CHANGES is a collaborative research initiative between four IGCP projects. It focuses on the records of environmental change from drylands (IGCP 413), karst terrain (IGCP 448), the continental shelves (IGCP 464), and the archives of climatic change held within past carbon cycle fluxes (IGCP 459). The principal aims of CHANGES are to co-ordinate specific strengths (and identify corresponding weaknesses) within the independent IGCPs, and to synthesize existing data and data-bases.

A beta version of the CHANGES database is available now - follow the link on the navigation bar on the left for more information and downloads. This includes timeslice maps focussing on palaeoenvironmental reconstructions at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Holocene Climatic Optimum (HCO) and 1000 years before present. Around 700 sites are in the database and it is downloadable as a GIS project along with a simple GIS-viewer and a full reference list.

Currently, data on the key environments and processes that fall under scope of CHANGES' research are dispersed across the world in the research files of thousands of scientists, under the aegis of several international scientific unions. While initially formulated by project leaders and allied researchers within specific ICSU-affiliated projects, CHANGES will be open to all scientists with the relevant skills, regardless of nationality or seniority.

Members of the constituent IGCPs have been contacted and their research is being databased. Even a cursory inspection reveals recurrent themes, geographical locations and timeslices within the apparently diverse topics. This project requires such contributions if it is to flourish, and you are urged to tell us of your research here.

Tower Karst at Lijiang, China. Members of IGCP 448 have been using innovative techniques to elucidate the palaeoclimatic record from terrestrial karst regions.

Details of IGCP 459's contributions to the 32nd International Geological Congress in Florence, August 2004, can be found here

Click here to download CHANGES flier (requires Acrobat Reader).

The abstracts from the CHANGES session at INQUA XVI, Reno, July 2003, can be found here

This information has been provided by M. Telfer and D.S.G.Thomas

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© CHANGES. Last updated: 26th April 2005