地质翻译学习教程 第八章第四纪地质.doc

IX. Quaternary Geology 第八章第四纪地质 Pleistocene Nonmarine Environments EDWARD S. EDDVEY, JR.6 Introduction The chief early proponent of former glaciation was a biologist, and ever since Agassiz’s day the role of biology in Pleistocene research has been one of full partner ship with physical geology. Other kinds of geology also depend heavily on biological data, but Pleistocene studies are primarily ecological, whereas the biology of older and longer time units is primarily evolutionary. The distinction is one of emphasis only, for the subjects are not sharply separable, but ecologists and evolutionists usually have different questions in mind. Similar or identical data—the occurrence of fossils in geologic settings—lead them to different inferences about the history of environments on the one hand, and about the phyletic history of organisms on the other. It is true that organic changes that occurred during the Pleistocene are of exceptional interest to students of evolution, if only because the environmental setting of these changes is relatively well understood. The epoch was short, however, and the amount of morphologic and taxonomic change was slight, so that the leading problems are those of microsystematics rather than those of phylogeny. The evolutionist therefore can shift his attention from the deployment of organic variety to the mechanisms that produce and maintain the variety. However valuable its legacy to theory, the usefulness of this kind of evolution to stratigraphy and chronology is minimal. In other words, the evolutionary biologist expects to learn more from Pleistocene geology than he contributes to it. By contrast, the history of environments is and must be inferred equally from physical and biological data. It is well known, even to meteorologists who have no concern with the geologic past, that vegetation is often a surer guide to the climate of a region, or to the microclimate of a locality, than any physical measurement yet devised. Th