RC3. Reconstructing past estuarine conditions: Linking contemporary indicators of estuarine health to sediment proxies

30 June 2008, at Macquarie University in Sydney.

SPEAKERS INCLUDE John Gibson, palaeoecologist and estuarine ecologist, U Tasmania (Leader) James Cloern, US Geological Survey Jeremy Austin, ancient DNA, University of Adelaide Christine Crawford, estuarine ecologist, U Tasmania Melanie Bishop, benthic marine ecologist, U Technology Sydney Peter Gell, palaeoecologist, Adelaide U Ralf Haese, GeoScience Australia Hank Heinjis, Environmental Radioactivity, Quaternary Dating Techniques, ANSTO Sydney Evelyn Krull, geochemistry, organic matter chemistry, CSIRO Land and Water SA Joanne Oakes, sediment biochemist, Southern Cross U Jeff Ross, benthic ecologist, U Tasmania Krystyna Saunders, U Tasmania Peter Scanes, Dept Environment and Climate Change NSW Kathryn Taffs, palaeoecologist, Southern Cross U John Tibby, palaeoecologist, Adelaide U Mark Warne, palaeoecologist, Deakin U

On Monday 30th June there will be an intensive 1-day research course offered, open to interested researchers and ECR and HDR.

The purpose of the working group is to bring together researchers studying modern estuarine ecology and those studying palaeoecological aspects of estuaries in order to define the relationship between processes occurring within contemporary estuaries and manifestations in the sedimentary record.

The scientists participating in the workshop and speaking at the research course are actively involved in the study of the ecology of estuaries and/or in interpretation of the sediment record of estuaries to deduce past environmental condition. The backgrounds of the people in this group include chemistry, biology and quaternary science. The choice of people is aimed to provide a novel mix of researchers with expertise in the processes resulting in proxy genesis and in proxy interpretation.

The discussions will focus on the following points:
(i) How do commonly-measured indicators of modern estuarine health manifest themselves in the sediment? What if any records are left, for example, of turbidity in the sediment? Can novel sediment proxies be developed to relate to particular modern indicators?
(ii) What proxies are available from sediment cores, and how should these be interpreted in terms of estuarine condition? Are there robust sediment proxies available that might suggest new indicators that could be added to the list used by managers?
(iii) What caveats apply to the interpretation of sedimentological data when making comparisons to modern indicators? How do diagenetic and other within-sediment processes affect the sedimentary signals?

These aims provide a concerted attempt to asses critically the link between sediment proxy records and modern environmental data, with the view to aligning these information sources so that reliable inferences can be made in either direction.

Last Updated June 2008