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ANSTO researchers have strong presence at Quaternary Perspectives conference

At the Australasian Quaternary Association AQUA Biennial Conference being held from 5-9 December in Auckland NZ, twenty-nine abstracts have an ANSTO researcher as author or co-author. A total of 19 ANSTO staff are contributors. 

Of those who were most most prolific, Patricia Gadd, ITRAX Facility Officer, contributed to 17 abstracts. "This is very much a reflection of the usefulness of the ITRAX scanner for quaternary research," said Prof Henk Heijnis, Leader Environmental Research who is a collaborator on 10 conference abstracts. 

"But broadly speaking, it also reveals the suitability of our infrastructure for environmental investigations, the expertise of instrument scientists and the productivity of our environmental research team."

Geraldine Jacobsen, Acting Leader, Isotope Tracing in Natural Systems contributed to 12 abstracts. Dr Krystyna Saunders appears on seven abstracts and radiochemist Atun Zawadzki on five. 

ANSTO-University of Queensland Post-doc Craig Woodward and Kystyna Saunders were scheduled convenors of the symposium on Human-Environmental Interactions.

Quaternary Conference



Gadd (above left), Woodward (above right) and Heather Haines (above centre), AINSE-Griffith University Post-grad, presented at a pre-conference ITRAX workshop.

Presentations included:

Quan Hua: Rainfall variability and temporal changes in the dead carbon fraction in an Indonesian speleothem

Heather A. Haines: The Effect of Regional Variations in Rainfall on Reconstructing Precipitation Patterns Using Tree Rings

Krystyna Saunders: Relationships between the Southern Hemisphere westerly winds, temperature and carbon dioxide during the Holocene

Craig Woodward: The effect of Maori deforestation on wetland hydrology, catchment erosion and eutrophication: a case study from the South Island