SSP – Stratigraphy, Sedimentology & Palaeontology

Programme Group Chair: Cinzia Bottini

GS4

Sitting under a tree, you feel the spark of an idea, and suddenly everything falls into place. The following days and tests confirm: you have made a magnificent discovery — so the classical story of scientific genius goes…

But science as a human activity is error-prone, and might be more adequately described as "trial and error". Handling mistakes and setbacks is therefore a key skill of scientists. Yet, we publish only those parts of our research that did work. That is also because a study may have better chances to be accepted for scientific publication if it confirms an accepted theory or reaches a positive result (publication bias). Conversely, the cases that fail in their test of a new method or idea often end up in a drawer (which is why publication bias is also sometimes called the "file drawer effect"). This is potentially a waste of time and resources within our community, as other scientists may set about testing the same idea or model setup without being aware of previous failed attempts.

Thus, we want to turn the story around, and ask you to share 1) those ideas that seemed magnificent but turned out not to be, and 2) the errors, bugs, and mistakes in your work that made the scientific road bumpy. In the spirit of open science and in an interdisciplinary setting, we want to bring the BUGS out of the drawers and into the spotlight. What ideas were torn down or did not work, and what concepts survived in the ashes or were robust despite errors?

We explicitly solicit Blunders, Unexpected Glitches, and Surprises (BUGS) from modeling and field or lab experiments and from all disciplines of the Geosciences.

In a friendly atmosphere, we will learn from each other’s mistakes, understand the impact of errors and abandoned paths on our work, give each other ideas for shared problems, and generate new insights for our science or scientific practice.

Here are some ideas for contributions that we would love to see:
- Ideas that sounded good at first, but turned out to not work.
- Results that presented themselves as great in the first place but turned out to be caused by a bug or measurement error.
- Errors and slip-ups that resulted in insights.
- Failed experiments and negative results.
- Obstacles and dead ends you found and would like to warn others about.

For inspiration, see the collection of BUGS - ranging from clay bricks to atmospheric temperature extremes - at https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU25/session/52496

Co-organized by AS/BG/CL/CR/EMRP/ERE/ESSI/G/GD/GD5/GI/GM/GMPV/HS/NH/NP/OS/PS/PS7/SM/SSP/SSS/ST/TS/TS10
Convener: Jonas PyschikECSECS | Co-conveners: Ulrike ProskeECSECS, Martin GauchECSECS, Justine BergECSECS, Florina Roana SchalamonECSECS

SSP1 –  General Sessions

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Alicia Fantasia, Cinzia Bottini, Madeleine Vickers, Kasia K. Śliwińska, Mónica Sánchez-Román, Niels de Winter, Patrick Hadrian Meister, Boris Theofanis Karatsolis

Proposals are marked in red.

Session short summary:
Establishing reliable chronological frameworks is fundamental to interpreting sedimentary records and reconstructing the timing, duration and rates of geological and environmental processes. This session welcomes advances in absolute and relative dating, geochronology and chronostratigraphy, integrating multiple methods and improving age models across environments and timescales.
Keywords: Geochronology, Palaeoenvironment (paleoenvironment), Sediments (Sedimentation / Deposition), Stratigraphy (Sediment stratigraphy)
Co-organization suggestions:
CL | Climate: Past, Present & Future
EMRP | Earth Magnetism & Rock Physics
GM | Geomorphology
SSS3 | Soil as Records in Time and Space
SSP1

This session offers to stratigraphers, sedimentologists and palaeontologists an opportunity to present works that do not fall within research areas covered by this year's special themes. The PICO format provides the maximum opportunity to present research on diverse themes to the widest possible audience.

Convener: Cinzia Bottini | Co-conveners: Patrick Hadrian Meister, Boris Theofanis KaratsolisECSECS, Niels de Winter
SSP1

Over the past 500 million years, Earth has experienced multiple episodes of profound perturbations to climate, biogeochemical cycles, and ecosystems. Proxy records and multidisciplinary approaches have revealed compelling temporal and causal links between these environmental perturbations and major volcanic episodes, bolide impacts, and other enigmatic events. However, our understanding of the wider context and nature of environmental changes before, during, and after these perturbation intervals remain incomplete. This session invites contributions presenting the latest research advances on the end-Ordovician, Late and end-Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, end-Cretaceous mass extinctions, and other periods of biotic crisis and/or global climate, such as Oceanic Anoxic Events or the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum. We welcome research spanning geology, geochemistry, geophysics, paleontology, and biology that investigates causes, environmental responses, ecosystem collapse, resilience, and recovery across these critical intervals of Earth history.

