Publications by authors named "C S M Turney"
Radiocarbon (C) is essential for creating chronologies to study the timings and drivers of pivotal events in human history and the Earth system over the past 55,000 years. It is also a fundamental proxy for investigating solar processes, including the potential of the Sun for extreme activity. Until now, fluctuations in past atmospheric C levels have limited the dating precision possible using radiocarbon.
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- Solar particle events (SPEs) are bursts of high-energy particles from the sun that can significantly affect the Earth's environment, posing economic risks, especially when the geomagnetic field is weak.
- Historic extreme SPEs can severely alter atmospheric chemistry, leading to ozone depletion and increased ground-level UV radiation, which can harm both the environment and human health.
- Modeling suggests that under current geomagnetic conditions, extreme SPEs could elevate NO levels and reduce ozone, while a complete lack of geomagnetic protection could cause widespread ozone damage for years, increasing solar-induced DNA damage rates significantly.
The evolutionarily recent dispersal of anatomically modern humans (AMH) out of Africa (OoA) and across Eurasia provides a unique opportunity to examine the impacts of genetic selection as humans adapted to multiple new environments. Analysis of ancient Eurasian genomic datasets (~1,000 to 45,000 y old) reveals signatures of strong selection, including at least 57 hard sweeps after the initial AMH movement OoA, which have been obscured in modern populations by extensive admixture during the Holocene. The spatiotemporal patterns of these hard sweeps provide a means to reconstruct early AMH population dispersals OoA.
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- The COVID-19 pandemic has significantly disrupted global society, with over 647 million cases and 6.7 million deaths reported as of January 2023, yet its impact on climate change negotiations remains underexplored.
- A discussion paper reviews the effects of COVID-19 on climate actions at various levels, highlighting delays in climate policy implementation and a shift in focus from climate action to managing the pandemic.
- Despite these challenges, there are opportunities for advancing toward a low-carbon economy, and how different governance levels respond will be critical for future climate change negotiations.