Scientific Sessions

Theme 1: Cave monitoring and climate proxy development from speleothems

Keynote speaker:  Dr. Pauline Treble, Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organization

Speleothems have become the go-to archive for reconstructing terrestrial climate. Interpretations of past climate, however, rely on a comprehensive understanding of the links between climate and the physical, geochemical, and isotopic variability preserved in speleothems. Cave-monitoring studies are essential for investigating how the environment mediates the climate signals preserved in speleothems on which paleoclimate reconstructions are based. Furthermore, a diversification of approaches to interpreting past climate from speleothems is critical to leveraging the full potential of speleothems as archives of paleoclimate and paleo-environmental dynamics. This session invites abstracts featuring results from cave monitoring and the development of new proxies and/or novel approaches featuring established proxies.

Theme 2: High resolution speleothem records:  From seasonal to multi-decadal scale

Keynote speaker:  Prof. Martin Medina-Elizalde, Auburn University

Speleothems hold excellent potential to investigate the timing and mechanisms of past climate change on the seasonal to multi-decadal timescales that are most relevant to humans.  For instance, recent studies have highlighted the potential for extending the tree ring and coral records of past variations in ENSO and other coupled climate modes, but these records can be hindered by chronological uncertainties, low signal to noise ratios, and spectral modification by karst processes. Recent analytical developments, increased speed and ease of U-Th dating,  proxy system models, and newly developed statistical and time-series analysis methods  have enabled more robust high-resolution paleoclimate reconstructions from speleothems.  For this session, we invite contributions of new high-resolution speleothem proxy records that investigate past changes in: seasonality, coupled climate modes (e.g. ENSO, PDO, NAO, IOD), and  climate extremes (e.g. droughts, floods, wildfires), as well as  those that investigate the potential influence of solar and volcanic forcing on climate.

Theme 3: Speleothem records of orbital to millennial scale climate variability

Orbital to millennial scale climate variability has been identified from various geological and biological records and is a key focus of paleoclimate study. Benefiting from U-Th dating, speleothems have yielded climate records of the past 640,000 years at unprecedented precision, providing fundamental information about the timing and mechanisms of glacial-interglacial and abrupt climate changes. This session invites contributions presenting new orbital to millennial scale speleothem, tufa, and travertine records of past climate, including but not limited to temperature, precipitation, sea level, and/or monsoon intensity records.  We welcome studies investigating the timing, phases, amplitude and mechanisms of orbital and millennial scale climatic change across the Pleistocene and Holocene, across glacial terminations, and in deep time (using U-Pb dated archives).

Theme 4: Novel techniques, proxies, and unconventional archives

Speleothem science is rapidly applying new methods of investigation that allow expanding the pool of proxy data as well as increasing accuracy of interpretation. In recent years, speleothem petrography evolved to include high-resolution elemental mapping and micro-tomography; speleothem geochemistry explores the use of non-traditional isotopes, clumped isotopes, organic molecules.  The advent of ancient DNA techniques allows recognition of temperature-sensitive microbial communities; finally, calcium carbonate crystal growth modeling is an emerging tool to correctly interpret incorporation of proxy data.  In addition, new cave archives from high altitude and high latitudes have the potential to explore climatic and ecological changes in extreme environments.

For this session, we welcome contributions on

• Synchrotron-based chemical and elemental mapping
• Speleothem carbonates at the nanoscale: surface processes, diagenesis and their influence on climate significant proxies
• Modelling of calcium carbonate growth: non classical nucleation, amorphous phases, Ostwald ripening
• Quantitative application of non-conventional isotopes, clumped isotopes, fluid inclusions
• New frontiers in petrography
• Cryogenic and subglacial carbonates as novel archives of extreme environments.
• Organic geochemistry and ancient DNA application to speleothem science

Theme 5:  Modeling in speleothem science

The increasing number of proxy records and detailed cave monitoring programs highlight the complexity of the processes affecting speleothem proxy signals. In recent years, major progress has been achieved in modeling speleothem proxy signals. These models are not only useful to improve the understanding of the processes occurring in a particular cave system, but also to test the general potential of speleothems for reconstruction of specific climate phenomena.

In addition, in particular with the increasing precision of speleothem ²³⁰Th/U-ages, the construction of speleothem age models and the determination of the corresponding uncertainties gained increasing attention in recent years.

For this session, we welcome contributions on

• Construction of speleothem age models
• Quantitative description of processes occurring in the soil and karst above the cave as well as during precipitation of CaCO₃
• Modeling of speleothem proxies and their relationship to climate parameters

Theme 6: Speleothem proxy records in an Earth system context

Keynote speaker:  Dr. Bronwen Konecky, CIRES, University of Colorado Boulder

Highly resolved, oxygen isotope records developed from U-Th dated speleothems document the vast temporal and spatial range of climate variability in the Earth system as well as highlight the nature of teleconnections and feedbacks in the climate system during past climate states.  Increasingly studies are integrating modeling with speleothem-based proxy archives to explore the mechanisms of climate change. These model-data comparisons are providing insight into how the differing influences on regional climates respond to changing mean climate, large-scale atmospheric circulation patterns, and global teleconnections. A new paradigm is emerging as large-scale isotope enabled Earth System Models permit the direct comparison of speleothem δ¹⁸O time series and model results.  Isotope enabled models permit investigation of varying influences (both temporally stationary and non-stationary) on the relationship of precipitation δ¹⁸O to large-scale atmospheric circulation modes. Similar efforts further elucidate the influence of changing large-scale climate and atmospheric CO₂ on speleothem δ¹³C and ¹⁴C records and may ultimately define the role of karst in the global carbon cycle.

For this session, we welcome contributions on:

• The interpretation of speleothem δ¹⁸O , δ¹³C, and/or ¹⁴C in the context of large-scale climate change
• Modeling and statistical investigations of regional hydroclimates and/or precipitation isotopes and their regional to global teleconnections
• Speleothem data syntheses and proxy-model comparison studies.