Core Ideas - The Paleolimnology Podcast: Recent Episodes
Adam Jeziorski and Josh Thienpont
Paleolimnology is the science (and art) of reconstructing the past environments of fresh water systems. Join Adam Jeziorski and Josh Thienpont as they wade through the wide variety of topics covered by this interdisciplinary field. Whether you are already an expert at collecting sediment cores and microscope identifications, or you simply have an interest in environmental issues such as acid rain, eutrophication, and climate change, this podcast will help make the natural records that surround us as clear as mud.
Today we’re exploring something quite simple - lake names. Anyone who has spent much time on the water will have recognized there are a lot of ‘Clear Lakes’ out there, so we decided to do take a look at some common and unhelpful naming tropes that have been used to catalog many waterways (along with some less common).
In between arcs, we got a little self-reflective and decided to make a list of things that would have been useful to be aware of at the start of respective academic journeys.
‘Odd Couplets’ concludes by revisiting a previously discussed topic with some new information. The International Union on Geological Sciences' Submission on Quaternary Stratigraphy has decided to NOT establish a new epoch, and the ‘Anthropocene’ remains undefined. This decision intersects paleolimnology, philosophy, policy and a lot of other things.
The next ‘Odd Couplet’ focuses on the intersection of lake sediments and radioactivity. Radioisotopes in lake sediments are used extensively to establish chronologies, but are there other applications that examine these isotopes directly?
We continue our examination of the linkage of some less explored "Odd Couplets" associated with paleolimnology with one that is constantly in the news...AI!
Our second ‘Odd Couplet’ looks arc continues with an examination of the records storms can leave behind in lake sediments.
We begin a new arc on unconventional applications/connections/linkages in paleolimnology, called "Odd Couplets." In the first episode we explore the connections between paleolimnology and archaeology.
The ‘Money, Money, Money’ arc wraps up with a look at the research funding invaluable to paleolimnology, but not funded by the university-industrial complex. Or is it?
Our ‘Money, Money, Money’ arc continues with another examination of research finances, this time from the university’s point of view.
Our ‘Money, Money, Money’ arc continues with an examination of research finances from the professor’s perspective. Where do the funds necessary to buy all the cool stuff used to conduct research actually come from?
Our ‘Money, Money, Money’ arc begins in earnest with a look at research finances (and the lack thereof) from the graduate student perspective.
We begin a new arc that is a little bit different, exploring the somewhat hidden world of the money behind science (paleolimnology included). In episode 51 we preview the arc's major topics related to graduate student funding, research funding for faculty / lab groups, and several bigger picture topics.
We wrap up the core reading lists arc with a few papers that set John Smol (and colleagues and students) on his way to being awarded a lifetime achievement award by the International Paleolimnology Symposium at their meeting last year.
In our penultimate Core Reading List, we explore the methods for reconstructing oxygen from lake sediments. We include papers that consider the "who cares" of oxygen reconstructions, and focus in on the use of chironomids as indicators.
We are back, continuing our Core Reading Lists arc, with a discussion tracing the topic of calcium decline, and where you might start learning about this in the literature.
We're back with our second Core Reading List. We discuss Josh's two favourite topics; permafrost and paleolimnology!
We're back, and starting a new arc. We're building reading lists of (our selection) of important papers on topics of interest to paleolimnologists. We start with a list to help you read up on dating.
We're back for a short recap of year two (or so). We also preview the next arc, on key reading lists.
How much data is too much data? When are you finished counting, and how many cores are enough? In the last episode of the conceptual rabbit holes arc, we consider data in paleolimnology.
As we continue our conceptual rabbit holes arc we are going to explore a question we have had for quite a long time on the show: Why do we know so little about oceanography? The discussion inevitably turns to one around the different silos in science, and whether they are real, and if they really matter.
In this episode, continuing the Conceptual Rabbit Holes arc, we consider the amazing range of scales present in nature, focusing on size, concentration and density, and time, and how paleolimnology is a powerful science for bridging these differences.
