European Glacial Landscapes: Last Deglaciation brings together relevant experts on the history of glaciers and their impact on the landscape of the main European regions. Soon after the Last Glacial Maximum, a rapid process of the glacial retreat began throughout Europe. This was interrupted several times by abrupt climate cooling, which caused rapid, although moderate, re-advance of the glaciers, until the beginning of the Holocene when the climate became relatively stable and warm. These successive glacial advances and retreats during the Last Deglaciation have shaped much of the European landscape, reflecting abrupt climatic fluctuations.
As our knowledge of abrupt climate changes since the Last Glacial Maximum progresses, new uncertainties arise. These are critical for understanding how climate changes disseminate through Europe, such as the lag between climate changes and the expansion or contraction of glaciers as well as the role of the large continental ice sheets on the European climate. All these contributions are included in the book, which is an invaluable resource for geographers, geologists, environmental scientists, paleoclimatologists, as well as researchers in physics and earth sciences.
de Andrés, Nuria: - Nuria de Andrés is Professor of Physical Geography at the Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). Her PhD was on the application of GIS to the study of hazards in tropical high volcanoes (Mexico and Peru). She has participated in 22 research projects funded in public calls and she is currently leading a research project on the reconstruction of neoglacial oscillations in Iceland. She has published nearly a hundred research papers on the dynamics of deglaciation in mountains and its impact on geodiversity. Her research work focuses on the study of glacier and periglacial geomorphology in mountain areas through the application of different dating techniques and GIS. In addition to the Iberian mountains, she has conducted research in other mountain regions (northern Iceland, Western United States, Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, Peruvian Andes), which has given her a broad understanding of land surface processes in cold climate environments. She heads the High Mountain Physical Geography excellence research group.
Garcia-Ruiz, Jose M.: - José M. García-Ruiz is Ad Honorem Research Professor of the National Research Council of Spain (CSIC) at the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology. He was the Head of the University College of La Rioja (1982-1984), the head of the Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (1988-1990) and President of the Spanish Society of Geomorphology (1994-1996). His main focuses of interest have been related with the interactions between land use changes and their consequences on soil erosion, connectivity between hillslopes and fluvial channels, and fluvial dynamics. The evolution of mountain landscapes since mid-Holocene has been also a main focus of research, in relation with deforestation caused by paleolithic shepherds and Middle Ages transhumant herds, including the recent afforestation caused by land abandonment and the decline of transhumance systems. In parallel, he has published a high number of studies on glacial evolution in northern Iberian Peninsula, particularly in the Pyrenees.
Hughes, Philip D.: - "Philip Hughes is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. He obtained his first degree in geography at the University of Exeter graduating in 1999. This was followed by a Masters in Quaternary Science, then a PhD in Geography (2004), both at the University of Cambridge (Darwin College). His PhD was on the glacial history of the Pindus Mountains, Greece. This was then followed by a postdoctoral research project examining the glacial history of Montenegro at the University of Manchester (2004-2006). He has since worked on glaciation across the Mediterranean mountains in Greece, Albania, Montenegro, Croatia, Spain and with recent research activities focusing on the Atlas Mountains, Morocco. His research has utilised U-series dating and cosmogenic nuclides to date moraines in a variety of different lithologies, from limestones to basalts. In addition to studies of Mediterranean mountain glaciations he has also published on global glaciations and stratigraphy in Quaternary science. In addition to several edited scientific volumes on glaciation, in 2016 he published the textbook The Ice Age with co-authors Jürgen Ehlers and Philip Gibbard. In 2011 Philip also edited with these co-authors the highly successful Elsevier volume Quaternary Glaciation: Extent and Chronology - A Closer Look. Philip Hughes is Professor of Physical Geography at the University of Manchester, United Kingdom."
Palacios, David: - David Palacios is Full Professor of Physical Geography at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain. He has been the coordinator for Spanish National Projects since 1998 to the present, and Spanish coordinator of two European Projects. He has served as founder and director of the High Mountain Physical Geography excellence research group for 12 years, and has authored over 200 international research papers, 100 chapters, and has edited five books.
