Sedimentary Environments and Climate Archives (code 450314), period 1, 1st - year Master students Palaeo-climate and Geo-ecosystems.

Coordinator
Dr. Frank Peeters

Lecturers involved in this course
Dr. Sjoerd Bohncke
Dr. Frank Peeters
Dr. Maarten Prins
Prof. Dr. Jef Vandenberghe
Dr. Kees Kasse

Your Background Knowledge:
Palaeo-Climatology and Meteorology (450240)
Modern Climate Systems (450185)
Modern Geo-Ecosystems (450313)

Course Description
Changes in ocean / atmosphere circulation have often left its imprint in continental ice and in sediments. Such changes may have affected the composition and/or the (geo)chemistry of ice or sediments. Hence such deposits have been frequently used to trace past climate variability on various time-scales. We discuss climate change on orbital (Milankovitch) and sub-orbital time scales, look at different biotic and abiotic proxies often used in palaeo-climatology and palaeo-oceanography, and learn different methods and approaches used in reconstructing past climate and its variability. During lecture and literature sessions we will discuss the well known ice core records from Antarctica and Greenland and key terrestrial and marine sediment cores from various environments.

Course Aim
The SECA course is aims to widen your view on climate change and past climate variability and will predominantly focus on the Quaternary period of geological time (i.e. the past 1.8 million years). The main objective of this course is to learn where and how climate archives are formed, and how these archives can be used to extract information related to past climate variability on various time-scales. For several types of records you will know how and when the chemisty and composition of ice and marine sediments has changed over the Quaternary time and how these changes may/can be explained, including their potential implications for future changes in ocean circulation and climate.

Course Structure
The SECA course is split up in two parts, where part - II follows directly after part - I. In part - I the main emphasis is on terrestrial environments and archives, while in part - II the main focus is on the marine realm. In both parts we discuss how and where climate archives can be found as well as the different methods and approaches that are used to extract palaeo-climate signals from such environments. Besides lecture and literature discussion sessions, you will be asked to give a 10- 15 minute presentation on a given topic. In the last two sessions a central theme will be selected and discussed in detail. (e.g. the 100 kyr cycle of glaciations, or the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation).

Course Laguage
The courses as well as course material will be in English.

Exams
To complete the course successfully you will have to pass two written tests, for part-I and part-II. The final grade is calculated as the unweighted mean of the two tests.

Guest Lectures
During the course several guest lecturers will give an invited contribution related to a specific topic.