Convener: Alicia FantasiaECSECS | Co-conveners: Thierry Adatte, Bas van de Schootbrugge, Marisa S. Storm, Stephen Grasby
SSP1

Research in stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology has wide-ranging implications for society, from renewable energy applications to geoheritage conservation, and policy decisions pertaining to conservation and hazard management. While this societal relevance has been increasingly recognized, dedicated venues for showcasing this translation of research into practice remain limited. This session aims to address a pertinent question: what can stratigraphy, sedimentology and palaeontology offer to decision-making, conservation policies and industry? In doing so, it seeks to foreground the intersection of academic research with societal application. Contributions may address, but are not limited to:
1. The role of these fields in geoheritage conservation
2. Paleontology and paleoecology in environmental conservation
3. Stratigraphy and sedimentology in hazard management and resource mitigation in the context of climate change
4. Stratigraphy, sedimentology and paleontology in renewable energy management and sustainable mining
While many studies touch on societal themes more broadly, this session places particular emphasis on research that can demonstrate a clear pathway from scientific evidence to practical applications in policy, conservation, environmental management or industry. We particularly welcome contributions that illustrate how databases, FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) data workflows, methodologies, or specific research outputs can play a concrete role in decision-making and/or industry applications, thereby facilitating the translation of research into practical applications.

Co-organized by GS8
Convener: Shradha MenonECSECS | Co-conveners: Danijela DimitrijevicECSECS, Cinzia Bottini
SSP1

Throughout Earth history, carbonate sediments have formed and been deposited in a wide range of marine and non-marine settings via the complex interplay of biological, chemical and physical processes. The carbonate sedimentary record is essential for determining past global change and understanding the complex interactions between climatic processes, oceanographic and environmental changes, the evolution of the biosphere, stratigraphic architecture development and subsequent diagenetic processes. The complementary study and understanding of present-day carbonate depositional system processes is crucial to the interpretation of the stratigraphic record and the application of carbonate archives to future pathway predictions.

Convener: Stephen Lokier | Co-conveners: Karolina IdzikowskaECSECS, Arnaud Gallois
GI2

In recent years, technologies based on Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as image processing, smart sensors, and intelligent inversion, have garnered significant attention from researchers in the geosciences community. These technologies offer the promise of transitioning geosciences from qualitative to quantitative analysis, unlocking new insights and capabilities previously thought unattainable.
One of the key reasons for the growing popularity of AI in geosciences is its unparalleled ability to efficiently analyze vast datasets within remarkably short timeframes. This capability empowers scientists and researchers to tackle some of the most intricate and challenging issues in fields like Geophysics, Seismology, Hydrology, Planetary Science, Remote Sensing, and Disaster Risk Reduction.
As we stand on the cusp of a new era in geosciences, the integration of artificial intelligence promises to deliver more accurate estimations, efficient predictions, and innovative solutions. By leveraging algorithms and machine learning, AI empowers geoscientists to uncover intricate patterns and relationships within complex data sources, ultimately advancing our understanding of the Earth's dynamic systems. In essence, artificial intelligence has become an indispensable tool in the pursuit of quantitative precision and deeper insights in the fascinating world of geosciences.
For this reason, aim of this session is to explore new advances and approaches of AI in Geosciences.

Co-organized by AS5/BG2/BG10/CL5/CR6/CR7/EMRP/ERE/ESSI/ESSI1/G1/GD5/GM/GMPV12/GS/GS4/HS/NH6/NP/NP4/OS/PS/SM9/SSP1/SSS/ST/TS10
Convener: Andrea Vitale | Co-conveners: Ivana VentolaECSECS, Luigi BiancoECSECS, Giacomo RoncoroniECSECS
CL1.1

Accurate reconstructions of sea surface, bottom water, and continental surface temperatures during the Cenozoic era are essential for understanding climate dynamics in the geological past, particularly under warmer-than-present conditions. However, producing robust and precise paleotemperature estimates remains inherently challenging. Temperature proxies are subject to a range of geochemical, biological, environmental, and analytical uncertainties, which lead to discrepancies in both absolute and relative temperature estimates across different methods. These limitations hinder efforts to synthesize globally representative paleotemperature records and to constrain the rates and magnitudes of global temperature changes in response to both abrupt and long-term changes in atmospheric CO2.

