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Reconstructing Past Environments

Module description

This module offers a practical introduction to palaeoenvironmental science: studying natural archives of environmental change. With a focus on the last 21,000 years, a period marked by dramatic climate shifts and the rise of human societies, you will explore how climate and human activities have shaped landscapes since the end of the Last Glacial Cycle. You will learn about various techniques used to reconstruct histories of past environments from natural archives, covering the entire process from sample collection to data analysis and interpretation. This module will provide you with essential transferable skills and knowledge that will be invaluable for a dissertation in palaeoenvironmental science. This module has a hands-on and problem solving approach to learning that will enable you to critically use multiple lines of evidence to infer histories of climate and environmental change.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module aims to introduce the principles and techniques used to reconstruct past climates and environments. The module content is driven by the research expertise of the teaching staff, which lie in the field of long-term ecology and palaeoenvironmental change. The syllabus provides some important background for dissertation topics, which may include recovery of sedimentological archives, development of chronologies, and work with biological proxies such as pollen, spores, and charcoal.

Enquiry-led learning is embedded in the module through guided independent practicals and assessment. Much of the content includes research and applications from the lecturer’s own work on the topic. This includes investigating environmental change over long timescales, the use of sedimentary records, chronology development and a range of microfossil analyses.

This module will help you develop skills to enhance your employability potential and career development through:

• Enhancing your understanding and application of research skills including experimental design, field sampling and statistical methods.
• Providing you with the opportunity to engage in enquiry-led learning through exploring topics of long-term environmental and climate change.
• Developing your communication skills by delivering presentations and producing a written report.
• Developing good practice of contributing to and working in groups through practical exercises and formative work.
• Encouraging you to think critically about how knowledge is applied and communicated in scientific literature and online.

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Summarise the theories and techniques involved in palaeoenvironmental science and discuss the mechanisms and causes of extreme climate changes during the late Quaternary
• 2. Describe and apply a range of specialised techniques and approaches to palaeoenvironmental questions and datasets.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Discuss methods and the contested nature of knowledge and understanding in palaeoenvironmental science.
• 4. Explain the significance of spatial relationships, temporal distribution, and system interconnectedness of physical and human environments.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 5. Develop independent learning, critical thinking, communication and writing skills
• 6. Identify, acquire, evaluate, and synthesise data from a range of sources and formulate approaches to problem-solving.

Syllabus plan

Taught aspects of the module are likely to include some or all of the following content:

• Dynamic shifts in Holocene climate variability and the Late Glacial-Holocene transition period
• Lakes and peatlands as archives of past environmental change
• Application of palaeoenvironmental records for contemporary challenges
• Records of changing climate, landscape and human activity
• Microscopy for palaeoecological analysis
• Innovative and novel techniques driving the future of palaeoscience
• Data visualisation and stratigraphy plotting
• Unlocking geochronologies using age-depth modelling

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 40%) you will be required to submit a further assessment as necessary. If you are successful on referral, your overall module mark will be capped at 40%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• Lowe, J.J. and Walker, M.J.C. (2014) Reconstructing Quaternary environments. (3rd ed.) Longman, London.
• Bradley, R.S. (2014) Paleoclimatology: reconstructing climates of the Quaternary. (3rd ed.) Chapman and Hall, London.
• Roberts N. 2014. The Holocene: an environmental history (3rd ed.). Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester.
• Walker, M.J.C. (2005) Quaternary Dating Methods. Wiley, Chichester.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• ELE page

Key words search

Ice age, Last Glacial Maximum, Younger Dryas, Holocene, lake sediments, peat bogs, pollen, charcoal, testate amoeba, palaeoclimate, palaeoecology, palaeoenvironment, geochronology, radiocarbon, age-depth modelling