Outreach

QUEST workshop at Waikato University

Fieldwork, Meeting, News, Outreach

From 9 to 11 September 2019, the Waikato University QUEST partner organized a workshop on Quantitative palaeoclimate reconstructions using speleothems in the Avantidrome, Cambride (New Zealand). QUEST project partners as scientists from the field were invited to share progress and prospects beyond the timeline of the existing QUEST funding. Up to 15 scientists participated and presented and discussed updates of their research. Highlight was the presentation of a new prototype of an auto-sampler. The last day of workshop led to the Waipuna cave, with intensive sampling and in-situ measurements of drip water.

  • QUEST-Workshop in the Avantidrome, Cambridge (New Zealand).
    QUEST-Workshop in the Avantidrome, Cambridge (New Zealand).
  • Presentation of the new auto sampler during the QUEST workshop in Cambridge (NZ).
    Presentation of the new auto sampler during the QUEST workshop in Cambridge (NZ).
  • Fieldtrip at Waikato workshop to the Waipuna cave.
    Fieldtrip at Waikato workshop to the Waipuna cave.
  • Rainwater sampling at the Waipuna cave.
    Rainwater sampling at the Waipuna cave.
  • Data collection at the Wapuna Cave meteo station.
    Data collection at the Wapuna Cave meteo station.
  • Sampling in the Waipuna Cave.
    Sampling in the Waipuna Cave.
  • In the Waipuna Cave.
    In the Waipuna Cave.


A night of fun-filled exploration: Project QUEST at the long night of science

News, Outreach
  • Young and adult visitors at the Long Night of Science
  • Long Night of Science
  • Stalagmite experiment at the Long Night of Science
  • Impressive interest in our research!
  • Newspaper article about our activities
  • Kids dressing up as cavers

On Saturday 15th June, the QUEST team (Norbert Marwan, Sebastian Breitenbach, Ola Kwiecien, Bedartha Goswami, Cinthya Nava Fernandez and Adam Hartland) contributed to the “Lange Nacht der Wissenschaften” or “Long Night of Science” at the Postdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. Members of the public, young and old, enjoyed a series of interactive activities; learning about speleothems, cave science, exploration and climate, as well as the broader objectives of our interdisciplinary effort to quantify past environmental change from speleothems. Children had the opportunity to dress up as a caver, see a stalagmite forming before their eyes, handle real speleothems and an array of other activities; earning a stamp in their workbooks and a bat-shaped cookie for their efforts! The team put in a huge effort and by the close of the night (midnight), were thoroughly tired but pleased with the interest and response from visitors. Aside from the QUEST exhibit, which seemed particularly popular, the long night afforded an incredibly diverse and interesting range of experiences for visitors to the Wissenschaftspark Albert Einstein. As the evening closed a large number of visitors still milled through the exhibits, perhaps pausing to enjoy a drink and a snack, and listening to live musical performances by moonlight.

MindTheLab! The QUEST to reach the Public

News, Outreach

The QUEST team is always eager to engage the public – even if that means enduring the chilly winds of the Berlin Underground! MindTheLab – Science in the Metro (http://www.mindthelab.org) is a new communication  approach that aims to connect scientists with the general public. After the first event in Athens, MindTheLab came to Berlin on the 8th of November and we (Norbert and Seb) participated in the event by setting up a booth at the U-Bahn station Möckernbrücke. Starting in the early afternoon, we talked to all interested people about climate research. We had many interesting encounters and highly engaging discussions. Although at times we felt like Jehovah’s witnesses trying to distribute leaflets, it was exciting to be able to discuss with people about climate change, climate impacts on society, and lack of political will to respond urgently to climate change. We received nearly 100% positive feedback, with many expressing their gratitude to climate scientists in general, and also for our active engagement at Möckernbrücke in particular. The only thing we missed were a few politicians to discuss with – but then again, who would expect them to travel with the Underground…?!

We will certainly continue to engage the public – next time in 2019 at the Long Night of Science in Potsdam! See you all there!

The next QUEST workshop is coming soon at Waikato University: Workshop 2018

Long Night of Science 2018

News, Outreach
QUEST participated last year at the Long Night of Science – and it was a big success! This year we repeated and intensified our activities for the Long Night of Science in Potsdam and Berlin, and it was GREAT! As part of the “Climate Time Machine” exhibition Sebastian, Ola, and Norbert presented how we use stalagmites as palaeoclimate archives. To be better visible, we built a life-sized speleologist (cave researcher) and let him climb the stairways in the Michelson building (the main PIK building). We presented all the typical cave research stuff, caving gear, data loggers, surveying instruments, photographs of caves and active cave research, and selected stalagmite samples from our QUEST project. We received large interest, from interested researchers, parents and kids alike. The whole event was great fun and it was amazing to see that we can enthuse young pupils for our science. Science is much more than just numbers and computer models – and in our case really muddy, adventurous, and sportive.

