TIGGER: NERC-stimulated research into the geological perspective of terrestrial global environmental research

TIGGER was devised to study the geological factors relevant to the NERC TIG ER programme (Terrestrial Initiative in Global Environmental Research). The geological initiative concerned itself with the collection of high resolut ion data to solve issues of global environmental change at different timesc ales. All of the topics concerned are critical to natural climatic changes since the Last Interfacial (c. 125 ka sp) and to the methodology of investi gating these changes. TIGGER I, the SAHEL project. seeks to understand grou ndwater discharge and recharge since the LGM (Last Glacial Maximum) and the aeolian dune and lake changes since the Lateglacial in northeast Nigeria, an area highly sensitive to drought. TIGGER IIa is concerned with proxy rec ords of climate change over the last two millennia and their application at a time of relatively low: magnitude climate variation but characterized by high-resolution data sources. TIGGER IIb has investigated the way that ter restrial ecosystems have adjusted to variations in climate, carbon dioxide and surface chemistry over the period 15-11.5 cal ka BF and TIGGER IIc has attempted to reconstruct longitudinal palaeoenvironmental gradients across southern Europe during the Last Interglacial/Glacial transition based on mu ltiproxy studies from across the region, two of which are recorded here. on e from Kopias in Greece and one from northeast Mallorca.