Addressing these challenges requires new approaches, including improved proxy calibrations, and more comprehensive inter-proxy and proxy-model comparisons, to obtain a better understanding of the uncertainties associated with paleotemperature reconstructions. In this session, we welcome contributions that push the boundaries of Cenozoic paleotemperature research, including new multi-proxy and multi-site temperature reconstructions, new advances in proxy ground-truthing, applications, and calibrations, and novel modelling perspectives on paleotemperature changes. By bringing together the diverse community using proxy and modelling techniques, we seek to increase the robustness of Cenozoic ocean and terrestrial temperature reconstructions. Ultimately, this will improve our understanding of Earth’s climate system and its behaviour during warmer-than-present states.

Co-organized by BG5/SSP1/SSP2
Convener: Tobias AgterhuisECSECS | Co-conveners: Victoria TaylorECSECS, Alexa FischerECSECS, Xin RenECSECS, Suning HouECSECS

SSP2 –  Stratigraphy, Earth Systems History and Climate Geology

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Alicia Fantasia, Boris Theofanis Karatsolis

SSP2

Earth’s history is characterized by periodic fluctuations, long-term trends and abrupt changes in major climatic systems, as well as biotic turnover and evolutionary events. To investigate and understand these changes, researchers need to accurately resolve geological time in stratigraphic records.
This session invites (chrono)stratigraphers, paleoclimatologists and paleontologists that focus on paleoclimatic records from the last 100 million years of Earth's history. The main objective is to introduce new stratigraphic tools and methods, integrated multiproxy records, as well as educational platforms and databases designed to integrate the various aspects of geochronology.
The session will also present the efforts and outcomes of “The Time-Integrated Matrix for Earth Sciences” (TIMES), an international initiative bringing together a large community of researchers working in stratigraphy and paleoclimate proxy development. The goal of this 10-year project is to recalibrate global climate records from the last 100 million years on a unified high-resolution timeline using astrochronology.

Convener: Boris Theofanis KaratsolisECSECS | Co-conveners: David De Vleeschouwer, Hamdi OmarECSECS, Kasia K. Śliwińska, Jorijntje Henderiks
SSP2

The uncertainty associated with stratigraphic correlations and numerical ages of sedimentary successions increases with time, hampering our understanding of forcing factors of past climate changes and their consequences for paleoecosystems. Stratigraphic correlations and time scale refinement beyond 100 Ma face unique challenges, including increasing uncertainties on radiometric ages, a lack of astronomical solutions, and the potential for non-actualistic processes. These issues are further exacerbated in terrestrial and coastal strata, complicating the construction of terrestrial-to-marine correlation schemes. Apparent disagreement may exist between inferred ages, durations and correlations, depending on the region and the methodology. The ‘pre-100 Ma’ world remains beyond the ambitious time scale refinement effort of the TIMES (“Time Integrated Matrix for Earth Sciences”) initiative for now.
At the same time, the past decade has seen rapid improvements in the pre-100 Ma geologic time scale, as well as our understanding of global events anchored to it. Especially for these older strata, a fully integrated stratigraphic approach, aiming at more robust correlations across geologic settings, is crucial.
Here, we propose a session to gather the efforts to advance the dating of sedimentary series older than 100 Ma using different approaches, including geochronology, astrochronology, chemostratigraphy, biostratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, event stratigraphy, and numerical modelling; as well as methods to improve correlations at global scales at an increasingly higher time resolution and between marine and terrestrial records. This session aims to foster constructive discussion on how we can progress as a deep-time stratigraphic community, and we welcome researchers from all career stages. Studies working on an integrated approach and aiming at constructing a converging time scale for different geological periods beyond 100 Ma are particularly encouraged.

Convener: Nina WichernECSECS | Co-conveners: Michiel ArtsECSECS, Margriet Lantink, Mathieu Martinez, Jakob F. QuabeckECSECS
SSP2

This session aims to bring together multidisciplinary perspectives on the interplay between microbial activity, sedimentary processes, and geochemical signatures in lacustrine and marine environments, both modern and ancient. We seek contributions that explore how microbial metabolisms influence mineral formation (e.g., carbonates, clays, sulphates) how isotopic and molecular biosignatures record biogeochemical processes, and how sedimentary archives can be interpreted to reconstruct past environmental and climatic conditions.