Long Night of Science 2018

Long Night of Science 2018

 

Meet QUEST at EGU 2018

EGU, Meeting, News, Outreach

With the EGU General Assembly coming up next month, we have rounded up the first-author presentations from the people involved in QUEST. Most of the action takes place during Thursday and Friday (barring David Hodell’s presentation on Tuesday) and in Hall X5 and Room F2. Be sure to note this down in your calendar for the EGU week!

The topics are many, interesting, and diverse — they are sure to spark off interesting discussions and debate. Share this post with your colleagues and spread the word!

CL 1.11

Novel and quantitative methods for continental palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.

Orals: Thu, 12 Apr, 10:30–12:00 / Room 0.14
Posters: Attendance Thu, 12 Apr, 17:30–19:00 / Hall X5

IDTITLE & QUEST AUTHORSTYPE &
LOCATION
13780Towards a quantitative proxy of cave dripwater hydrology
Adam Hartland, Beth Fox, Sebastian Breitenbach		Poster, X5.251
12744Local and distant Pacific climate signals in cave hydrochemistry: Waipuna cave, New Zealand
Cinthya Nava, Adam Hartland, Bethany Fox, Sebastian Breitenbach		Poster, X5.250
979335,000 years of hydrological variability in northern New Zealand from speleothem magnetism
Bethany Fox, Ioan Lascu, Sebastian Breitenbach, Adam Hartland		Poster, X5.246
9046Tracing past shifts of the boundary between maritime and continental climate over Central Europe
Sebastian Breitenbach, Norbert Marwan		Poster, X5.245
15956Is this an event? - Detecting abrupt changes in palaeoclimate records
Bedartha Goswami, Sebastian Breitenbach, Norbert Marwan		Poster, X5.244

NP 2.4

New model and data-based approaches to study climate behavior

Orals: Fri, 13 Apr, 08:30–12:00 / Room M1
Posters: Attendance Fri, 13 Apr, 13:30–15:00 / Hall X4

IDTITLE & QUEST AUTHORSTYPE &
LOCATION
6190Detecting abrupt transitions during the Late Quaternary in southern Ethiopia using Recurrence Quantification Analyses
Hauke Krämer, Norbert Marwan		Oral, Room M1
15457Identifying sudden dynamical shifts in time series with uncertainties
Bedartha Goswami, Sebastian Breitenbach, Norbert Marwan		Poster, X4.277

 CL 1.17

The speleothem archive: understanding processes and interpreting Quaternary climate change

Orals: Thu, 12 Apr, 13:30–17:00 / Room 0.14
Posters:  Attendance Thu, 12 Apr, 17:30–19:00 / Hall X5

IDTITLE & QUEST AUTHORSTYPE &
LOCATION
16111Application of lignin analysis to flowstone, stalagmite and drip water samples – potentials of a new proxy
Inken Heidke, Denis Scholz, Thorsten Hoffmann		Poster, X5.286

CL1.06/GM8.12/HS1.19

Tackling past hydrological cycles – from local and regional to global scales (co-organized)

Orals: Fri, 13 Apr, 08:30–10:00 / Room F2
Posters:  Attendance Fri, 13 Apr, 17:30–19:00 / Hall X5

IDTITLE & QUEST AUTHORSTYPE &
LOCATION
19020Last Glacial Period hydrology of Lake Peten Itza (Guatemala) constrained with triple oxygen and hydrogen isotopes
Thomas Bauska, David Hodell		Oral,Room F2

CL 1.31

Climate response to orbital forcing (including Milutin Milankovic Medal Lecture)

Orals: Tue, 10 Apr, 13:30–17:00 / Room F2
Posters:  Attendance Tue, 10 Apr, 17:30–19:00 / Hall X5

IDTITLE & QUEST AUTHORSTYPE &
LOCATION
3858Integrating suborbital climate variability with classical Milanković theory
David Hodell		Oral, Room F2

Workshop on palaeoclimate time series analysis and statistics in Potsdam

Meeting, News, Outreach
Last week, representatives of all QUEST collaborators met on the Telegrafenberg in Potsdam for the QUEST Workshop on palaeoclimate time series analysis and statistics to disseminate our results, first among ourselves, and then to a public audience. We would like to thank all participants for their contributions and lively discussions.
The workshop was very nicely organized by Bedartha and Norbert. Beth came all the way from New Zealand, while David came from Great Britain, Inken from Mainz, and Seb and Cinthya from Bochum. We started with a short summary of ongoing work and activities in the different laboratories. An important point raised and discussed were the planned secondments (Cinthya and Inken had aleady packed for their secondments to Waikato!) and under which conditions Thomas can actively participate to QUEST. We then got quick updates from the different laboratories, all make good progress with respect to quantification of proxy data. A cosy workshop dinner in Old Town Potsdam facilitated more discussions of ideas and thoughts.
On Thursday and Friday we had several lectures and hand-on sessions, open to the public. Colleagues from as far as Australia learned about agemodeling, recurrence analysis and other innovative statistical tools developed at PIK Potsdam. Hands-on sessions gave the opportunity to discuss the complexities of unpublished data and the subtilities hidden inside the obvious.
The workshop also served as a platform to strike new collaborations and to exchange ideas how to extract a wealth of information from multi-proxy data.
The next workshop will take us to the Antipodes.