ALBERT

Description / Table of Contents: The Beyond Kyoto conference in Aarhus March 2009 was organised in collaboration with other knowledge institutions, businesses and authorities. It brought together leading scientists, policy-makers, authorities, intergovernmental organisations, NGO's, business stakeholders and business organisations. The conference was a joint interdisciplinary project involving many academic areas and disciplines. These conference proceedings are organised in central and recurring themes that cut across many debates on climate change, the climatic challenges as well as the solutions. In the front there is a short presentation of the conference concept. Part I of the proceedings focuses on issues related to the society – covering climate policy, law, market based instruments, financial structure, behaviour and consumption, public participation, media communication and response from indigenous peoples etc. Part II of the proceedings concerns the scientific knowledge base on climate related issues – covering climate change processes per se, the potential impacts of projected climate change on biodiversity and adaptation possibilities, the interplay between climate, agriculture and biodiversity, emissions, agricultural systems, increasing pressure on the functioning of agriculture and natural areas, vulnerability to extreme weather events and risks in respect to sea-level rise etc...

Description / Table of Contents: This volume of IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science presents a selection of papers that were given at the WMO/GEO Expert Meeting on an International Sand and Dust Storm Warning System hosted by the Barcelona Supercomputing Center – Centro Nacional de Supercomputación in Barcelona (Spain) on 7-9 November 2007 (http://www.bsc.es/wmo). A sand and dust storm (SDS) is a meteorological phenomenon common in arid and semi-arid regions and arises when a gust front passes or when the wind force exceeds the threshold value where loose sand and dust are removed from the dry surface. After aeolian uptake, SDS reduce visibility to a few meters in and near source regions, and dust plumes are transported over distances as long as thousands of kilometres. Aeolian dust is unique among aerosol phenomena: (1) with the possible exception of sea-salt aerosol, it is globally the most abundant of all aerosol species, (2) it appears as the dominating component of atmospheric aerosol over large areas of the Earth, (3) it represents a serious hazard for life, health, property, environment and economy (occasionally reaching the grade of disaster or catastrophic event) and (4) its influence, impacts, complex interactions and feedbacks within the Earth System span a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. From a political and societal point of view, the concern for SDS and the need for international cooperation were reflected after a survey conducted in 2005 by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) in which more than forty WMO Member countries expressed their interest for creating or improving capacities for SDS warning advisory and assessment. In this context, recent major advances in research – including, for example, the development and implementation of advanced observing systems, the theoretical understanding of the mechanisms responsible for sand and dust storm generation and the development of global and regional dust models – represent the basis for developing applications focusing on societal benefit and risk reduction. However, at present there are interdisciplinary research challenges to overwhelm current uncertainties in order to reach full potential. Furthermore, the community of practice for SDS observations, forecasts and analyses is mainly scientifically based and rather disconnected from potential users. This requires the development of interfaces with operational communities at international and national levels, strongly focusing on the needs of people and factors at risk ... The general objective of the WMO/GEO Expert Meeting on an International Sand and Dust Storm Warning System was to discuss and recommend actions needed to develop a global routine SDS-WAS based on integrating numerical SDS prediction and observing systems, and on establishing effective cooperation between data producers and user communities in order to provide SDS-WAS products capable of contributing to the reduction of risks from SDS. The specific objectives were: to identify, present and suggest future real-time observations for forecast verification and dust surveillance: satellite, ground-based remote sensing (passive and active) and in-situ monitoring; to present ongoing forecasting activities; to discuss and identify user needs: health, air quality, air transport operations, ocean, and others; to identify and discuss dust research issues relevant for operational forecast applications; to present the concept of SDS-WAS and Regional Centers...

Description / Table of Contents: Following the late Neoproterozoic – early Cambrian breakup of the supercontinent Rodinia, Gondwana evolved as one of the principal continental masses on Earth, embracing most of South America, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica, much of western Europe and parts of Asia. Around its margins were various other terranes that had varying tectonic and biogeographical affinities with the main continental block. This book incorporates a series of reviews and multidisciplinary research papers that together explore the tectonic, palaeogeographical and palaeobiogeographical evolution of the elements that made up the peri-Gondwanan collage. The stratigraphical scope of the coverage embraces the late Precambrian through early Devonian, providing a comprehensive overview of structural, stratigraphical and biological evolution through this significant interval of Earth history. Integration of these various processes throughout the volume will be of broad-based interest to a wide range of geoscientists.

Description / Table of Contents: Given the tremendous toll in human lives and attendant economic losses, it is appropriate that scientists are working hard to understand better earthquakes, with the aim of forecasting and, ultimately, predicting them. In the last decades increasing attention has been paid to the coseismic effects on the natural environment, creating a solid base of empirical data for the estimation of source parameters of strong earthquakes based on geological observations. The recently introduced INQUA scale (Environmental Seismic Intensity–ESI 2007 Scale) of macroseismic intensity clearly shows how the systematic study of earthquake surface faulting, coseismic liquefaction, tsunami deposits and other primary and secondary ground effects can be integrated with ‘traditional’ seismological and tectonic information to provide a better understanding of the seismicity level of an area and the associated hazards. At the moment this is the only scientific means of equating the seismic records to the seismic cycle time-spans extending the seismic catalogues even to tens of thousands of years, improving future seismic hazard analyses. This Special Publication covers some of the latest multidisciplinary work undertaken to achieve that aim. Eighteen papers from research groups from all continents address a wide range of topics related both to palaeoseismological studies and assessment of macroseismic intensity based only on the natural phenomena associated with an earthquake.

