Dahl Svein Olaf - Glaciers and Environmental Change

Key Issues in Environmental Change

Series Editors:

Co-ordinating Editor

John A. Matthews

Department of Geography, University of Wales Swansea, UK

Editors

Ray S. Bradley

Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA

Neil Roberts

Department ofGeography, University ofPlymouth, UK

Martin A. J. Williams

Mawson Graduate Centre for Environmental Studies, University ofAdelaide, Australia

Preface to the series

The study of environmental change is a major growth area of interdisciplinary science. Indeed, the intensity of current scientific activity in the field of environmental change may be viewed as the emergence of a new area of big science alongside such recognized fields as nuclear physics, astronomy and biotechnology. The science of environmental change is fundamental science on a grand scale: rather different from nuclear physics but nevertheless no less important as a field of knowledge, and probably of more significance in terms of the continuing success of human societies in their occupation of the Earths surface.

The need to establish the pattern and causes of recent climatic changes, to which human activities have contributed, is the main force behind the increasing scientific interest in environmental change. Only during the past few decades have the scale, intensity and permanence of human impacts on the environment been recognized and begun to be understood. A mere 5000 years ago, in the mid-Holocene, non-local human impacts were more or less negligible even on vegetation and soils. Today, however, pollutants have been detected in the Earths most remote regions, and environmental processes, including those of the atmosphere and oceans, are being affected at a global scale.

Natural environmental change has, however, occurred throughout Earths history. Large-scale natural events as abrupt as those associated with human environmental impacts are known to have occurred in the past. The future course of natural environmental change may in some cases exacerbate human-induced change; in other cases, such changes may neutralize the human effects. It is essential, therefore, to view current and future environmental changes, like global warming, in the context of the broader perspective of the past. This linking theme provides the distinctive focus of the series and is mentioned explicitly in many of the titles listed overleaf.

It is intended that each book in the series will be an authoritative, scholarly and accessible synthesis that will become known for advancing the conceptual framework of studies in environmental change. In particular we hope that each book will inform advanced undergraduates and be an inspiration to young research workers. To this end, all the invited authors are experts in their respective fields and are active at the research frontier. They are, moreover, broadly representative of the interdisciplinary and international nature of environmental change research today. Thus, the series as a whole aims to cover all the themes normally considered as key issues in environmental change even though individual books may take a particular viewpoint or approach.

John A. Matthews (Co-ordinating Editor)

Forthcoming titles in the series

Atmospheric Pollution: an Environmental Change Perspective (Sarah Metcalfe, Edinburgh University, Scotland)

Biodiversity: an Environmental Change Perspective (Peter Gel, Adelaide University, Australia)

Climatic Change: a Palaeoenvironmental Perspective (Cari Mock, University of South Carolina, USA)

Cultural Landscapes and Environmental Change (Lesley Head, Wollongong University, Australia)

Environmental Change at High Latitudes: a Palaeoecological Perspective (Atte Korhola and Reinhard Pienitz, Helsinki University, Finland & Laval University, Qubec, Canada)

Environmental Change in Drylands (David Thomas, Sheffield University, UK)

Environmental Change in Mountains and Uplands (Martin Beniston, Fribourg University, Switzerland)

Natural Hazards and Environmental Change (W.J. McGuire, C.R.J. Kilburn and M.A. Saunders, University College London, UK)

Pollution of Lakes and Rivers: a Palaeoecological Perspective (John Smol, Kingston University, Canada)

The Oceans and Environmental Change (Alastair Dawson, Coventry University, UK)

Wetlands and Environmental Change (Paul Glaser, Minnesota University, USA)

Glaciers and Environmental Change

Atle Nesje

Department of Geology, University of Bergen, Norway

and

Svein Olaf Dahl

Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway

First published 2000 by Hodder Education

Published 2016 by Routledge

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2000 Atle Nesje and Svein Olaf Dahl

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

The advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of going to press, but neither the authors nor the publisher can accept any legal responsibility or liability for any errors or omissions.

Every effort has been made to trace and acknowledge the owners of copyright. The publishers will be glad to make suitable arrangements with any copyright holders whom it has not been possible to contact.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

ISBN 13: 978-0-340-70634-3 (pbk)

Cover Design: Mouse Mat Design

Typeset in 10/11 Palatino by Academic and Technical, Bristol

Contents

Although a number of books on environmental change refer to the glacial record (for example, Embleton, C. and King, A.M. (1975): Glacial Geomorphology, Edward Arnold; Bradley, R.S. (1985): Quaternary Paleoclimatology, Allen & Unwin; Drewry, D. (1986): Glacial Geological Processes, Edward Arnold; Oerlemans, J. (1989): Glacier Fluctuations and Climate Change, Kluwer Academic Publishers; Bradley, R.S. (1991): Global Changes of the Past, UCAR, Boulder, Colorado; Eddy, J.A. and Oeschger, H. (1991): Global Changes in the Perspective of the Past, John Wiley & Sons; Bell, M. and Walker, M.J.C. (1992): Late Quaternary Environmental Change, Longman Group; Dawson, A.G. (1992): Ice Age Earth, Routledge; Lowe, J.J. and Walker, M.J.C. (1992 and 1997): Reconstructing Quaternary Environments, Longman Scientific & Technical; Mannion, A.M. (1992): Global Environmental Change, Longman Scientific & Technical; Kemp, D.D. (1994): Global Environmental Issues, Routledge; Roberts, N. (1994): The Changing Global Environment, Blackwell; Houghton