Course 2: Preservation potential of climate signals and ultra high-resolution climate archives in aquatic sedimentary environments

7 - 13 November 2004, Autonomous University Barcelona, co-host Institute of Earth Sciences (C.S.I.C. Barcelona)

This course will focus on the processes potentially affecting and distorting the archived climate record in marine and lacustrine settings and its interpretation. Topics included are:

Sedimentary transport processes in the water column Kuhrts et al., 2004; González-Álvarez et al., 2005; Struck et al., 2004

Quantification and indicators of autochthonous and allochthonous inputs in particular of terrestrial origin

Processes at the sediment-water interface, bioturbation, redox conditions and consequences for preservation and interpretation of sedimentary components and proxies
Nameroff et al., 2004: Glacial-interglacial variability in the eastern tropical North Pacific oxygen minimum zone recorded by redox-sensitive trace metals

Terrestrial input and indicators

Post-depositional diagenetic overprinting in sedimentary climate archives (trace metals, organic matter, effects on stable isotopes, redistribution of elements within the sediment column)
Westphal et al, 2004: Orbital frequencies in the carbonate sedimentary record: distorted by diagenesis?

Modelling of aquatic sedimentary processes

Conditions of formation and challenges presented by ultra high-resolution climate archives (tropical and cold water corals, stalagmites, varved sediments), dating (U/Th, 14C), diagenetic overprint
Betancourt et al., 2002: A Test of "Annual Resolution" in Stalagmites Using Tree Rings;
U/Th Dating of Pleistocene Climate Change
Occurence of Cold water corals
Cobb et al., 2003: U/Th-dating living and young fossil corals from the central tropical Pacific
U/Th Dating of Authigenic Sediments

Statistical analysis of raw data