Description / Table of Contents: Non-marine Late Palaeozoic and Mesozoic formations are widespread in mainland SE Asia. Although the first reports on fossils from some of these formations were published as early as the 1890s, it is only since 1980 that floras and faunas from the Permian, Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous of SE Asia have received the attention they deserve. Fieldwork in various parts of Thailand and Laos has revealed a succession of fossil assemblages that now allows a reconstruction of the evolution of continental ecosystems in that part of the world during the Late Palaeozoic and the Mesozoic. The first papers in this book present the geological background of these floral and faunal successions, as well as historical aspects of their discovery. Descriptions of new taxa and review papers deal with plants, sharks, bony fishes, turtles, crocodilians, dinosaurs and mammal-like reptiles. Papers about the Mesozoic palaeobiogeography, environments and climates of Asia conclude the volume.

Description / Table of Contents: The Devonian was a critical period with respect to the diversification of early terrestrial ecosystems. The geotectonic setting was characterized by the switch from the post-Caledonian to the pre-Variscan situation. Plant life on land evolved from tiny tracheophytes to trees of considerable size in combination with a global increase in terrestrial biomass, and vertebrates started to conquer the land. Extensive shallow-marine areas and continental lowlands with a wide range of different habitats existed. These are preserved in a large number of basins all around the world. Climate change finally led from greenhouse to icehouse conditions towards the end of the Devonian. Rapid evolution of terrestrial ecosystems and climate change had a pronounced influence on sedimentation and biodiversity, not only in the terrestrial, but also in the marine realm. This volume contains case studies from Australia, China, Europe, South America and North America, and individual palaeoecosystems and their components have been investigated in different palaeogeographic settings that contribute to a much better understanding of the Devonian Period. This is a contribution to the IGCP 499 project on "Devonian land-sea interaction: evolution of ecosystems and climate".

Description / Table of Contents: The Upper Triassic to Middle Jurassic succession of the Shemshak Group (up to 4000 m in thickness in the Alborz Mountains, Northern Iran) contains key information about the closure of the Palaeotethys Ocean, the rise and denudation of the Cimmeride Mountains, and the succeeding opening of the South Caspian Basin. Here at Emamzadeh–Hashem Pass (NW of Tehran, Iran), the Shemshak Group is embraced between Upper Palaeozoic–Middle Triassic (foreground) and Upper Jurassic carbonates (background).

Description / Table of Contents: Frontiers in Geofluids is a collection of invited papers chosen to highlight recent developments in our understanding of geological fluids in different parts of the Earth, and published to mark the first ten years of publication of the journal Geofluids. The scope of the volume ranges from the fundamental properties of fluids and the phase relationships of fluids encountered in nature, to case studies of the role of fluids in natural processes. New developments in analytical and theoretical approaches to understanding fluid compositions, fluid properties, and geological fluid dynamics across a wide range of environments are included. A recurrent theme of research published in Geofluids is the way in which similar approaches can be applied to geological fluids in very different settings and this is reflected in the diverse range of applications of fluid studies that are included here. They include deep groundwater flow, hydrocarbons in faulted sedimentary basins, hydrothermal ores, and multiphase flow in mid-ocean ridge systems. Other topics covered are geothermal waters, crustal metamorphism, and fluids in magmatic systems. The book will be of great interest to researchers and students interested in crustal and mantle fluids of all sorts.

Description / Table of Contents: Collision between Australia and SE Asia began in the Early Miocene and reduced the former wide ocean between them to a complex passage which connects the Pacific and Indian Oceans. Today, the Indonesian Throughflow passes through this gateway and plays an important role in global thermohaline flow. The surrounding region contains the maximum global diversity for many marine and terrestrial organisms. Reconstruction of this geologically complex region is essential for understanding its role in oceanic and atmospheric circulation, climate impacts, and the origin of its biodiversity. The papers in this volume discuss the Palaeozoic to Cenozoic geological background to Australia and SE Asia collision. They provide the background for accounts of the modern Indonesian Throughflow and oceanographic changes since the Neogene, and consider aspects of the region's climate history.

Description / Table of Contents: The past decade has witnessed a major revival in attempts to separate biodiversity signals from biases imposed by sampling and the architecture of the rock record. How large a problem this poses to our understanding of biodiversity patterns remains debatable, and new approaches are being developed to investigate this question. Here palaeobiologists with widely differing approaches and interests explore the problems of extracting reliable information on biodiversity change from an imperfect geological record. Topics covered range from the application of information-theoretic approaches that identify directional causal relationships to an in-depth study of how geological biases could influence our understanding of dinosaur evolution. A wide range of new insights into the links between the land, shallow-marine and deep-sea rock and fossil records are presented, making this volume invaluable to anyone in the Earth or life sciences who wishes to remain abreast of this dynamic and rapidly evolving research area.