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Instruments for sediment and soil sampling: Platform of coring
and piston coring (12 m). Soil coring (unaltered sample). Sediment
sampler model Beeker. Ekmann dredge. Other coring systems (Livingston
modified). |
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Instruments for water sampling: multi-parametric probe and other
individual probes (pH, Ox, redox). Niskins bottles, Correntimerer.
Pneumatic boat. |
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Meters for salinity and humidity in soils. |
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Laboratory of microscopy with two binocular lenses, petrographic
microscope and reverse biologic microscope. Chamber of analysis
of microscopic images. |
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Laboratory equipped with ovens, muffles, freeze-driers, centrifuges,
thermostatic baths, dryers, sieves, calcimeter, etc. sediment and
soil sampling and for sedimentology analysis. |
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Laboratory equipped for water analysis. Continuous flow analyzer
for nutrients (nitrate, phosphate, ammonia, nitrite, NT, PT). automatic
titration (alcalinity and Ca and Mg). Ion chromatograph (cations
and anions). Spectophotometers and flame ionization spectophotometers
(analysis of Na and K). Laminar flow hood. |
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Elemental analyzers: C/N/H and C/S. |
The Pyrenean Institute of Ecology (Instituto
Pirenaico de Ecología, IPE) has a long history of research
on environmental, human and climate change issues. Since its creation
in 1942 as a Field Station located in Jaca, the main research activities
of the Institute were ecological studies of mountain environments.
In 1990, the facilities were expanded with a new building in the
Aula Dei Campus, close to the city of Zaragoza. The last decade has
seen an expansion and diversification of the research that now comprise
a multidisciplinary approach to the history, dynamics and
evolution of the environments and ecosystems. The study
of the geomorphology and the Quaternary deposits in the Pyrenees
has been always at the core of the IPE research. Since the 1980s,
the study of lacustrine cores from mountain lakes was also included.
The IPE designed and built the first floating platform, tower and
coring equipment in Spain to retrieve cores from lakes. Since mid
1990s, the investigations on limnogeology have included other geographic
areas on the Iberian Peninsula and South America. The intense collaboration
with other Spanish, European and American universities and research
institutes has helped to consolidate a multidisciplinary research
group focused on Limnogeology
and Global Change that works on several projects (more
than 40 in the last five years) following the PAGES and CLIVAR philosophy
and research strategy.
In GRACCIE-Consolider the Limnogeology and Global Change team
from IPE-CSIC groups other scientists from the University of Oviedo,
the University of Cádiz, the University of A Coruña
and the Earth Sciences Institute-Jaume Almera in Barcelona with a
total of 10 PhD and 3 predoctoral researchers. Our main aim in this
network is reconstructing past global changes based on terrestrial
records (mainly lakes and speleothems) from climatically – sensitive
areas. To achieve this goal, the group is composed by a
multidisciplinary team with scientists specialized on geomorphology,
palynology, sedimentology and geochemistry of lacustrine cores, analyses
of speleothems, etc that allows analyzing terrestrial paleoarchives
using a pluridisciplinary approach. The main archives we study are lacustrine
sequences (lakes and peatbogs) and speleothems but, secondarily,
we also work on other terrestrial archives (fluvial, alluvial, travertines,
slope deposits, archaeological sites). Geographically, our records
are distributed all over the Iberian Peninsula and the subtropics
in South America (central Andes and Easter Island) since
both regions are particularly sensitive to rapid climate changes
and the projected costs of future climate scenarios (economic losses,
hydrological impact of droughts, loss of biodiversity) are high.
Although we focus on the last 30,000 years, some
of our records cover since the last interglacial.
