[en] Papers presented at the 13th Quaternay Techniques Short Course on techniques of palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.

[en] Chronology is a critical component of any study into the Quaternary because the information about climate and environmental change preserved in sedimentary deposits can only be placed in a useful context when it is associated with a robust chronological framework. This overview will introduce you to the key concepts in age depth modelling.

[en] An introduction to radiocarbon dating, with notes on corrections for fractionation, for reservoir effects and for variation in "1"4C production over time. Includes a glossary of radiocarbon terms and a short bibliography.

[en] Ice cores from New Zealand and the Antarctic margin provide an excellent means of addressing the lack of longer-term climate observations in the Southern Hemisphere with near instrumental quality. Ice core records provide an annual-scale, 'instrumental-quality' baseline of atmospheric temperature and circulation changes back many thousands of years. (author).

[en] Oxygen isotopes are used routinely to develop chronologies for sediment cores, although preferentially combined with other independent/absolute dating methods. Carbon isotopes are more difficult to interpret, but are measured simultaneously on the mass spectrometer and can be very useful to determine details of the carbon cycle, paleo-circulation changes, productivity etc.

[en] Cosmogenic nuclides are produced through interactions between cosmic rays and target nuclei in Earth's atmosphere and surface materials. Those which are produced in Earth's atmosphere are termed 'meteoric' while the nuclides produced in surface material are known as in-situ cosmogenic nuclides. The past two decades have seen a proliferation of applications for cosmogenic nuclides. This is primarily due to a revolution in accelerator mass spectrometry, AMS, measurement techniques which has allowed the measurement of very small amounts of nuclides. The following is a brief introduction to the theory and application of in-situ produced cosmogenic nuclide methods. (author).

[en] Lake sediments are excellent archives of climate and environmental change. Lakes typically exhibit high sedimentation rates, contain sedimentary components well-suited for a multi-proxy approach, multiple dating methods can be applied, exhibit a broad geographic distribution, and are relatively accessible for study. Furthermore, a number of geochemical techniques can be applied to recontsruct components of the climate system based on the stable isotope geochemistry of carbonate or organic phases preserved and exposed in lacustrine sedimentary cores. Various stable isotope methods can be applied to lacustrine systems and these are a valuable tool that can be used to monitor physical processes (e.g. evaporation), vegetation dynamics within the watershed (C₃ vs C₄ plant distributions), biologic processes (aquatic productivity), all of which can be driven by a regional climate forcing. (author).

[en] Tephrochronology is a unique method for linking and dating geological, palaeoecological, palaeoclimatic or archaeological sequences or events. The method relies firstly and fundamentally on stratigraphy and the law of superposition, which apply in any study that connects or correlates deposits from one place to another. Secondly, it relies on characterising and hence identifying or 'fingerprinting' tephra layers using either physical properties evident in the field or those obtained from laboratory analysis, including mineralogical examination by optical microscopy or geochemical analysis of glass shards or crystals (e.g. Fe-Ti oxides, ferromagnesian minerals) using the electron microprobe and other tools. Thirdly, the method is enhanced when a numerical age is obtained for a tephra layer by (1) radiometric methods such as radiocarbon, fission-track, U-series, or Ar/Ar dating, (2) incremental dating methods including dendrochronology or varved sediments or layering in ice cores, or (3) age-equivalent methods such as palaeomagnetism or correlation with marine oxygen isotope stages or palynostratigraphy. Once known, that age can be transferred from one site to the next using stratigraphic methods and by matching compositional characteristics, i.e. comparing 'fingerprints' from each layer. Used this way, tephrochronology is an age-equivalent dating method. (author).

[en] Changing land use is one of the primary causes of increased sedimentation and nutrient levels in aquatic systems, resulting in contamination and reduction of biodiversity. Detecting and quantifying these inputs is the first step of remediation, to enable targeted reduction of transport processes into waterways from human impacted land surfaces. More recently, stable isotope analyses are being used as a detection and quantification tool in aquatic environments. Carbon and nitrogen isotopes of sediments, algae and invertebrates from aquatic systems can be used as proxies to record both short and long term environmental change. Excess nutrients derived from urbanization, industry, forestry, farming and agriculture increase the bio-availability of nitrogen to aquatic organisms, changing their natural ¹⁵N isotopic signatures. Allochthonous (terrestrial) input from soil destabilization and human activity in surrounding catchments changes the ¹³C isotope ratios and increases the C:N ratio of sediments. Heavy metal and other organic pollutants can also be used to indicate urbanization and industrial contamination. The combined use of carbon and nitrogen isotopes, C:N ratios and heavy metals are powerful environmental monitoring tools which are useful indicators of source and transport pathways of terrestrial derived material and anthropogenic pollutants into streams, rivers and estuaries. (author).