Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 294 (2010) 1–3 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/palaeo Preface Paleolimnology 1. Introduction The congress ended abruptly on the morning of the fourth day when tragedy struck before the plenary session with the collapse and In the 21st century, the study of the sedimentary record of lakes, called death of Tim Brewer from the Geology Department of the University limnogeology, has targeted the best and most accurate continental of Leicester, UK. This was obviously shocking and very sad. Tim had a records of past environmental and climatic changes. The last International large portfolio of research interests, centering on geochemistry, but Limnogeology Congress (ILIC), held in Barcelona between July 11th and including diverse interests such as petrophysics, Precambrian geology 14th 2007, highlights the newest results in lake research. and more recently limnogeology. His wide range of expertise made Since 1995, the International Association of Limnogeology (IAL) him a very valuable contributor to a diverse range of projects, and he has sponsored four congresses: ILIC1 in Copenhagen (Denmark, was much appreciated for his ability to provide new insights. At the 1995), ILIC2 in Brest (France, 1999), ILIC3 in Tucson (USA, 2003), and congress Tim had presented a new method on the use of major and ILIC4 in Barcelona (Spain, 2007). The number of contributions and trace element geochemistry in unravelling the effects of contamina- attendees has steadily increased over the years. For ILIC 4, the Local tion signals from biogenic silica oxygen isotope composition. This Organizing Committee, chaired by Lluís Cabrera, processed 359 work was subsequently written up by Tim's colleagues and was submitted abstracts from 35 countries, highlighting the expansion published in the Journal of Quaternary Science. The limnogeologic of lake research in the arenas of sedimentology, environmental community lost a good colleague and his absence is missed. Tim is science, and paleoclimate research. survived by his wife, Lesley, and two sons, Daniel and Andrew. The variety of research topics and the extent of geologic time As we were completing the work on this special issue at the end of covered in the presentations during ILIC4 were vast. Data from 2009, more terrible news reached us. Michael Talbot, limnogeologist Precambrian lacustrine sediments from North America to Recent lakes extraordinaire, had passed after a noble fight with cancer. Anyone from Spain were exhibited. Topics included the use of compound who studies ancient lakes knows of Mike Talbot. He lived in Norway specific, hydrogen isotopic ratios of biomarkers as a new paleoclimate even though he was British — a respected professor. Mike was an proxy, the application of ichnology in lacustrine sequence stratigra- excellent geologist who built his career on the study of carbonates as phy, high-resolution seismic stratigraphy to relate past lake-level well as ancient lake sediments. He worked at the forefront of changes to global paleoclimatic events during the last glacial– limnogeology on the geochemistry of lake sediments and the climatic interglacial cycle, and the impact of landform evolution on lake signals he could derive from them based on isotopes, including C, O, N, water quality. Modern and ancient lacustrine sedimentary records and Sr. Mike Talbot worked on the sediments of extant lakes, from six continents, excluding Australia, were presented, showing the especially those in Africa and Norway, as well as lakes from the worldwide extent of lake research. Also, for the first time in ILIC geologic record, including those in Europe and California. Mike history, three research projects dealing with extraterrestrial lakes in showed all of us how to study lake sediments — many of his papers the solar system were displayed, including the discovery and study of are classics. Mike Talbot was a great teacher for all of us. However, he the hydrocarbon lakes of Saturn's moon Titan. During three of the four is not only famous for his scientific breakthroughs in the interpreta- planned days of the ILIC4 Congress, talks and posters evidenced tion of lake sediments. In the field of limnogeology, Mike was a mover research carried out at different temporal perspectives, from very and a shaker. This means that he organized students and colleagues so high, temporal scale resolution, such as the annual reconstruction of that global collaboration could occur and big investigative projects to the climate variability in Siberia over the last 550 yr, to the long-term study lakes would succeed. He was awarded the IAL Bradley Medal at scale, such as the characterization of lacustrine biodiversity evolution the ILIC4 Barcelona meeting for his many scientific accomplishments for the first 350 million years of the Phanerozoic. as well as for his organization of the lake community globally. His The ILIC4 Congress also organized five pre- and post-meeting field advice was always greatly treasured by all. Mike was a kindly trips that covered a wide range of