Isotope proxies are extremely powerful tools for the reconstruction of past environments and climates of oceans and continents. In this workshop, an introduction to and discussion of the development and application of isotopes in speleothem research will be illustrated.

Major strengths of speleothems include their suitability for accurate U-series age determinations and their preservation of multiple quasi-independent climate proxies. A detailed description and an integrated perspective will be given on the interpretation of stable oxygen (δ18O), carbon isotope (δ13C) ratios and trace element concentrations. We will discuss how these speleothem climate-proxy time series enable us to reconstruct past regional climate variability and to assess the extent to which such variability may be synchronous or asynchronous on various spatial scales; in turn providing insights into the climate forcing mechanism(s).
Dr. Michael Deininger is a postdoctoral fellow at the UCD School of Earth Sciences, University College Dublin, Ireland. In this workshop, he will share his broad experience of the field of climate-related proxies reconstructed from speleothems archives and its application to climates of the past.