[Aqualist] Pacific palaeo-environments symposium

[Simon Haberle]

Dear All,

For those who may be interested I would like to bring to your attention 
a conference announcement and webpage for the "Pacific Island 
Archaeology in the 21^st Century: Relevance and Engagement" July 1-3, 
2009. Koror, Palau. www.pacificarchaeology2009.com 
<http://www.pacificarchaeology2009.com/>

There is a Quaternary/palae-environments related symposium within this 
conference

*Palaeoenvironmental Studies and Today's Climate Crisis*
Simon Haberle (Department of Archaeology and Natural History, Australian 
National University) simon.haberle at anu.edu.au 
<mailto:simon.haberle at anu.edu.au>
*Symposium Abstract:*
This symposium aims to highlight the importance of palaeoecological 
records from islands as essential contributions to the debate on the 
long-term environmental sustainability of island biodiversity and people 
under the threat of global climate change. Island ecosystems have been 
shown to respond to large-scale Quaternary climate change such as 
glacial-interglacial cycles. Similarly, human activity such as 
widespread forest clearance and burning has been shown to have had a 
significant impact on these ecosystems during at least the mid-late 
Holocene. While these large-scale driving forces of change have been 
identified in palaeoecological records, less is known about the response 
of island ecosystems to rapid climate change (e.g. millennial-decadal 
scale cycles and ENSO variability) or other forms of human activity 
(e.g. selective harvesting of forest resources and the progressive 
introduction of exotic species). This raises the question of "How 
sensitive are island ecosystems to rapid climate change or different 
modes of human activity?". Furthermore, "What do our palaeoecological 
records tell us about the response of tropical ecosystems to future 
rapid climate change and human activity?". Contributions are welcome 
from palaeoenvironmental researchers studying records from marine or 
terrestrial archives that are seeking to unravel past tropical ecosystem 
response to climate change or human activity.

The updated program for the Pacific Island Archaeology in the 21^st 
Century: Relevance and Engagement conference is now on the website 
(www.pacificarchaeology2009.com 
<http://www.pacificarchaeology2009.com/>). Those interested in 
presenting a paper or being on a panel discussion should contact the 
session organizers.

 

All amateur photographers are invited to submit their best shots in the 
Pacific heritage photo contest. The 2010 Pacific Island Heritage 
Calendar will contain the 12 images that best represent the conference 
themes. More information about the contest is on the website.

 

The News page has an updated list of discounted hotels and cars. Giving 
us discounts on scuba and snorkeling trips is our favorite dive shop, 
Sam's Tours (www.samstours.com <http://www.samstours.com/>). We also 
highly recommend the associated Planet Blue kayak tours.



-- 
Pacific Island Archaeology in the 21st Century: Relevance & Engagement 
Conference
July 1-3, 2009
Koror, Palau

Pacific Archaeology 2009
Box 666
Koror, Palau 96940
www.pacificarchaeology2009.com <http://www.pacificarchaeology2009.com>