We particularly encourage submissions that combine natural systems with experimental analogues, including laboratory simulations of mineral precipitation, microbe–mineral interactions, and environmental gradients. Studies integrating field observations, experimental data, and cutting-edge analytical or computational approaches (e.g., spectroscopy, synchrotron techniques, geochemistry, stable isotopes, machine learning) are especially welcome.

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
• Microbially mediated mineral precipitation in lacustrine and marine systems
• Early diagenesis and biosignature formation: field, lab, and model approaches
• Stable isotope systems as proxies for microbial and environmental processes
• Experimental analogues simulating early Earth, Mars-like, or extreme environments
• Sedimentary and geochemical archives for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental reconstructions
• Integration of microbial ecology, mineralogy, and geochemistry to assess biogeochemical feedbacks
• Applications to the search for early life and biosignatures in the geological record and planetary contexts

Co-organized by BG/CL/CL1.1/OS
Convener: Mónica Sánchez-Román | Co-conveners: Patrick Hadrian Meister, K. Benzerara, Nicolas Waldmann
CL1.1

Accurate reconstructions of sea surface, bottom water, and continental surface temperatures during the Cenozoic era are essential for understanding climate dynamics in the geological past, particularly under warmer-than-present conditions. However, producing robust and precise paleotemperature estimates remains inherently challenging. Temperature proxies are subject to a range of geochemical, biological, environmental, and analytical uncertainties, which lead to discrepancies in both absolute and relative temperature estimates across different methods. These limitations hinder efforts to synthesize globally representative paleotemperature records and to constrain the rates and magnitudes of global temperature changes in response to both abrupt and long-term changes in atmospheric CO2.

Addressing these challenges requires new approaches, including improved proxy calibrations, and more comprehensive inter-proxy and proxy-model comparisons, to obtain a better understanding of the uncertainties associated with paleotemperature reconstructions. In this session, we welcome contributions that push the boundaries of Cenozoic paleotemperature research, including new multi-proxy and multi-site temperature reconstructions, new advances in proxy ground-truthing, applications, and calibrations, and novel modelling perspectives on paleotemperature changes. By bringing together the diverse community using proxy and modelling techniques, we seek to increase the robustness of Cenozoic ocean and terrestrial temperature reconstructions. Ultimately, this will improve our understanding of Earth’s climate system and its behaviour during warmer-than-present states.

Co-organized by BG5/SSP1/SSP2
Convener: Tobias AgterhuisECSECS | Co-conveners: Victoria TaylorECSECS, Alexa FischerECSECS, Xin RenECSECS, Suning HouECSECS
CL1.2

This session invites contributions that advance a comprehensive understanding and quantification of climate shifts across multiple timescales, from local to global scales. Submissions may highlight new (multi-)proxy reconstructions from diverse archives, chronological improvements, emerging statistical approaches, and/or climate simulations that help identify, quantify, and interpret transient vs. abrupt climate changes across Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles.

The session welcomes participants beyond the INTIMATE network who contribute to its central aims: progress on relative or absolute chronological methods, the reduction of reconstruction uncertainties, multi-site integration towards common timescales (e.g., to the Greenland event stratigraphy), a dedicated use of model-data or multi-proxy comparisons to disentangle climate or ecosystem signals, and exploring teleconnections, i.e., linking impacts to different climate system components across time and space.

We particularly invite studies that improve our understanding of atmosphere–ocean linkages of extreme climate events (e.g., AMOC weakening), those that seek to separate signals of changing seasonality and/or temperature vs. hydroclimate and their implications on past societies, as well as ecosystems. Where applicable, we encourage contributions that reflect on the potential implications of past climate shifts for: (1) understanding future climate change; (2) assessing impacts on terrestrial ecosystems and societies; and (3) identifying links between extreme climate states on land and changes in ocean circulation, external forcing, internal climate variability, or volcanic activity.

