uni-bremen.de
The Varves Working Group (VWG) was established under the frame of the PAGES Cross Cutting Themes 1 "Chronology" and 2 "Proxy development, calibration, validation". The purpose of the VWG is to gather the varve community together and to bridge the gaps between people working with sedimentary varves and other communities dealing with annually resolved records. Moreover, the VWG was recognised as INQUA Project 1102 in 2011 and we will submit an application to become an International Focus Group (IFG) of the Palaeoclimate Commission (PALCOMM) for the next INQUA period.
Proxy calibration and validation
This third workshop will be focussed on how we can improve deciphering climatic and environmental signals contained in varved sediments by applying process-related complementary studies and what can we learn from other communities investigating non-sedimentary annually resolved records in terms of proxy development, calibration and validation.
Venue
The 3rd VWG Workshop will be held March 21-23, 2012 at the âMaar Museumâ in the city of Manderscheid, West Eifel Volcanic Field. Located centrally in Europe, Manderscheid is reached by train from Frankfurt International Airport (FRA: ca. 180 km) via Koblenz and Wittlich. We will provide shuttle bus services from FRA on March 20 (12 am, 4:30 pm) and to FRA on March 23 (6 pm) and March 24 (9 am).
Important information and dates
Participation in this VWG workshop will be limited to ca. 50 scientists in order to enable an effective and interactive environment for discussion. Please apply by sending the completed application form to zoli@uni-bremen.de. Applications to attend and receive support will be considered if received before January 15, 2012. Most up-to-date information is available from the VWG website.
Workshop Organising Committee
Bernd Zolitschka (University of Bremen), Pierre Francus, Chair (National Institute of Scientific Research, Quebec), Richard Behl (California State University, Long Beach), Antti E.K. Ojala (Geological Survey of Finland/University of Helsinki)
Please direct inquiries to
Bernd Zolitschka, Institute of Geography, University of Bremen â email: zoli@uni-bremen.de, phone: +49-421-218-67150
or
Pierre Francus, National Institute of Scientific Research, Quebec â email: pfrancus@ete.inrs.ca, phone: +1-418-654-3780
Preliminary Programme
As the programme develops updates will be posted on the VWG website. Every session will be accompanied by up to five thematically linked talks and poster presentations.
Tuesday, 20 March 2012Arrival of participants to Manderscheid19:00h Ice breaker
Wednesday, 21 March 2012Session I: Learning from other communities in terms of calibration and validation 1 â Climate modellingKeynote 1: Guiot, J.: Past climate reconstruction: from transfer functions to data assimilation in process models (confirmed)Session II: Reconstructing hydro-climatic events from varved sediment recordsKeynote 2: Lamoureux, S.: Process studies in the Canadian Arctic allow a better understanding of the formation of clastic varves (confirmed)
Thursday, 22 March 2012Session III: Learning from other communities in terms of calibration and validation 2 â speleothems and dendroclimatologyKeynote 3: Swetnam, T.W.: Climatic inferences from dendroecological reconstructions (confirmed)Keynote 4: Fleitmann, D.: Climate records in speleothems (confirmed)Session IV: Calibration of bioproxies from varved sediment recordsKeynote 5: Lotter, A.: Quantitative environmental reconstruction based on biotic proxies in varved sediments (confirmed)
Friday, 23 March 2012Session V: Challenging new varved sites and their perspectives for environmental and climatic reconstructionSession VI: VWG output and general discussion18:00h End of the workshop
Saturday, 24 March 2012Departure of participants or field trip to the maar lakes and craters of the West Eifel Volcanic Field (optional with extra costs of ca. 100 ⬠including one extra night)
Estimated workshop costs
Funding requests to support this 3rd VWG workshop have been made to PAGES, INQUA and to the German Science Foundation (DFG). If all funding is obtained, we estimate a registration fee of 300 ⬠which will cover the costs associated with food and accommodation (3 nights and double occupancy) for each participant. Additionally, travel support will be provided up to 250 ⬠for participants from Germany, up to 400 ⬠for participants from Europe and up to 1000 ⬠for participants from other continents. Registration fee is due February 15, 2012 at the latest and has to be paid via bank transfer. Definitive numbers and details for the bank transfer will be published in early 2012 after we have heard from our sponsors.