Dr. Barbara Wohifarth, a professor in Quaternary Geology at Department of Geology and Geochemistry of Stockholm University, visited the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences (IGCAS) this week. Prof. Wohifarth’s major research interests are Geochronology and climatic variability. Currently she is working with lake sediments from Sweden, Svalbard, France and Argentina. During her stay in IGCAS, Prof. Wohifarth gave a speech titled “Lakes as Climatic and Environmental Archives”.

Prof. Wohifarth introduced how abrupt climate shifts in the past influenced lakes and their catchment and what lake sediments tell us about the spatial variability and intensity of past climatic changes. She showed several examples, the sedimental cores from Sweden, French and Thailand, to illustrate how to analyze a variety of geochemical, biological and geophysical proxy data from lake sediment to rebuild ancient climate changing. As she said in her blog, “lake sediments are one of the most fascinating geological archives for reconstructing past climatic and environmental variability”, this speech adequately describe her research point. After speech, Prof. Wohifarth visited the State Key Laboratory of Environmental Geochemistry (SKLEG) in this institute.

　  According to host Prof. CHEN Jinan , Prof. Wohifarth would like to have a further cooperation with us in the Asian monsoon variability and its impact on terrestrial ecosystems.  (by ZENG Li, D2 student)