Co-organized by BG2/OS1/SSP2
Convener: Frederik Schenk | Co-conveners: Laura BoyallECSECS, Willem van der Bilt, Sakari Salonen, Blanchet Cecile
CL4

The Arctic is undergoing rapid climate and environmental change, but understanding the processes driving this transformation requires a longer-term perspective. Marine sediment archives preserve evidence of past changes in ocean circulation, sea-ice conditions, ice-sheet dynamics, freshwater discharge, sediment transport, productivity, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem changes across a wide range of timescales.
Shallow coring methods are suitable for obtaining detailed information on late Quaternary ice-ocean-climate variability, while ocean drilling records extends the perspective into older Cenozoic time windows when climate backgrounds were, substantially different from the present. Together, these archives provide complementary perspectives on rapid and long-term Arctic climate variability, helping to better understand global processes and constrain model predictions.
This session invites contributions based on the study of marine sediment cores and ocean drilling records and corresponding site surveys from the Arctic Ocean and surrounding continental margins. We particularly welcome studies integrating sedimentological, stratigraphic, micropaleontological, palaeogenomic, geochemical, paleomagnetic, physical-properties, and geophysical datasets to develop robust age models and paleoenvironmental reconstructions.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Arctic Ocean circulation and variability across the Arctic gateways;
- sea-ice evolution and ocean–ice–atmosphere interactions;
- ice-sheet growth, retreat, and instability;
- sediment provenance and depositional processes;
- palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic reconstructions across the Cenozoic;
- past marine ecosystem and biodiversity changes, including sedimentary ancient DNA
- abrupt climate events and glacial–interglacial transitions;
- seismic stratigraphy and geophysical constraints on sedimentary archives;
- development and correlation of age models using multidisciplinary and novel approaches;
We particularly encourage contributions that bridge different spatial and temporal scales and combine multiple archives and methodologies. The session aims to provide a forum for connecting high-resolution shallow-core studies with the longer-term perspective offered by ocean drilling, thereby improving our understanding of the evolution and sensitivity of the Arctic climate system.

Co-organized by SSP2/SSP4
Convener: Renata Giulia Lucchi | Co-conveners: Paul Knutz, Alba Gonzalez-LanchasECSECS, Lucinda DuxburyECSECS, Catalina Gebhardt

SSP3 –  Sedimentology: processes, products, diagenesis

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Madeleine Vickers, Patrick Hadrian Meister

SSP3

Icehouse conditions have characterized the evolution of Earth's surface over multiple timescales. Their recurrence and intensity are paced by the interplay among surface and deep-seated processes, as well as astronomical forcing. Under colder climate conditions, landscapes are modified by the physical action of ice masses, including polar ice sheets, high-elevation and high-latitude ice caps, and valley glaciers. Each stage of landscape evolution can be traced through erosion of the substrate beneath and around the ice bodies, and through the subsequent transport and deposition of eroded material. Tracing these sediment-routing pathways is a key tool for understanding past and present ice dynamics.
Through numerical modeling of sediment and provenance proxies, it is possible to investigate how glacial landscapes are eroded and evolve in response to climate variability and tectonics through time.
We especially welcome contributions focusing on, but not limited to, the Cenozoic, encompassing the development of high-latitude polar environments and the recurrent advances and retreats of mountain glaciers during the Quaternary. We encourage studies employing approaches that bridge sedimentology, geomorphology, and related disciplines, including cosmogenic nuclides, thermochronology, detrital geochronology, geochemical provenance tracer, and petrographic and mineralogical characterization of grains. Contributions integrating these techniques with remote sensing, GIS-based analyses, and numerical modeling are encouraged.

Co-organized by CL5/GM9
Convener: Luca ZurliECSECS | Co-conveners: Fien De DonckerECSECS, Marco FiorasoECSECS, Guido PastoreECSECS
SSP3

The source-to-sink (S2S) approach is a fundamental, comprehensive method in sedimentary geology, offering a strong framework to understand the full journey of sediment from continental source areas to deep-sea basins. These sediment routing systems serve as invaluable records, capturing the complex interaction between external forces, such as climate, sea-level changes, tectonics, and Earth's internal surface processes. By examining the entire sediment continuum, researchers can uncover key information about landscape development, basin evolution, ancient environments, and sediment provenance. The vast and active landscapes of Asia and Oceania, shaped by active mountain-building, strong monsoonal weather, and major sea-level shifts, provide an exceptional natural laboratory for deepening our grasp of these complex Earth systems. Despite its power and widespread use, the S2S approach faces ongoing challenges that can reduce its predictive accuracy. Significant uncertainties still exist when trying to connect different spatial and temporal scales, from grain-scale processes in a catchment to the basin-scale stratigraphic architecture built up over millions of years. Combining diverse datasets and accurately measuring the influence of various forces on the sedimentary record remains a major obstacle. These scaling, resolution, and process-related challenges can cause unquantified risks in geological models, highlighting the urgent need for a dedicated platform to gather recent advancements and promote a more reliable, quantitative, and reproducible S2S science.
This session aims to address these challenges by showcasing the latest advancements in S2S research across Asia and Oceania. We welcome the submission of interdisciplinary studies that highlight recent advancements in perspectives, methods, and applications. The session will span the breadth of S2S research with contributions that utilize multi-proxy approaches including geophysical data, numerical and analogue modelling, sedimentary provenance analysis, and field observations to develop a comprehensive understanding of sediment routing systems. By promoting diverse research that links S2S dynamics to urgent global issues such as sustainable geoscience, energy transition, geohazard mitigation, and climate change, this session will not only deepen our fundamental understanding of Earth surface processes but also underscore the vital role of S2S science in addressing contemporary societal challenges.

Co-sponsored by AOGS
Convener: Amy Gough | Co-conveners: Nan WuECSECS, Max WebbECSECS, Amando LasabudaECSECS, Abang NugrahaECSECS
SSP3

The clastic sediment archive records the transfer of material between lithological reservoirs, mediated by surface processes. Sedimentary provenance analysis aims to reconstruct these transfers across a wide range of temporal and spatial scales, from sediment generation and routing in modern landscapes to paleogeographic reconstructions, the evolution of mountain belts, past climatic and erosional conditions, and the tectono-magmatic-metamorphic evolution of Earth through deep time.

However, the relationship between source rocks and resulting sediment is inherently complex. Weathering and erosion control the initial composition of sediment, while transport and depositional processes such as abrasion, mixing, hydraulic sorting, intermediate storage, and dissolution may further modify its composition. Disentangling these processes requires both an improved understanding of source-to-sediment relationships and increasingly sophisticated analytical and quantitative approaches.

This session brings together studies addressing both aspects of this challenge. We invite contributions investigating sediment generation, source-to-sediment relationships and deep-time reconstructions using observations from natural systems, experiments, and numerical models, as well as methodological advances in sedimentary provenance analysis. These may include petrographic and textural approaches; single-grain geochemistry, isotopic analysis, geo- and thermochronology; mineral inclusions and thermobarometry; fingerprinting and multi-proxy provenance approaches; and statistical, computational, and machine-learning methods for analysing increasingly large and complex datasets.

Co-organized by GMPV4
Convener: Laura Stutenbecker | Co-conveners: Chris Mark, Nikhil SharmaECSECS, Nils Keno Lünsdorf, Max DröllnerECSECS
SSP3

Lakes and their sedimentary systems are excellent continuous and high resolution archives of past environmental change across the globe and have contributed significantly to our understanding of the Earth’s planetary system. The increasing number of available short and long sediment cores, in particular from ICDP (International Continental Scientific Drilling Program), along with seismic and bathymetric data, continues to be pivotal for assessing climate and environmental change, human activities as well as tectonic and volcanic activity, among others.
We invite contributions that use sedimentological, geochemical, biological, and chronological tools in lake systems and their sedimentary records, from small ponds to deep large basins across all timescales. Contributions should aim to deduce quantitative and spatial rates of change, causes and consequences of long- and short-term climate variability, and/or assess the impact, magnitude, and frequency of tectonic and volcanic activities and landscape changes in their catchments on these systems. We particularly encourage submissions about novel analytical approaches (destructive and non-destructive) and data analysis (statistics, machine learning, AI) that guide future research directions in limnogeology.

Convener: Katleen WilsECSECS | Co-conveners: Lisa FeistECSECS, Olga SchmitzECSECS, Adrianus DamanikECSECS, Renaldo GastineauECSECS
SSP3

Minerals are formed in great diversity under Earth surface conditions, as skeletons, microbialites, speleothems, or authigenic cements, and they preserve a wealth of geochemical, biological, mineralogical, and isotopic information, providing valuable archives of past environmental conditions. Interpretion of these archives requires fundamental understanding of fluid-rock interaction processes, but also insights from the geological record.

In this session we welcome oral and poster presentations from a wide range of research of topics, including process-oriented studies in modern systems, the ancient rock record, experiments, computer simulations, and high-resolution microscopy and spectroscopy techniques. We intend to reach a wide community of researchers sharing the common goal of improving our understanding of the fundamental processes underlying mineral formation, which is essential to read our Earth’s geological archive.

Co-organized by BG/GMPV/HS
Convener: Patrick Hadrian Meister | Co-conveners: Patricia RoeserECSECS, Michael Ernst Böttcher, Sally Potter-McIntyre, Mónica Sánchez-Román
CL1.2

Speleothems are key terrestrial archives of regional to global palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes on sub-seasonal to orbital timescales. They provide high temporally resolved records which can be accurately and precisely dated using U–Th or U–Pb techniques in combination with a variety of proxies such as stable O and C isotopes and trace element ratios. Recent efforts have seen the rise in more non-traditional proxies, such as fluid inclusion water isotopes, organic biomarkers, pollen, dead carbon fraction etc. This advancement towards quantitative reconstructions of past precipitation, temperature, or other environmental variables and climate patterns are key for data-model comparisons and further evaluations. Beyond this, caves and karst areas additionally host an enormous suite of valuable proxy archives such as cave ice, cryogenic carbonates, clastic sediments, tufa, or travertine sequences, which complement the terrestrial palaeorecord, and are often associated with important fossils, historical or archaeological findings.

This session aims to integrate recent developments in the field and invites abstract submissions from a broad range of cave- and karst-related studies from orbital to sub-seasonal timescales.
In particular, we welcome contributions from:
(1) (quantitative) reconstructions of past climatic and environmental variables to explore precipitation, vegetation, fire frequency, and temperature changes across different climate zones;
(2) field- and lab-based developments of process-based methods to improve the application of cave and karst-related proxy variables;
(3) developments in chronological methods and their applications;
(4) process and proxy-system model studies as well as integrated research on developing and using databases such as SISAL (Speleothem Isotope Synthesis and AnaLysis).

We further welcome advancements in related and/or interdisciplinary areas, which pave the way towards robust (quantitative) interpretations of proxy time series, improve the understanding of proxy-relevant processes, or enable regional-to-global and seasonal-to-orbital scale analyses of the relationships between proxies and environmental parameters. In addition, research contributing to current international co-ordinated activities, such as the PAGES working group on Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and AnaLysis (SISAL) and others are welcome.

Co-organized by BG5/SSP3, co-sponsored by PAGES
Convener: Rieneke WeijECSECS | Co-conveners: Ezgi Unal Imer, Sophie WarkenECSECS, Sam NicholsonECSECS, Frederick HeldECSECS

SSP4 –  Palaeontology, Palaeoecology and Evolution of Life

Sub-Programme Group Scientific Officers: Kasia K. Śliwińska, Niels de Winter

SSP4

Skeletal remains, like shells, ossicles, corals, bones, or fish otoliths, are valuable archives of physical, chemical, or paleogenetic information, helping us understand ecological and environmental changes over periods ranging from decades to millennia, whether on land or in the ocean. This session invites researchers who employ these archives to reconstruct changes in species and ecosystems in relation to climate variability and/or human impacts across both the deep time and the recent past. We encourage contributions that focus on biotic interactions, species and community dynamics, sclerochronology, isotope geochemistry, trait-based analyses, morphometric approaches, and ancient DNA/sedimentary DNA, in particular conservation-oriented case studies that combine data from modern biota and fossil remains. Complementary paleoecological archives—such as biogeochemical and isotopic signatures from sedimentary succession or archaeological middens—are also welcome, primarily when they document histories of environmental disturbance and its ecological consequences. We also welcome paleobiogeographic reconstructions that explore range shifts, corridor/barrier dynamics, and distributional disequilibria to inform how species’ spatial patterns have responded to past environmental change. In conclusion, by examining long-term records, we can gain insights into the potential consequences of present-day environmental stressors and climate change, reconstruct past dynamics of species and ecosystem changes, including extinction, recovery, and biogeographic shifts, and thus obtain valuable insights that can help us sketch the near-future trajectories of contemporary ecosystems.

Co-organized by BG5/CL1.1/CL1.2
Convener: Daniele Scarponi | Co-conveners: Niels de Winter, Gaia Crippa, Lukas SchweiglECSECS, Rafał Nawrot
SSP4

Micropaleontological data provide unique insights into the dynamics and tipping points of past environments and climates through changes in the fossil record, including assemblage composition, morphology, and evolutionary patterns. Micropaleontology lies at the heart of biostratigraphy and provides a fundamental tool for reconstructing and stratigraphically constraining past changes in the Earth system. Our session aims to bring together a broad spectrum of micropaleontologists to showcase recent advances in the application of micropaleontological data to paleoenvironmental, paleoclimatological, and stratigraphic research in both marine and terrestrial settings.
We invite contributions from the field of micropaleontology that focus on the development and application of microfossils (including, but not limited to, coccolithophores, diatoms, dinoflagellates, foraminifera, ostracods, radiolarians, conodonts, and pollen) as proxies for paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological reconstructions and tools for stratigraphic correlation. We particularly encourage submissions of multi-proxy approaches that merge micropaleontological, geochemical, and paleobiological information. The application of microfossils as stratigraphic markers and the advancement of multivariate statistical techniques with a focus on microfossil assemblages are encouraged.

