Climate Change and Karst
Abstract
Karst and their dependent environments have been around for a long time. Consequently they have been exposed to much climatic change through time. Taking just the last 66 million years through Tertiary and Quaternary times we have had much hotter, wetter, drier and colder conditions. These have shaped karst environments, their processes, biota, sediments and so on. What we have today has survived these climatic swings plus, perhaps the impacts of environmental change brought about by a number of human invasions.
Global warming, whether produced by natural processes or humans inputting greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, will produce climate changes. These may not produce warmer weather in region x or y. The pulls, pushes and interrelationships of atmospheric and oceanic circulation make understanding the impact on terrestrial environments where we live extraordinarily complex. It may mean that some places are colder and/or wetter rather than just warmer.
If it is difficult to say what happens in regions x and y, it is going to be difficult to even more complicated to predict or understand what will happen to karst processes. These processes produce and maintain the karst environments we manage, research and enjoy today. This paper explores some impacts of climatic factor change on karst processes.