The major emphasis is on their use in analysing ecological problems such as climate change, acidification and eutrophication. The contributors to the volume are leading researchers in their fields and are brought together for the first time to give a timely synopsis of a dynamic and important area. This book should be read by environmental scientists, phycologists, limnologists, ecologists and palaeoecologists, oceanographers, archaeologists and forensic scientists. The manner in which monthly temperature and precipitation are estimated from documentary data prior to the period of instrumental measurements is described in the first section. The evolution of temperature and precipitation is then discussed for southern central Europe north and south of the Alps.
Societies are sensitive to major climatic departures from average conditions.
For this reason special focus is made on the documentation of 285 pronounced monthly temperature anomalies beginning at the present and extending long into the past. The frequency of such events is analyzed and the most extreme of them are described in detail. It is concluded that in a quasi-natural climate the frequency of natural hazards undergoes large variations. As a consequence, the twentieth century cannot be taken as a safe basis for extrapolations into the future or the diagnosis of anthropogenic effects. In a final chapter, the significance of the findings for the current debate on climate is highlighted.