Co-organized by BG5/CL/CL1.1
Convener: Gerald Auer | Co-conveners: Arianna V. Del GaudioECSECS, Olga Koukousioura, Patrick Grunert
CL4

Throughout Earth’s history, large explosive volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts have episodically perturbed the Earth system, driving major climate disruptions with profound consequences for the biosphere. These events can modify atmospheric composition, perturb Earth’s radiative balance, trigger abrupt surface cooling, weaken the hydrological cycle, alter ocean circulation and biogeochemistry, suppress terrestrial and marine productivity, and generate cascading effects across ecosystems and food webs. Such environmental changes may further shape the evolutionary trajectories of species, including humans.

One notable example is the Chicxulub impact about 66 million years ago, which generated a global impact winter and almost certainly triggered the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction. Another example is the Toba supereruption about 74,000 years ago, which likely caused substantial climatic effects and may have affected human populations. However, the magnitudes, timescales, spatial patterns, and underlying mechanisms of climate and biosphere responses to major perturbations remain incompletely understood and actively debated.

This session invites contributions that investigate how major perturbations—including volcanic eruptions, asteroid impacts, and other abrupt climatic events of varying magnitudes—affect the climate system, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, and the evolution of mammals and humans across a wide range of timescales and regions. We welcome theoretical, observational, proxy-based, and modeling studies from multidisciplinary perspectives spanning volcanology, planetary science, climate science, paleoclimatology, ecology, archaeology, and paleoanthropology.

Co-organized by AS3/PS1/PS3/SSP4
Convener: Lan DaiECSECS | Co-conveners: Weiyi Sun, Jiaoyang Ruan
CL4

The Arctic is undergoing rapid climate and environmental change, but understanding the processes driving this transformation requires a longer-term perspective. Marine sediment archives preserve evidence of past changes in ocean circulation, sea-ice conditions, ice-sheet dynamics, freshwater discharge, sediment transport, productivity, biogeochemical cycling and ecosystem changes across a wide range of timescales.
Shallow coring methods are suitable for obtaining detailed information on late Quaternary ice-ocean-climate variability, while ocean drilling records extends the perspective into older Cenozoic time windows when climate backgrounds were, substantially different from the present. Together, these archives provide complementary perspectives on rapid and long-term Arctic climate variability, helping to better understand global processes and constrain model predictions.
This session invites contributions based on the study of marine sediment cores and ocean drilling records and corresponding site surveys from the Arctic Ocean and surrounding continental margins. We particularly welcome studies integrating sedimentological, stratigraphic, micropaleontological, palaeogenomic, geochemical, paleomagnetic, physical-properties, and geophysical datasets to develop robust age models and paleoenvironmental reconstructions.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Arctic Ocean circulation and variability across the Arctic gateways;
- sea-ice evolution and ocean–ice–atmosphere interactions;
- ice-sheet growth, retreat, and instability;
- sediment provenance and depositional processes;
- palaeoceanographic and palaeoclimatic reconstructions across the Cenozoic;
- past marine ecosystem and biodiversity changes, including sedimentary ancient DNA
- abrupt climate events and glacial–interglacial transitions;
- seismic stratigraphy and geophysical constraints on sedimentary archives;
- development and correlation of age models using multidisciplinary and novel approaches;
We particularly encourage contributions that bridge different spatial and temporal scales and combine multiple archives and methodologies. The session aims to provide a forum for connecting high-resolution shallow-core studies with the longer-term perspective offered by ocean drilling, thereby improving our understanding of the evolution and sensitivity of the Arctic climate system.

Co-organized by SSP2/SSP4
Convener: Renata Giulia Lucchi | Co-conveners: Paul Knutz, Alba Gonzalez-LanchasECSECS, Lucinda DuxburyECSECS, Catalina Gebhardt