We count with the necessary equipment (floating platform, different
corer systems) to obtain sediment cores in a multitude of settings
(lakes, peatbogs) and water samples (Figure 1). In addition, we manage
(1) a sedimentological lab equipped with microscopes
and binoculars, an elemental analyzer for carbon and sulfur contents
in the sediments and the necessary equipment to store, open and describe
the lacustrine cores; (2) a palynological lab to
prepare pollen samples and other biological samples (diatoms, quironomids,
ostracods); (3) a speleothem lab with the equipment
to drill the samples and analyze them for trace element content (ICP-AES)
(Figure 2). The group has a large collection of lacustrine cores
from the Iberian Peninsula (over 300 m of sediment cores, more than
a dozen of sites, last 150 ka), long cores from the Andes and Easter
Island (last 35 ka) and Iberian speleothems (last 140 ky). As a whole,
they contain the best high resolution, continuous terrestrial
archives of past climate changes available for these regions.
| move the mouse on the figure
for explanation |
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In the framework of GRACCIE project we are particularly interested
on developing new strategies and techniques, including:
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Reach finer resolution in some time intervals,
particularly dealing with abrupt change periods. To achieve
that goal, we are working on laminated sediments (Lake Montcortés,
Lake Zoñar, Lake El Tobar) with high-resolution techniques
and a good chronological control that will allow the study
of climate changes related to periods such as the Little Ice
Age (Figure 3). A good example of this line of research is
the work carried out on Taravilla Lake, recently published
in Journal of Paleolimnology (Moreno et al., 2008). |
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Compare climate variability during the Eemian versus
Holocene (frequency of changes, magnitude, timing
of main transitions). Both in lakes and speleothems we are
dealing with the comparison among the recorded climatic changes
during the Eemian (last interglacial) and the Holocene (present
interglacial). In fact, Villarquemado lake sequence in the
Iberian Range represents nowadays the longest lacustrine record
available in the Iberian Peninsula and its study will provide
new insights on the climate variability during the Eemian (Figure
4). |
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Integration of speleothem and lake records.
Since climate variability is influenced by many local factors,
disentangle local from regional or global influences from our
terrestrial records is usually complicated. The study in combination
of different paleoclimate archives, such as lake records and
speleothems will provide an excellent opportunity to approach
this question. This comparison is now in progress for samples
collected in Asturias (El Pindal Cave vs. Enol Lake) and in the
Pyrenees (several studied lakes vs. Cotiella cave). |
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Focus
on the last 2000 years, making particular
effort on monitoring, calibration of proxies, collection
of short cores and active speleothems. During the
last 2000 years significant climatic fluctuations occurred
at centennial and decadal scales. Periods such as the Little
Ice Age (LIA), the Medieval Climatic Anomaly (MCA), and the
Iberian Roman Humid Period (IRHP) were accompanied by cycles
of strong hydrological and environmental impacts, particularly
in temperate and Mediterranean regions (Martín-Puertas
et al., 2008). Although the worldwide impact has been clearly
documented, at a regional scale (e.g. the western Mediterranean),
we still do not know the exact temporal and spatial patterns
of climatic variability during those periods. We are now studying
short cores and active speleothems (Figure 5) that cover the
last millennia to identify and characterize recent events of
abrupt climate change. |
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New areas for high frequency climate variability.
There is still the need of new records in particularly sensitive
regions to reconstruct climate variability with high-resolution.
Particularly interesting are those places that can shed some
light on present-day atmospheric-oceanic mechanisms such as
the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) or the El Niño-Southern
Oscillation (ENSO). Thus, during the GRACCIE project,
we plan to core new sites in:
- NAO. Azores Island and varved karstic lakes in the
Iberian Peninsula
- ENSO. Central Chile
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Paleoclimate research requires the development and
the use of new analytical techniques more precise
and more sensitive to environmental changes. We plan to incorporate
to our usual multi-proxy approach, with the help and collaboration
of other international research groups, the analyses of oxygen
isotopes in silica (diatoms) (Figure 6) (Hernández
et al., 2008), the study of carbon isotopes in organic matter
from diatoms and the analyses of compound –specific
isotopes. |
More information in http://www.ipe.csic.es/limnogeologia/principal.htm |
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