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2nd International Sclerochronology Conference
Mainz, Germany, 24 – 28 July 2010
 
The second circular concerning the 2nd International Sclerochronology
Conference is available from the conference website at
http://www.scleroconferences.de (see under Flyer).

The ‘window’ for conference registration and abstract submission is between
20 March and 20 April.

The conference organizers hope to welcome you at the University of Mainz for
exciting presentations and discussions in this fast developing field. Please
check the website for further information.


Program committee: 
Bernd R. Schöne (conference chair), Geosciences, University of Mainz, Germany; 
Andrew L.A. Johnson, Geographical, Earth and Environmental Sciences,
University of Derby, UK 
Claire E. Lazareth, LOCEAN, Institut Pierre Simon Laplace, France
David P. Gillikin, Earth Science and Geography, Vassar College, USA
Kazushige Tanabe, Earth and Planetary Science, University of Tokyo, Japan
Meghan Burchell, Anthropology, McMaster University, Canada
Thomas Tütken, Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Germany



Excerpt from the flyer:

Sclerochronology is the study of physical and chemical variations in the
accretionary hard tissues of organisms, and the temporal context in which
they formed. Sclerochronology focuses primarily upon growth patterns
reflecting annual, monthly, fortnightly, tidal, daily, and sub-daily
increments of time entrained by a host of environmental and astronomical
pacemakers. Familiar examples include yearly banding in reef coral skeletons
or daily and annual growth increments and lines in mollusk shells.
Sclerochronology is analogous to dendrochronology, the study of annual rings
in trees, and equally seeks to deduce organismal life history traits as well
as to reconstruct records of environmental and climatic change through time
and space.


Who should attend?
Dendrochronology revolutionized our understanding of the timing and nature
of past environmental change. Coral sclerochronology expanded and refined
this understanding by contributing data from low latitude marine settings.
Now studies of other mineralized organisms are set to provide information
from mid and high latitudes (both in the marine and terrestrial realms),
facilitating comprehensive, integrated reconstruction of environmental
history. The new data, commonly but not exclusively derived from mollusks,
are often of very high temporal resolution, providing a record of change
over timescales from years to as little as hours. Being based on
biomineralized materials the techniques involved are applicable to studies
in deep time as well as the more recent past. Sclerochronology has already
made a significant contribution to our knowledge of past climate change:
there is immense scope for further work and for research integrated with
approaches involving other 'banded' records (tree rings, teeth, otoliths,
speleothems, varves etc.). As well as to climate change, sclerochronology is
being applied in pollution monitoring, studies of life history traits,
ecophysiology, diet, migration and diverse other contexts. 

Anyone working on or interested in the formation and interpretation of
growth increments in accretionary hard parts of invertebrate and vertebrate
organisms, their geochemistry and crystal fabrics or the underlying
processes of biomineralization, should attend this conference. Come to
Mainz, share your thoughts and help to bring this fast-developing field forward!

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