Actualités et séminaires

Paleoenvironmental studies of natural archives like sediment and peat provide a unique glimpse of how environments have changed long before comprehensive monitoring data were collected. A major focus in paleoenvironmental studies has been to use the fossilized remains of algae and other aquatic and terrestrial bioindicators to track ecosystem responses to changing environmental conditions. Here I will elaborate on a series of emerging techniques that are proving themselves useful to further resolve the environmental impacts of major environmental perturbations.

Here I present a combination of paleoenvironmental approaches to examine the centennial- -scale dynamics of the world’s largest colony of the declining and vulnerable Leach’s Storm-petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) on Baccalieu Island. These data corroborate recent surveys indicating population declines in this species since the 1980s.

Lake sediments are useful to track long-term environmental changes. Recent developments in analytical approaches allow us to ask new questions about recent climate change and the impacts of human perturbations on the natural environment based on lake sediment core analysis. Techniques are now being developed to track migratory seabird populations from sediment records to show how seabirds may have responded to climatic anomalies and other perturbations related to human activities.