In episode 41, as we continue our conceptual rabbit hole, we explore invasive species (introduced, exotic, etc.) and the impact they can have on novel environments. We consider the role paleolimnology can play in studying the impact of these invaders.
We continue our conceptual rabbit holes by exploring a range of other (non lake!) paleoenvironmental archives.
We're starting a new arc, journeying down some conceptual rabbit holes. We start by considering how to (if you can) match the paleo and contemporary limnological records.
Took us a little while to get this released (though we recorded it some time ago). but in the last episode of the small picture arc we explore stable isotopes in paleolimnology.
We're back, and this time we explore environmental tracers and contaminants used in lake sediments.
We're back to the small picture, and in this episode we're exploring the midges used in paleolimnology: the Chironomidae and the Chaoboridae. Join us to learn a smidge about midges.
We're taking a short break from the small picture arc, to say welcome to all the new paleolimnology grad students out there. In the episode we share a few suggestions (from ourselves and some current students) of tips for new paleolimnologists.
We're back after our summer break to continue the Small Picture...this time with the Cladocera!
As we continue looking at the small picture we explore a great (greatest?) paleo-indicator: the diatoms!
As we move onto a new arc of episodes focusing on the small picture (a deeper dive on some important paleolimnological indicators) we'll begin by exploring why pollen counts!
We complete our current arc with the most topical of topics: climate change. We discuss why we should care, how paleo can contribute to this discussion, and if there is cause to be hopeful.
Recently the 30th anniversary of a critical treaty on acid rain was celebrated, and in this episode we explore the legacy of acidification, whether the problem is truly "solved", and the role of paleolimnology in that discussion.
We discuss resource extraction, with a few well-known Canadian examples, and how paleolimnology can play an important role in understanding ecosystem changes.
We are joined by a special guest host, Dr. Liz Favot from the Federation of Ontario Cottagers Association, to discuss an important and topical feature of lakes, Cyanobacteria blooms.
One full varve has been deposited since we officially launched the show. So we thought it a good time to reflect on what we've accomplished so far and what we hope to do over the next year.
Today we discuss how paleolimnology can track biovectors with Matthew Duda. Matthew is a PhD candidate at Queen's University and his work studying the dynamics of the world's largest colony of Leach’s Storm-petrel (Hydrobates leucorhous) has led to multiple high profile publications and he is one of the recipients of this years Rob Peters Award from the Society of Canadian Limnologists.
Today on Topical Paleolimnology we discuss formally recognizing the Anthropocene ("Age of Humans")as a new geological age to the history of the Earth, and the role lake sediments may play in that formal designation.
A new Arc on Topical Paleolimnology shifts our focus back to the present, and current environmental questions that are being addressed using sediment archives. We begin with road salt and the widespread impact the de-icing of roads is having on freshwater systems.
We conclude our History of Paleolimnology arc by talking to John Smol, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Change at Queen's University, about his perspectives on the growth of paleolimnology over the past four decades, including his role as founding editor of the Journal of Paleolimnology, and former chair of the IPA.
The fourth episode in our History of Paleolimnology picks up after key questions in the acid rain debates had been definitively answered, with the discipline poised to address many other environmental issues, including climate change.
The third episode in our History of Paleolimnology examines how a relatively young discipline tackled one of the major environmental issues of the 1970s and 1980s - acid rain.
In the final episode of our Contagious Ideas Arc, we look at the impacts the global pandemic will have on paleolimnology, both in the short term and well into the future.
As our Contagious Ideas Arc continues to go viral, we embrace the meta-narrative and delve into the (love-hate) relationships between social media and science.
This time we continue our exploration of Contagious Ideas within paleolimnology with a look at the Open Access movement and its mission to reduce/remove the barriers to scientific research.
With many people at home working on writing papers, some for the first time, this week we discuss the slightly peculiar process of scientific writing and review.
In this episode of Core Ideas, we continue our exploration of the spread of Contagious Ideas by asking what qualifies as a historically significant paper? Despite all the problems associated with distilling nebulous concepts into a single metric, we do it anyway, and examine paleolimnology using citation counts.
