones, the palaeosols indicate that this high-latitude mid-Cretaceous environment was predominantly seasonally dry. The presence of the zeolites laumontite, prehnite and pumpellyite indicates a later metamorphic overprint on the palaeosols, resulting from burial diagenesis of this region at depths of about 3.8–5.2 km and temperatures of 150–170 °C.

Metamorphosed palaeosols associated with Cretaceous fossil forests, Alexander Island, Antarctica

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100 Million Years of Antarctic Climate Evolution: Evidence from Fossil Plants

Metamorphosed palaeosols associated with Cretaceous fossil forests, Alexander Island, Antarctica