Speleothems are valuable continental archives of past environmental and climate changes. A wealth of information, which can be precisely traced through time by radiometric dating techniques, is hidden in the multiplicity of complementary proxies. The session aims to highlight the most recent developments and findings of this multifaceted archive and frames all fields of speleothem research - the understanding of this multi-proxy record and its dating techniques. Proxies include, but are not limited to: isotopic, isotopologic and elemental composition as well as petrography, fluid inclusions, biomarkers, and growth dynamics.
The session appreciates all studies from modeling (including isotope-enabled climate models), proxy-development and analysis of speleothems that advance our capacity to provide robust palaeo-environmental reconstructions. Further, this session hearty welcomes the latest studies of speleothem records that shed light into palaeoclimate and environmental changes across all scales. A special focus of this year’s session is dedicated to the systematics and interpretation of carbon isotopes and their significance as climatic or environmental proxies. Therefore, this session encourages in particular studies which intend to unravel the carbon isotope systematics in speleothems.