Reconstructing Quaternary Environments

Description

In Semester 1, the emphasis is on reconstructing past environments using palaeoecology, including botanical (e.g. pollen) and zoological (e.g. invertebrate) techniques.

These will be studied against natural and human-induced environmental processes that cause environments to change through time.

Specific topics to be covered include:

  • Lake and peat deposits as archives of environmental change
  • Palaeoecological theory
  • Late glacial and Holocene environmental changes
  • Chironomid palaeoecology
  • Radiocarbon dating
  • Societal collapse in the palaeoenvironmental record

Most of these topics have practical exercises linked to them.

In semester 2, the focus is on the construction of the physical archives and the broader development of the subject of Quaternary science.

Specific topics to be covered include:

  • Contrasting archive types and variations in rates of accumulation
  • Approaches to Quaternary stratigraphy
  • Sedimentary logging, ice core and marine records
  • Dendrochronology and calibration of radiocarbon dates
  • Fluvial and glacial deposits in the UK context,
  • Speleothems and U-series dating
  • Breakthroughs in Quaternary science

Most of these topics have practical exercises linked to them.

Delivery

In Semester 1, there will be 12 hours of lectures and 12 hours of practical sessions. The practical sessions will cover two main aspects:

  • Laboratory practical classes using microscopes to ID pollen grains
  • Class practical exercises on Zoning palaeoecological datasets, Describing and Interpreting palaeoecological datasets, Age-Depth modelling palaeoecological datasets

In semester 2, there will be approximately 7 hours of lectures and 13 hours practical. The practical classes will cover two main aspects:

  • Practical recognition of sediment types, depiction on sedimentary logs and interpretation of depositional environment.
  • Manipulation, using Excel, of data from archives of ice cores, marine cores and speleothems to understand better how the archives are constructed. You will learn how to produce high-quality dataplots from Excel of publication standard.

Assessment

Semester 1 material is continually assessed and comprises an assessed essay (45%) and an Identification Test of pollen grains (5%)

The examination counts for 50% of the marks and is based mainly on semester 2 work, but using semester 1 material where appropriate. It will be structured as follows:

  • Short exercises commenting on the significance of visual information in photographs or diagrams to address the general topic of: “What is the significance of what you can see?”
  • One or two practical exercises on data from archives to address the theme of: “How can we extract greater understanding of Quaternary environments through data analysis?”
  • A short essay question related to how our understanding of a particular time period in the Quaternary has been built up from physical archives, in other words to establish: “How do we know what we know?”

Key skills

  • Use of Excel – including ability to produce publication-quality dataplots, enhance use of equations, manipulate axes and plot multiple data series
  • Description and interpretation of sediments in a field context
  • Manipulation of numerical data, e.g. on accumulation rates of archives
  • Description, interpretation and discussion of palaeoecological datasets