Southern Hemisphere Assessment of Palaeoenvironments

Announcing SHAPE, Lorrey et al. | REPORT

The Australian National University and their motivation is unknown. Study of exchange networks in chemically distinctive bronzes related to DE130101703 early Buddhism and their likely production centre in Flexner, Dr James L eastern India will establish a sound economic basis Mission archaeology and colonial encounters in Southern underlying long-term cultural influence. Vanuatu $350,505, ARCHAEOLOGY DE130100046 The remains of Christian missions in southern Vanuatu Reepmeyer, Dr Christian H are important heritage sites for local communities, and Foundations of Island Southeast Asian maritime interac- for their place in world history as part of one of the tion: unravelling cause and consequence for the transfor- final frontiers of European colonialism. This project mation of past societies explores these sites to produce a new picture of every- $374,575, ARCHAEOLOGY day life that includes the perspectives of missionaries The successful spread of Neolithic innovations across and native people. the world was one of the most important transforma- tions in human history. This project combines the geo- DE130100153 chemical and technological analysis of stone tools to Pryce, Dr Thomas O track the evolution of maritime colonisation in Island Radiogenic bronze and the Indianisation of Southeast Southeast Asia, the foundation for the success of agri- Asia culture in this region. $347,556, ARCHAEOLOGY Intense South/Southeast Asian maritime activity QA began circa 2500 years ago, but the societies involved

Announcing SHAPE: Southern Hemisphere Assessment of PalaeoEnvironments Andrew Lorreya, Helen Bostocka, Steven Phippsb and Jessica Reevesc a National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research, Wellington, New Zealand b Climate Change Research Centre, Faculty of Science, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia c Science, Information Technology and Engineering, University of Ballarat, Ballarat, Australia

We are proud to announce the successor of the AUS- SHAPE will support two existing INQUA INTIMATE initiative, which ran for two successive International Focus Groups: CELL-50K (Calibrating INQUA inter-congress periods from 2003 to 2011, Environmental Leads and Lags over the last 50 ka) and and culminated in the upcoming AUS-INTIMATE ACER (Abrupt Climate Changes and Environmental special issue in Quaternary Science Reviews. Responses). Thus, the timescale of the project extends back to 50-60 ka (the limit of radiocarbon dating). SHAPE (Southern Hemisphere Assessment of PalaeoEnvironments; INQUA PALCOMM project The main objectives of SHAPE are to: #1302) will start in 2013 and continue until the next • generate defensible chronologies for SH proxy INQUA Congress in Japan in 2015. SHAPE will carry records forward the goals of AUS-INTIMATE, such as the • refine and extend regional climate event production of high resolution palaeoclimate records stratigraphies during the Late Quaternary. However, it will have • provide robust interpretations of proxies (qualita- a wider spatial scope, incorporating New Zealand, tive and quantitative) Australia, the Pacific Islands, South America, South • generate regional reconstructions of past environ- Africa, Antarctica and the Southern Ocean. There will mental and climatic change (temporal-geographic also be a stronger emphasis on climate modelling, data- syntheses) model integration, development of new research tools • integrate the results into a hemispheric-wide story and training activities for early career researchers. for key time slices, highlighting the changes and testing hypotheses for their causes

Quaternary AUSTRALASIA 30 (1) | 31 REPORT | Lorrey et al., Announcing SHAPE Thomas Ronald Paton, Williams & Hesse | OBITUARY

• conduct new climate model simulations for key • At Geosciences New Zealand Conference in periods November 2013, there will be a geochronology • integrate proxies with climate model simulations session covering the last 50 ka. • train the next generation of Quaternary scientists • The INQUA-ECR meeting in Wollongong, in key techniques. Australia, in December 2013 will allow young researchers to present their work from specific Suites of quantitative and qualitative marine and ter- regions. SHAPE will support this by providing restrial climate reconstructions will underpin transects travel support, mentoring in authorship of publica- from the tropics to the mid- and high-latitudes, illus- tions, and training on tools and model use within a trating changes in currents, fronts and temperature SHAPE session. gradients. Like the goals of AUS-INTIMATE, the • AQUA in Mildura in July 2014 will be a joint meet- SHAPE project will highlight the timing of critical ing with CELL-50K. changes, and identify synchronous versus asynchro- nous changes in climate. Training will be a key SHAPE activity. It will focus on using new tools designed for palaeoclimate research. However, unlike INTIMATE, there will be a larger We will utilise the Past Interpretation of Climate focus on using these proxy-based reconstructions to Tool (PICT), currently under development to gener- compare with climate model simulations to determine ate targets for Southern Hemisphere circulation pat- distinct circulation and climate modes of the past. terns based on Australasian data, and other areas of SHAPE will aim to reconstruct atmospheric and oce- the Southern Hemisphere, to assist in interpreting anic circulation patterns for several critical periods in hydroclimatic and circulation conditions linked to a the Late Quaternary (including 32 ka, 21 ka, 6 ka) to wide array of climate drivers. Proxy reconstructions improve our understanding of Southern Hemisphere and understanding of local responses to circulation climate and environmental changes. These reconstruc- changes will also help improve the interpretation of tions will be compared to the PMIP3 (Paleoclimate proxy data. Modelling Intercomparison Project) and CMIP5 multi-model ensemble for these same time periods Expertise and assembly of proxy data for different and a transient simulation for the last 8 ka. Integration subregions of the Southern Hemisphere will be under- with climate model simulations will also help us to pinned by existing and new INTIMATE ‘groups’. The formulate new hypotheses about triggers of climate work within each subregion, much like in the previ- change, climate dynamics, and mechanisms of inter- ous AUS-INTIMATE project, will be coordinated hemispheric climate teleconnections. by steering committee members who will also be responsible for the exchange of information during We encourage you to attend the SHAPE meetings and hemisphere-wide integrations. workshops over the next few years. SHAPE welcomes participation from early career researchers as well As with INTIMATE, we encourage you all to partici- as established Quaternary scientists. There is a small pate in this new project. Please contact Andrew Lorrey amount of financial support for early career research- ([email protected]) or Steven Phipps (s.phipps@ ers to attend the SHAPE meetings listed below. unsw.edu.au) for further details about SHAPE and how you can get involved.

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