Learning Outcomes and Assessment

This course looks at climate change through the lens of the geological past, with a particular focus on non-linear climate dynamics, arising from ice-ocean-atmosphere interactions and their impacts on the global biogeochemical cycles.  The goal is to unravel the fundamental controls on Earth’s climate and its dynamics over a range of timescales, including its capacity for abrupt and irreversible change, as exemplified by case studies in Earth’s history.  We will consider the implications of this geological perspective for the framing of uncertainties associated with the prediction of future climate change. In addition to the 8 lectures, the course will include 4 practical sessions that will be dedicated to the development and use of simple numerical models for global energy balance, carbon cycling, ice dynamics and the ocean circulation.

This course is given by the Department of Earth Sciences.

Synopsis

Core lectures:

Introduction to climate records on tectonic, orbital and sub-orbital timesclaes.  Records from marine, ice-core, speleotherm, corals and other archives.

Forcing and dynamics of atmoshphere and ocean circulation.  Processes of climate variability, El Nino, tele-connection, atmosphere and ocean coupling.

Use of Proxies in palaeoceanography.  Past ocean circulation.  Gateways.

The carbon cycle and CO2.  Glacial-interglacial CO2.  Carbonate cycles and ocean acidification.  Earth System Science models.

Non-linearities ("tipping points") in the climate system. Deglaciations, orbital shortcomings and internal feedbacks.  The abrupt change paradigm.

Glaciological instabilities.  Flow of glaciers and ice sheets.  Observing and modelling the ice-bed interface.  Modelling the growth and decay of large ice sheets.

Specialist lectures:

Human-climate interactons.  (Prof. David Hodell, Earth Sciences)

Carbon-temperature feedbacks and anthropogenic CO2.  (Prof. Peter Cox, Universiy of Exeter)

To be confirmed.

Carbon sequestration.  (Prof. Mike Bickle, Earth Sciences)

Recommnded books:

H Elderfield (ed.) The oceans and marine geochemistry, Treatise on geochemistry vol. 6 (2006) Elsevir.

The following three items contain useful introductory material:

W F Ruddiman, Earth's climate Past and Future, (2001) W H Freeman and Co (New York).

J T Houghton, Global warming, the complete briefing, (2004) CUP.

http://wwwipcc.ch - International Panel on Climate Change