[Sasnet] Inqua session (fwd)

[Bonnie A B Blackwell]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 01 Dec 2006 13:38:35 +0000
From: Nicki Whitehouse <n.whitehouse at QUB.AC.UK>
To: QUATERNARY at CLIFFY.UCS.MUN.CA
Subject: Inqua session

APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING

Dear colleagues,

We would like to draw your attention to the following session at the XVII
INQUA Congress (Cairns, Australia, 28 July - 3 August 2007): Comparing
Quantitative Reconstructions from Biological Proxies: Progress and Problems

Conveners: Peter Langdon and Nicki Whitehouse

Abstracts can now be submitted through the following link:
http://www.icms.com.au/inqua2007/abstract/

Deadline for submission is 31st January 2007.

Session Abstract:

The quantitative reconstruction of environmental parameters is fundamental
to our understanding of past (and present) environmental change. These data
are increasingly being utilised by the modelling community to enhance
further understanding of processes and thus it is crucial that the data we
provide are as accurate and precise as possible. Much of the future of
palaeo-studies relies on our ability to improve on existing models and
approaches, allowing us to more accurately reconstruct past environmental
change with well defined error margins.

Many different biological methods have been used by the palaeo-community to
produce quantitative reconstructions of past environmental change.
These include, for example, the reconstruction of temperature and moisture,
nutrients and productivity, salinity, conductivity, vegetation abundance and
architecture, and land-cover reconstructions, although data verification and
inter-proxy comparisons are rare and often beset by methodological
challenges. Some proxies do, however, show clear relationships with
instrumental records, and hence add confidence to quantitative
reconstructions. There are many problems, however, of using these approaches
including: a lack of modern analogues, lack of adequate training sets for
some proxies or sets which do not fulfil different regional requirements,
complications surrounding co-variability to environmental parameters, lack
of understanding of major limiting factors (e.g. temperature versus
moisture) and the comparison of similar variables obtained by different
approaches. Thus, in most ecosystems, biota tend to respond to more than one
environmental parameter, but a 'traditional' transfer function approach
reconstructs a single parameter and tends to ignore the complex ecological
processes which may influence the presence and distribution of biota within
an ecosystem. Approaches which use indicator species on the other hand,
including presence/absence data, may place an over-emphasis upon a small
subset of an assemblage and species that do not occur very often, and which
may be only at the edge of the gradient being investigated. Such approaches
assume the normal distribution of species, whilst not making good use of
theoretical understandings of the distribution of species within ecological
and climate space. Other approaches attempt to circumvent these problems
through the use of modern and historical analogues of the ecosystems under
investigation, computer simulations and modelling which can then be verified
via the palaeo-record. Many of these latter approaches are still in
relatively early stages, but show considerable potential, although are
largely still restricted to single-proxy approaches.

In this session we would like to address some of the above issues,
specifically by inviting papers and posters that compare quantitative
reconstructions using either a multi-proxy/multi-biota approach to aid
interpretation, using a range of biological approaches, and addressing the
challenges and opportunities used by 'linked proxies', as well as papers
which focus on methodological advances which attempt to address some of the
problems identified above. We would like to conclude the session by inviting
an open discussion on what are perceived to be the main issues and
challenges, how we construct research to circumvent these issues, at what
scale these issues can be resolved and how accurate in our quantified
reconstructions we can realistically hope to be.

With best wishes,
Pete Langdon and Nicki Whitehouse

*****************************************************************
Dr Nicki J. Whitehouse, F.R.E.S.
Archaeology and Palaeoecology,
School of Geography, Archaeology and Palaeoecology (GAP)
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast BT7 1NN
Tel +44 028 90973978
http://www.qub.ac.uk/arcpal/staff/n_white.htm
http://www.chrono.qub.ac.uk/

INQUA Commission on Palaeoecology and Human Evolution
(http://www.inqua.tcd.ie/PAHE/)
Association for Environmental Archaeologists(http://www.envarch.net/)
Thorne and Hatfield Moors Conservation Forum
(http://www.thmcf.org/index.htm)