When possible, a multi-proxy approach is preferable for inferring robust information on past climate evolution. A good example was given for southeastern Brazil (B. Turcq), where lake-level reconstructions, speleothemes (e.g., stalagmites), and pollen fossils allow the documentation of a continuous...

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Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
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Language:English
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Online Access:http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.185.1281
http://www.climateaudit.info/pdf/news/crowley.2005.EOS.pdf
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Summary:When possible, a multi-proxy approach is preferable for inferring robust information on past climate evolution. A good example was given for southeastern Brazil (B. Turcq), where lake-level reconstructions, speleothemes (e.g., stalagmites), and pollen fossils allow the documentation of a continuous increase in precipitation since the Last Glacial Maximum. Progress has also been made about the knowledge of past ice sheets. Geophysical constraints on the history of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (W. R. Peltier) allow the inferring of the existence of large freshwater meltwater runoff flow into the Arctic during the Younger Dryas (12,700–11,700 years ago). There are also an increasing number of attempts to extract indices of past climate variability from high-resolution paleoclimatic records, although it has not been possible so far to infer information on interannual variability that is spatially consistent (S. Brewer). Finally, detailed analysis of modern climate and pollen data remains essential, as illustrated by an extensive survey of modern bioclimatic relationships presented by B. Thompson.