ancient to recent lacustrine records. gentleman and a wonderful person. We mourn with his wife, Signe These field trips took place in the Pyrenees and the Ebro and the Nygaard, and two daughters, Anna and Sarah. May we all remember Cerdanya basins of eastern Spain. Themes include different environ- his inspiration as well as all that he has done for all limnogeologists. ments and climates of lacustrine sediments from the Late Eocene (A. Sáez and coworkers), Late Oligocene (P. Arbués and coworkers), 2. An overview of this issue Neogene (Arenas and coworkers, 2007), Carboniferous–Permian and Quaternary (B. Valero-Garcés and coworkers), and Miocene (C. The seven papers assembled in this thematic issue of Palaeogeo- Martín-Closas and X. Delclòs). These field trips were published in a graphy, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology are part of the publications “Geo-Guías” volume of the Geological Society of Spain (Arenas et al., coming out of ILIC4. In addition to the field trip guide, there is also a 2007). special issue of Sedimentary Geology (Cabrera et al., 2009) dealing 0031-0182/$ – see front matter © 2010 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.05.030 2 Preface with lake sediments across the Phanerozoic. The objective of this issue piedmont of the Andes (south-central Chile), through the geochem- was to provide a broad perspective of the high quality works on the ical characterization of the sedimentary organic matter preserved in theme of Quaternary lacustrine sediments from southwestern Europe, an almost 12 m long core. This paper by Bertrand et al. (2010-this Asia, South America, and North America. issue), shows the application of a simple mixing equation based on Two papers focus on the environmental history of Lake Baikal. The the C/N ratio of lake particulate organic matter and Holocene first one, by Osipov and Khlystov (2010-this issue), deals with the paleosols end-members to an 11.22 m long sediment core to quantitative 3D-reconstruction of the maximal ice extent around this reconstruct paleoenvironmental changes in this lake during the last lake during the Last Glacial Maximum using a multi-proxy approach ca. 18 cal. kyr BP. Their study provides further support for the now (glacial landforms, aerial photographs, satellite images, and GIS dominant model of warming in the southern hemisphere during the images). This reconstruction is compared with that obtained Younger Dryas Chronozone with important implications for the previously through the characterization of Ice Raft Detritus (IRD) drivers of rapid climate change events. This contribution contains an present in Baikal lake sediments and lakeshore moraines. These important new data set on the biogeochemistry of organic matter in authors have a valuable contribution to the on-going debate about the watershed and sediments of a large proglacial lake in the Chilean glacier extent and paleohydrology in this key area. The other paper Andes. This will enable better constraints on the pathways and that focuses on the environmental history of Lake Baikal is by reworking of organic matter for future carbon cycle studies. Goldberg et al. (2010-this issue). In this second paper, the authors Yamaguchi et al. (2010-this issue), investigate the chemical (Corg, 13 15 have used a new experimental method to determine the authigenic N, P) and isotopic (δ Corg, δ N) changes during early diagenesis of uranium isotopes ratio (234U/238U) in lake sediments to reconstruct carbonaceous sediments overlain by an anoxic water body in the past riverine discharges from different provinces of the large Baikal saline meromictic Lake Kai-ike (SW Japan). Their findings show that catchment. This new experimental method, not only allowed the substantial fractions of the organic carbon, total nitrogen, and reactive authors to track the provenance of the terrigenous sediments, but also phosphorus are lost from sediments in only four decades, which to exploit as a climate tracer. The paper clearly shows that the aridity implies that the concentrations of these elements were likely during the ice ages was more pronounced in southeastern Siberia and originally much higher than is preserved today in ancient sedimentary northern Mongolia relative to that in the northern Lake Baikal rocks. Isotopic compositions evidently are not as seriously modified watershed regions. Overall this is a robust and important addition during the losses of carbon and nitrogen and C/N values appear to be to the paleoclimate records of Lake Baikal as well as the history of unchanged. The authors insist that their study is important in fluvial input into the lake over the past 150 ka. These records are considering these early diagenetic effects on organic matter when important for catchment-scale reconstructions, which can be linked to performing geochemical reconstructions of past anoxic environments, broader regional changes. such as those occurring during the Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events Two papers focused on the environmental history of two different (OAEs) and the early Earth.