On this episode, the first in Arc 3 on "Contagious Ideas", building on the last episode on (the lack of) paleolimnology in popular media, we discuss the history of environmental awareness and activism from a western view, and how this has changed over time.
In episode 12 of the Core Ideas podcast we begin to explore paleolimnology, and the questions paleolimnology can address, in the popular media. We briefly consider how news and other media have covered environmental topics such as eutrophication, acidification, climate change, and other emerging stressors, like road salt application.
In this episode of Core Ideas, we continue Into the Weeds of paleolimnology by examining some of the not-so-secret societies and associations that count many paleolimnologists among their membership.
In the 10th episode of the Core Ideas podcast we welcome a special guest for the first time. Jennifer Korosi is an assistant professor in the Department of Geography at York University, where her research uses paleolimnological methods to answer a range of research questions related to environmental change across Canada. In this episode, continuing our arc going "Into the Weeds", we explore the way in which paleolimnologists frame their research questions, including establishing baseline conditions, cases where there may be poor or no analogous environments and "big picture" questions.
This week on the Core Ideas podcast our journey Into the Weeds of paleolimnology continues with a look at the graduate student experience. Using our own experiences we explore questions like: Why try research? What is the difference between BSc, MSc and PhD projects? Does it matter whether you join a large or small lab group? We even touch on what it means to be a postdoc...
The second episode of our Into the Weeds podcast arc covers how important advances in computing during the late 1970s and early 1980s were to paleolimnology. Increased access to personal computers, prompted rapid developments in statistical tools and software. Many of the programs and approaches commonly used in the analysis of sediment cores have their roots in this time period. We also appreciate how things seem to have come full circle, as the command line interface and DIY approach to programming during the UNIX/DOS era that seemed in decline during the 1990s and 2000s, has returned with a vengeance due to the proliferation of R based statistical tools.
With a basic vocabulary established by our Fundamentals arc, the Core Ideas podcast will now delve deeper Into the Weeds on a variety of paleolimnological topics. Our second arc begins with some reflections on the fieldwork necessary to collect the lake sediments that are brought back to the laboratory for study.
In this episode of the Core Ideas podcast, our introduction to paleolimnology is concluded with a discussion about using indicators preserved in lake sediments to produce environmental reconstructions. We cover why environmental reconstructions are useful, how calibration sets are used to produce transfer functions that are able to transfer knowledge of the modern environment “downcore” and infer the history of an environmental variable from sedimentary assemblages. To round out the discussion, we list off some things to keep in mind, when producing or using environmental reconstructions.
In this instalment of the Core Ideas podcast, Adam and Josh continue exploring the fundamentals of paleolimnology by discussing some physical and chemical indicators that preserve in lake sediments. Given this very broad topic, we organized it (poorly) into categories based on the overall analytical approach, such as measurements performed on complete sediment cores, inorganic geochemical methods, stable isotope techniques, and finally organic chemical methods.
In the fourth episode of Core Ideas, we examine the retrieval of the mud critical to paleolimnology (i.e. sediment cores) from the lake bottom with minimal disturbance. Usually, sediment cores are collected from a platform at the lake surface, such as a canoe, boat, the floats of a helicopter/plane, or even the ice of a frozen lake, and as discussed last time, sediment cores of similar length vary massively in the amount of time they can represent. Therefore, selection of an appropriate sediment corer will depend on the study lake (size, depth, location), study goals (time period of interest, amount of sediment required) and the fieldwork conditions (remoteness, time of year). In our mudslinging discussion we spend most of our time talking about three different types of sediment corers: freeze corers, gravity corers and piston corers (although some others are mentioned).
In the third episode of Core Ideas, we examine our dating struggles... with sediment cores! This discussion explores relative markers of sediment age, the radioisotopes commonly used by paleolimnologists (Pb-210, C-14, Cs-137), along with a few more exotic dating methods.
In the second episode of Core Ideas, Adam and Josh discuss bioindicators - species or communities that are so closely associated with particular environmental conditions that their presence can be used to infer whether those conditions have occurred in the history of a lake.
We're live (pre-recorded)! Welcome to the introductory episode of Core Ideas - a Paleolimnology Podcast.