Zoological Indicators in Lake Sediments: An Introduction

Abstract

This volume is a continuation of the previous three books in this series (Last & Smol, 2001a,b; Smol et al., 2001), which collectively attempt to summarize the major approaches and techniques used by paleolimnologists to track long-term environmental change. Broadly defined, paleolimnology is die study of die physical, chemical, and biological information stored in lake deposits. In most cases, lake sediments are considered die primary archives, however other deposits (e.g., sediments from rivers, bogs, wetlands, marshes, estuaries, and so forth) also contain important proxy data of past environmental change, and many of the approaches discussed in this book can be equally applied to these environments. The amount of information stored in sediments is staggering, with both allochthonous and autochthonous sources of proxy data (Fig. 1), and so it soon became clear to the series editors that several books would be required to summarize some of the commonly used methods. These books build on the foundation set by previous compilations of paleoenvironmental techniques, such as Gray (1988), Warner (1990), and especially Berglund (1986). The latter has been the standard reference for about 15 years. Moreover, Frey’s (1964) review remains a classic publication that contains a wealth of historical references on the use of invertebrate indicators in paleolimnology.