The Challenge of Dryland Research
More than 35% of the southern hemisphere terrestrial landmass is covered by desert, with drylands1 occupying ~60%, ~75% and ~16%, of southern Africa, Australia and South America, respectively. These regions pose particular challenges for generating continuous and high resolution palaeorecords and suffer from a real shortage of information on past environmental change. In particular, palaeolake records, on which the Quaternary community leans heavily for terrestrial palaeodata, remain under-exploited as palaeo-archives due in large part to preservation issues. Unlike temperate or tropical regions, high-amplitude hydroclimate variability including frequent drying and desiccation of Quaternary sediments can result in discontinuous deposition, incomplete preservation (particularly of organic material) and the overprint of post-depositional processes.
Despite this, researchers are increasingly finding new and innovative ways to tease out the hydroclimate records of long term change from dryland lake basins and where efforts have been made to access these archives they have become critical to our understanding of large-scale shifts in climate at regional and continental scales. These sites include, but are not limited to, the Lake Eyre-Frome system, Lake Gregory/Mulan, Lake Lewis and the Willandra Lakes in Australia (e.g. English et al., 2001; Bowler et al., 2001; Magee et al. 2004; Cohen et al., 2011; Fitzimmons et al., 2012; Cohen et al., 2012; Fitzsimmons et al., 2015); the Etosha basin and Makgadikgadi basins of southern Africa (e.g. Brook et al., 2013; Hipondoka et al., 2014; Burrough et al., 2009a,b); and Lakes Uyuni, Coipasa, Salar de Atacama of South America (e.g. Baker et al., 2001; Sylvestre et al., 1999; Lowenstein, 2003; Fritz et al., 2004).
When full, these palaeolakes would have constituted some of the largest lakes on earth (e.g. Cohen et al, 2011, Fitzsimmons et al., 2015), with surface areas significant enough to modify regional climate and ecosystems (e.g. Burrough et al., 2009; Hope et al., 2004). Reconstructing and understanding the dynamics of these lake systems is therefore extremely important for understanding the nature, amplitude and frequency of change in southern hemisphere deserts and the climate systems with which they interact.
Despite this, researchers are increasingly finding new and innovative ways to tease out the hydroclimate records of long term change from dryland lake basins and where efforts have been made to access these archives they have become critical to our understanding of large-scale shifts in climate at regional and continental scales. These sites include, but are not limited to, the Lake Eyre-Frome system, Lake Gregory/Mulan, Lake Lewis and the Willandra Lakes in Australia (e.g. English et al., 2001; Bowler et al., 2001; Magee et al. 2004; Cohen et al., 2011; Fitzimmons et al., 2012; Cohen et al., 2012; Fitzsimmons et al., 2015); the Etosha basin and Makgadikgadi basins of southern Africa (e.g. Brook et al., 2013; Hipondoka et al., 2014; Burrough et al., 2009a,b); and Lakes Uyuni, Coipasa, Salar de Atacama of South America (e.g. Baker et al., 2001; Sylvestre et al., 1999; Lowenstein, 2003; Fritz et al., 2004).
When full, these palaeolakes would have constituted some of the largest lakes on earth (e.g. Cohen et al, 2011, Fitzsimmons et al., 2015), with surface areas significant enough to modify regional climate and ecosystems (e.g. Burrough et al., 2009; Hope et al., 2004). Reconstructing and understanding the dynamics of these lake systems is therefore extremely important for understanding the nature, amplitude and frequency of change in southern hemisphere deserts and the climate systems with which they interact.
|
|
This project aims to bring together key researchers working on these challenges across the southern hemisphere in order to pool expertise, skills and research approaches with the overall goal of improving our understanding of these key southern Hemisphere Quaternary dryland archives through data generation, synthesis, and methodological approaches. At an individual level the benefits of this project include the sharing of approaches for retrieving and analyzing material from these challenging environments. Through this activity project-members can further contextualize their particular regional findings within hemispheric climate change variations, and collaboration with those doing research in other areas and fields facilitates novel ideas for future study. Palaeodata scientists will also receive training in palaeoclimate modeling and analysis in the workshops to enhance their skills and to enable the incorporation of modelling considerations in future research. Likewise, palaeoclimate modellers will gain insight into palaeodata analysis and interpretation.
Current members
Name |
Institute |
University of Oxford, UK |
|
University of Reading, UK |
|
University of Namibia, Namibia |
|
Liverpool University, UK |
|
University of Arizona, USA |
|
University of Cape Town, South Africa |
|
University of Nebraska, USA |
|
Duke University, USA |
|
University of Brasilia, Brazil |
|
University of Wollongong, Australia |
|
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Germany |
|
Helvi Shalongo |
University of Namibia, Namibia |
University of Reading, UK |
|
MIT, USA |
|
MIT, USA |
|
Juergen Kempf |
JMU Wuerzburg, Germany |
Griffith University, Australia |
|
Federation University, Australia |
