Palaeoclimate Change

Learning Outcomes

Learning Outcomes

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Have built up an extensive knowledge of case study examples from the research literature which will serve as a means for you to critically evaluate published models.
• Be conversant with the rapidly expanding 'tool-kit' and explanatory models that have been developed to tackle patterns of climate change at different time-scales over the past 150 Ma.
• In all aspects of the above, lectures merely serve as the starting point. You are reading for your degree and, as the phrase implies, you must, repeat must, demonstrate that you have read around the subject using the reading lists provided.
• Be confident in the interpretation of palaeoclimate records but realistic as to the limits of your analysis.
• Be able to evaluate the exciting developments recently published in the peer reviewed literature of palaeoclimate.
• Have developed a comprehensive understanding of the nature of the modern field of palaeoclimate change and, in particular, have gained an appreciation of climate in the fourth dimension - time.

Subject Specific Intellectual and Research Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Recognise and use subject-specific theories, paradigms, concepts & principles.
• Collect & integrate several lines of evidence to formulate and test hypotheses.
• Critically evaluate complex literature.

Transferable and Generic Skills

Having successfully completed this module you will be able to:

• Tackle truly interdisciplinary research areas.
• Time management.
• Prepare, process, interpret and present data in mainline international journal form.
• Appreciate issues of sample selection accuracy, precision and uncertainty during collection, recording and analysis of data in this process.
• Presentation of complex scientific material in written form.
• Communicate appropriately to a variety of audiences in written and graphical forms.

We examine mechanisms of palaeoclimate change in the Earth-ocean-atmosphere system from those operating on human timescales to those operating at multi-million year time-scales (e.g. tectonic controls on atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and configuration of oceanic gateways).

We develop an understanding of the workings of the palaeoclimate 'tool-kit' and some of the key insights that these proxies have provided on palaeoclimate change in the past 30 years of research.

We consider climate change on the anthropogenic time-scale linking the past with the future and introducing the IPCC view and ensemble climate modeling.

We also examine some of the most dramatic events in climate history seen on Earth in the past 150 million years, such as the global warming and cooling events that apparently occurred across the P/E and E/O boundaries respectively.

Paper practicals and a mid-term multiple choice quiz are used to reinforce key concepts.

Formal Lectures: 26 x 45 minute lectures will provide the theory to palaeoclimate change. Outlines of the lectures are provided. Each lecture systematically covers the main concepts. Where relevant, lecturers' own research experience in the appropriate fields is brought into the lecturing sessions. References to relevant journal articles are provided as essential reading for each lecture.

Practicals: In addition to the lectures, practicals are used to help students obtain a working understanding of key concepts.

A wide range of support can be provided for those students who have further or specific learning and teaching needs.

Summative

This is how we’ll formally assess what you have learned in this module.