Tracing human impacts on Earth systems

 

 

Knowledge of when - and to what extent - humans have altered the Earth's surface is vital in understanding current problems in land and water management.

 

The 'Tracing human impacts on Earth systems' task aims to sort human-induced change from natural responses to external forces and ecosystem dynamics.

 

The main objective is to study natural archives of climate and environmental change in the Asian and Australasian regions and to use environmental isotopes (such as ²¹⁰Pb, ¹³⁷Cs, ⁷Be, ¹⁴C and ²³⁹Pu) to provide a temporal framework.

 

 

 

Earth systems science recognises that knowledge of the history of environmental variability, and human-environment interactions, improves our understanding of the functioning of Earth systems and their response, or vulnerability, to current and future impacts.

 

Where instrumental records are either too short to capture the important timescales of change, or where they are simply lacking, the long-term perspective is provided by the palaeoscience and environmental history communities who 'reconstruct' past environments. Long-term perspectives on ecosystem change are therefore essential elements of a full understanding of system functioning.

 

Just as important, although sometimes less obvious, are findings that show system functioning is strongly dependant on the history of change. Thus, modern systems may not only be characterised by processes with long timescales, but may also be responding to impacts or changes that took place within those timescales. In this sense, the past both informs and conditions the present.

 

The majority of Earth's surface has a significant history of human impact, in terms of timescale and intensity. Formulation of integrated strategies for preservation, conservation or sustainable management of ecosystems demands information about the long-term interactions between the natural environment and human activities.

 

 

For sediment analysis, a Malvern Laser Particle sizer is used to analyse < 1 g of sediment for grainsize composition. This instrument gives researchers insight into the past conditions under which the sediments were deposited.

 

 

In microfossil research, the team uses an Olympus light microscope with digital camera, and fossil library. The low-level radiochemistry lab (right) has the capability to extract pollen from sediments and prepare microscope slides.

 

The quantification of organic biomarker compounds in Holocene sediments is process that utilises a Gas Chromatograph Mass Spectrometer located at Curtin University. The same instrument is used for compound-specific isotope analysis.

 

For isotope analysis and chronology, see: low level radiochemistry and medium level radiochemistry.

 

 

Internationally, the role of coordinating environmental change research occurs through the International Geosphere-Biosphere Programme's (IGBP) core project Past Global Changes (PAGES).

 

 

The new structure of IGBP places PAGES activities as a crosscutting input into all its other core projects. Partly driven by this crosscutting role, a new PAGES program, entitled Human-Climate-Ecosystem Interactions was initiated in 2005 in recognition of the need to move beyond the focus of climate dynamics and to co-ordinate long-term perspectives on terrestrial ecosystems that include the human dimension, at spatial scales ranging from local to global.

 

This IGBP-PAGES link provides input to the Tracing human impacts on Earth systems task with an international framework.

 

 

Key research locations include China, south-western, eastern and northern Australia and the Solomon Islands.

 

 

Collaborators include: Prof. Xiaoqiang Li, Xian Keliang Zhao and Xian Xinying Zhou from the Institute of Earth Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Prof. Kliti Grice and Dr. Tobias Ertefai (Applied Chemistry), Curtin University of Technology WA, Prof. Hongbo Zheng, School of Earth Sciences and Engineering, Nanjing University, Dr. Ian Eliot, School of Earth and Geographical Sciences, The University of Western Australia, Dr Simon Haberle, Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian National University, Professor Greg Skilbeck, Department of Environmental Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Professor Andrew McMinn, Institute of Antarctic and Southern Hemisphere Studies, University of Tasmania and Professor Colin Woodroffe, School of Environmental and Geosciences, University of Wollongong.

 

 

A key component of this task is to provide AINSE collaborators with chronological data and expert advice.

 

 

Dr Henk Heijnis

Project Leader, Nuclear Methods in Earth Systems

ANSTO Institute for Environmental Research

PMB 1, Menai NSW 2234, Australia

Phone: +61 2 9717 9086

Email: Henk.Heijnis@ansto.gov.au

 

Professor John Dodson - Palaeoresearch in East Asia and Australasia

Dr Pia Atahan - Post Doctoral Fellow

Atun Zawadzki - Laboratory Manager Environmental Radiochemistry

Lida Mokber-Shahin - Laboratory Manager Medium Level Radiochemistry.  

 

 

Pia Atahan, Josick Comarmond, Daniela Fierro, Patricia Gadd, Jack Goralewski, Jennifer Harrison, Henk Heijnis, Geraldine Jacobsen, Andrew Jenkinson, Mathew Johansen, Juila Martiniello, Barbara Neklapilova, Tim Payne, Lida Mokhber-Shahin, Brett Rowling, Chris Waring, Henri Wong, Atun Zawadzki 

 

 

A list of current publications can be found here: