Modern and Pleistocene climatic patterns in the west.

摘要

This document was prepared as a chapter entitled, ''Modern and Pleistocene Climatic Patterns in the West,'' for the two volume book, The Biogeography of the Great Basin and Colorado Plateau, being edited by Dr. Wilford M. Hess (Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah) and is scheduled to be published in 1992 by Westview Press (Boulder, Colorado). It was prepared in support of the Climate Change Task of the Protective Barrier Program. This document shows that regional climate cannot be viewed in isolation, but must be viewed as part of a larger continental and global system to fully understand the underlying driving mechanism. This document is an attempt to provide the global and continental contexts. These contexts are necessary for the overall project of which this is a part. The overall object of this task is to obtain quantitative estimates of past, present, and especially future climate in the Pacific Northwest and the Western United States. These estimates which will be used in future papers are needed to aid in the development of a defensible Hanford Site Protective barrier design and Hanford Site Performance Assessment, and in proposals to help in the development of protective barriers at the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and at the DOE's Monticello (Utah) Remedial Action Project for uranium mill tailings. The defensibility of estimates of potential future climate in the Pacific Northwest and the Western United States is greatly enhanced by demonstrating an understanding of the present climate system and the range of change that has occurred in the past.