Science Alert July 30, 2021
In many cases, abrupt changes arise from slow changes in one component of the Earth system that eventually pass a critical threshold after which impacts cascade through coupled climate–ecological–social systems. The geological record provides the only long-term information we have on the conditions and processes that can drive physical, ecological, and social systems into new states or organizational structures that may be irreversible within human time frames. An international team of researchers (Germany, USA – Oregon State University, University Wisconsin, Arizona State University Tempe, UMass Amherst, Columbia University, USGS, University of Colorado, Northern Arizona University, MIT, Lehigh University, UK, Sweden, Canada, Japan, Belgium, Argentina, Chile, Switzerland, Norway) used well-documented abrupt changes of the past 30 kyr to illustrate how their impacts cascade through the Earth system. They reviewed useful indicators of upcoming abrupt changes, or early warning signals, and provide a perspective on the contributions of paleoclimate science to the understanding of abrupt changes in the Earth system…read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLEÂ
Timeline of abrupt events over the past 30 kyr overlaid on a δ18O time series. Credit: Nature Geoscience (2021)Â