Source:  CO2 Science

http://www.politics.ie/forum/current-affairs/142381-last-days-roman-empire-3.html

Reference
Wang, T., Surge, D. and Mithen, S. 2012. Seasonal temperature variability of the Neoglacial (3300-2500 BP) and Roman Warm Period (2500-1600 BP) reconstructed from oxygen isotope ratios of limpet shells (Patella vulgata), Northwest Scotland. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 317-318: 104-113.

Background
The authors write that “pre-industrial climate reconstructions during the mid to late Holocene provide the necessary information for understanding natural variation in the climate system prior to anthropogenic changes in the atmosphere, hydrosphere, and land use,” which information is a prerequisite for determining whether late 20th-century warming was natural or man-induced by the burning of fossil fuels. (more…)

Source:  CO2 Science

Editorial
Fighting Climate Change is “for the Birds”: Read on for further explanation.

Subject Index Summary
Roman Warm Period (North America): It is manifest in proxy evidences of warmer temperatures and altered hydrologic activity throughout the continent.

Journal Reviews
Effects of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment on Cuttlefish Eggs and Embryo Development: What are the effects? … and why are they significant?

A 35-Year History of Caribbean Coral Reefs: How has their percent coral cover varied over the past four decades? (more…)

Source:  The Observatory

A promising new technique to reconstruct past temperatures has been developed by scientists at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada and Durham University, England, using the shells of bivalve mollusks. Writing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science the scientists say that oxygen isotopes in their shells are a good proxy measurement of temperature and may provide the most detailed record yet of global climate change.

Most measures of palaeoclimate, such as those from tree rings, provide data on only average annual temperatures, and then they are affected by many other factors such as the rainfall effect on tree ring width. William Patterson, lead author of the study, says that as mollusks grow the colder the water, the higher the proportion of the heavy oxygen isotope, oxygen-18 in the shells. Because shell growth depends upon seasonal temperature variations it is possible to see much finer changes than tree rings. Because they only live for between 2 – 9 years it has the potential to reveal fine temporal detail for specific periods. (more…)