Paleolimnology: An introduction to approaches used to track long-term environmental changes using lake sediments

Abstract

The overall goal of this lecture is to provide limnology (and oceanography) students an overview of the various methods and approaches currently being used by scientists to study the timing and magnitude of environmental changes affecting aquatic systems at time scales of decades, centuries, and millennia. The lecture includes the steps that paleolimnologists follow in their sedimentary analyses, including core collection, core sampling, dating, and a summary of the main indicators and climate proxies. Smol has also integrated into the lecture slides that highlight research that he and his co-workers have undertaken over the years. The lecture concludes with three case studies: the history of lake acidification, the occurrences of drought on the prairies, and the nature of climate change in the Arctic.