This session is co-sponsored by the European Association of Geochemistry.

This session consists of three sections:

- Stable isotopes as a tool in (paleo-)climate studies:
This section of the session forms a general platform for (paleo-)climate studies where stable isotopes are used as 'proxy' for environmental paramateres. The temperature dependency of isotopic fractionation with formation of phases such as carbonates, phosphates or other materials, is traditionally used for climate determination, although a number of studies have shown much wider application possibilities, ranging from variations of rainfall amount, moisture source, biogenic activity, volcanic deposition, to name a few. All kinds of presentations dealing with stable isotope analyses in (paleo)climate research are highly welcome.

- Marine and continental stable isotope records and paleoclimates:
Stable Isotope records (C, N, S, O, H, Sr) have been largely used in reconstruction of marine and continental palaeoenvironments. The session will address changing at different time scale (Phanerozoic, Mezozoic, Cenozoic) and how and why the environmental conditions have varied from icehouse to greenhouse, from oxic to anoxic. This session invites: 1. Contributions that brings together various continental and marine isotope records in order to explore the evolution of Earth and life over time; 2. Contribution that use stable isotope as well as other records in order to correlate stratigraphic sequences formed in a variety of settings. We are especially interested in contributions that use stable isotopes as well as palaeontological, mineralogical, major and minor elements, etc in order to elucidate the interreaction betwen the earth-ocean-atmosphere and the palaeoclimatic response.

- Stable isotopes in tree-rings as proxies for climatological, environmental and physiological changes:
Stable isotopes (d13C and d18O) in tree organic matter have become an important tool in obtaining retrospective insight into the plant physiological response to climate and other environmental variables. Factors controlling isotopic fractionation are closely related to meteorological variables so that stable isotopes can provide important additional information e.g. on precipitation/drought variations complementary to traditional tree ring parameters such as tree-ring width or maximum latewood density.
The increasing number of isotope records, however, also points to unsolved questions and current limitations of this tree-ring parameter. This includes potential non-climatic long-term trends in the juvenile (age trend) and the calibration period (SUESS effect), the question on site selection for maximizing a specific environmental signal, or the relevance of different carbohydrate and wood compounds for the tree-ring isotopic signature. An improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to variations in the trees internal carbon and water cycle is therefore needed.
This section of the session encourages contributions, which use stable and compound-specific isotope analyses in tree tissues including wood to study climatological, physiological and environmental changes on seasonal to long-term scales.