ANSTO's research capabilities, led by the OPAL nuclear research reactor and associated instruments provide access to users investigating areas as diverse as materials, life sciences, climate change and mining/engineering.
High-resolution climatic and rainfall records from Australian speleothems
Stable isotopes and trace elements recorded in cave stalagmites have been used to improve our knowledge of climate and rainfall variability beyond the instrumental records.
| Young speleothem from southern Australia. |
Studies have focused on south-western and south-eastern Australia. The team used radiocarbon in combination with stable isotopic/trace element data to build reliable chronologies for some of these young speleothems, which cannot be precisely dated by the Th/U method due to low uranium concentration and insufficient 230Th.
Project Support
AINSE Grants 06/054, 08/046, 09/088 & AINSTU1007. Land and Water Australia, the WA Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC), the Water Corporation of WA and the NSW Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC).
Project team members
Russell Drysdale ( Department of Resource Management and Geography, Univ. Melbourne), David Fink (ANSTO), Matt Fischer (ANSTO), Ed Hodge (ANSTO), Quan Hua (ANSTO), Janece McDonald (School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Univ. Newcastle), Dale Redwood (School of Environmental and Life Sciences, Univ. Newcastle), Pauline Treble (ANSTO) and Chris Waring (ANSTO).
Publications related to this project
Hua, Q., J. McDonald, D. Redwood, R. Drysdale, S. Lee, S. Fallon, and J. Hellstrom (2012), Robust chronological reconstruction for young speleothems using radiocarbon, Quaternary Geochronology, 14, 67-80.
Hodge, E., J. McDonald, M. Fischer, D. Redwood, Q. Hua, V. Levchenko, C. Waring, R. Drysdale, and D. Fink (2011), Using the 14C bomb pulse to date young speleothems, Radiocarbon, 53, 345-357.
Fairchild, I.J., and P.C. Treble (2009), Trace elements in speleothems as recorders of environmental change, Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 449-468.
Treble, P.C., I.J. Fairchild, and M.J. Fischer (2008), Understanding climate proxies in southwest-Australian speleothems, PAGES News, 16, 17-19.
Treble, P.C., and J. McDonald (2008), Speleothem research unlocking rainfall archives, Quaternary Australasia, 25, 27-29.
Fischer, M.J., and P.C. Treble (2008), Calibrating climate-delta O-18 regression models for the interpretation of high-resolution speleothem delta O-18 time series. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 113(D17): D17103.
Abstracts related to this project
McDonald, J., Q. Hua, E. Hodge, R. Drysdale, S. Fallon, J. Hellstrom, and S. Lee, Using radiocarbon to date young speleothems and assessment of the Suess effect recorded in speleothems, The AQUA Biennial Conference 2012, 13-17 Feb 2012, Lake Tekapo, South Island, New Zealand.
Hua, Q., J. McDonald, D. Redwood, R. Drysdale, S. Lee, S. Fallon, and J. Hellstrom, Robust chronological reconstruction for young speleothems using radiocarbon, The 18th INQUA Congress, 20-27 Jul 2011, Bern, Switzerland.
Hua, Q., R. Drysdale, J. McDonald, D. Redwood, and S. Fallon, Chronological reconstruction for young speleothems by radiocarbon, the Paleochronology Building Workshop, 17-21 Aug 2010, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato, Mexico.
Fischer, M.J., Fidelity of climate reconstructions: speleothem pseudo-proxy reconstructions in Australia, Integrated Model-Data approach to the Australasian Holocene Workshop. CCRC, Univ. New South Wales, 12-13 Nov 2008, Sydney.
Fischer, M.J., and P.C. Treble (2009), A model, and the fidelity of climate reconstructions from speleothems, Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 11, EGU2009-6287, EGU General Assembly 2009, 19-24 April 2009, Vienna, Austria.
Hodge, E., J. McDonald, P. Treble, V. Levchenko, R. Drysdale, C. Waring, Q. Hua, D. Fink and M. Fischer (2007), Radiocarbon bomb pulse chronologies for young speleothems and implications for rainfall records in southeast Australia, the 17th INQUA Congress, 28 Jul 3 Aug 2007, Cairns, Australia, Quaternary International, 167-168, 170.
Hodge, E., V. Levchenko, P. Treble, M. Fischer, C. Waring, J. McDonald, R. Drysdale, D. Fink, and Q. Hua (2007), Radiocarbon bomb pulse chronologies for young speleothems in southeast Australia, Geophys. Res. Abstracts, 9, 05978, SRef-ID: 1607-7962/gra/EGU2007-A-05978.