Sediment cores and seabird colonies. Developments in paeoenvironmental studies. Part I

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. This seminar will explore new developments in lake sediment archival analysis of cores adjacent to large seabird colonies. I will introduce some of the methods used to reconstruct past seabird population dynamics from sediment records and I will then present a series of three case studies:  (1) millennial-scale changes in northern fulmar (Fulmarus glacialis) populations on Devon Island (Nunavut, Canada); (2) 20th Century declines in eider (Somateria mollissima borealis) populations due to excessive hunting in Hudson Strait (Canada); and (3) a 2,000 year record of seabird occupation on Baccalieu Island near Newfoundland (Canada).