Compare and contrast three proxies for determining paleoclimate. Which do you th

Ice core used for paleoclimate reconstruction

Ice core records- deep ice cores, such as those from Lake Vostok, Antarctica, the Greenland Ice Sheet Project, and North Greenland Ice Sheet Project can be analyzed for trapped gas, stable isotope ratios, and pollen trapped within the layers to infer past climate.

Fire scars within tree rings can be used to determine past events.

Tree rings- can be counted to determine age. The thickness of each ring can be used to infer fluctuations in temperature and precipitation, since optimal conditions for the particular species will result in more growth, and thus thicker rings for a given year. Scars and burn marks can indicate past natural events such as fire.

Lake sediment core

Sediment cores- can be analyzed in many ways. Sediment laminations, or layers, can indicate sedimentation rate through time. Charcoal trapped in sediments can indicate past fire events. Remains of organisms such as diatoms, foraminifera, microbiota, and pollen within sediment can indicate changes in past climate, since each species has a limited range of habitable conditions. When these organisms and pollen sink to the bottom of a lake or ocean, they can become buried within the sediment. Thus, climate change can be inferred by species composition within the sediment.