Read the latest e-news

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Published: Wednesday, 10 October 2018 16:29

Read about the latest PAGES' news, meetings and opportunities from around the world in this month's e-news.

Highlights include the 1st PAGES webinar on 17 October, PAGES' working group news and upcoming meetings, and updates from IPCC, INQUA, Future Earth and WCRP.
 

PAGES' LiPD webinar - 17 Oct

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Published: Thursday, 04 October 2018 13:44

PAGES is pleased to announce its first webinar "The Linked Paleo Data framework (LiPD) - introduction and open discussion" will be held on Wednesday 17 October 2018 at 15:00 UTC. See your local time here.

For those who won’t be able to attend, we will (1) record the webinar and add it to our webpage, and (2) respond to questions via other channels.

The webinar is open to all and will be hosted by PAGES' SSC Member and current guest scientist Darrell Kaufman, who is also leader of our Data Stewardship Integrative Activity.

Attendees will learn about the LiPD framework from Nick McKay and have a chance to ask questions and give feedback.

All important additional information, the agenda, and detailed instructions to connect can be found here (pdf, 160KB).

Access the calendar entry here.

IPBES survey by 10 October

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Published: Thursday, 04 October 2018 11:54

The International Science Council (ISC) has been selected to manage the External Review of the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) – the "IPCC-like mechanism for biodiversity". Background information here.

As part of the External Review, the review panel is seeking your input on IPBES’ work to date and its future development through an online survey.

If you are interested in, or have been involved with, IPBES, you are encouraged to fill out the survey, which takes about 30 minutes, by 10 October.

The survey is available in English, French and Spanish. Additional background information is available here.

Should you have any questions on the review process, contents of the questionnaire, or technical issues, please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. the review team.

Aiding preparations for floods

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Published: Monday, 01 October 2018 14:27

Floods Working Group members recently published an overview paper titled "Interpreting historical, botanical, and geological evidence to aid preparations for future floods" in WIREs Water.

This paper is a result of the 2016 Floods cross-community workshop in Grenoble, France, where a broad consortium of researchers gathered for the first time.

Accurate flood hazard and risk assessment is crucial for the sustainable development of societies worldwide. Historical, botanical, and geological archives have increasingly been recognized as valuable sources of extreme flood event information.

Authors Bruno Wilhelm et al. review these different archives with a particular focus on the recording mechanisms of flood information, the historical development of the methodological approaches and the type of information that those archives can provide.

Access the paper here.

Find out more about the Floods Working Group and be involved in its future activities.

SISAL database paper in ESSD

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Published: Monday, 01 October 2018 13:26

The Speleothem Isotopes Synthesis and AnaLysis (SISAL) working group recently published the first overview of its database's contents and structure.

"The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems" by Kamolphat Atsawawaranunt et al. is published in Earth System Science Data and the compiled data are available here. 

The database, currently in its first version, contains oxygen and carbon isotope measurements from 371 individual speleothem records and 10 composite records from 174 cave systems from around the world.

Sign up to the SISAL mailing list here.

Energy-consumption paper

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Published: Tuesday, 18 September 2018 10:15

Members of the PEOPLE 3000 working group published a paper in PNAS yesterday which looks at human energy consumption reaching back 10,000 years and across four continents.

The paper, led by Jacob Freeman and titled "Synchronization of energy consumption by human societies throughout the Holocene", pulls together, for the first time, radiocarbon dates analyzed in recent decades into a single model.

Historical records provided information on energy consumption in eight countries since 1880, while radiocarbon records provided estimates of energy consumption in societies from four continents over the past 10,000 years. The authors believe their research highlights the importance of long-term perspectives that can lead to novel insights for today’s societies and help prepare us for changing global environments.

Access the paper here.

Learn more about PEOPLE 3000 and join their mailing list here.