Table of Contents and Contributors

Introduction
This volume aims to contribute to the use and understanding of isotope techniques in the application to palaeoclimate and palaeoenvironmental records. There are reviews of the principal stable isotope techniques used mostly in Quaternary research, but also over longer timescales. The first chapter deals with the interpretation of isotopes in precipitation and surface waters, and is followed by a series of chapters on stable isotope records from tree rings, bones, lake sediments, speleothems, and ice cores. We attempt to demonstrate that the isotope composition of the various materials can yield a wide range of useful palaeoclimate/environment information provided that there is a detailed knowledge of the processes that control and modify the signal, and often these processes must be determined. In some types of environments it may be possible to undertake a calibration exercise investigating the basic systematics of isotopic variation in the modern environment to establish the relationship between the measured signal and the isotopic composition of the host waters. The final chapter deals with isotope dating techniques - fundamental to any palaeoenvironmental study, and largely deals with the systematics but will also highlight limitations of the techniques, applications and future developments.

Chapter 1: Isotopes in water
W. George Darling, Adrian H. Bath, John J. Gibson, Kazimierz Rozanski

1. Introduction

 

2. Precipitation

 

3. Hydrology

 

4. Lakes

 

5. Dissolved carbon

 

6. Summary

 

Chapter 2: Isotopes in tree rings

Danny McCarroll and Neil J. Loader