Paleolimnology
The lake sediments are natural archives and like the documentary archives contain the testimonies of the events that the lakes have undergone, from their formation to the present day.
As they settle on the bottom, the sediments of the lakes record and integrate the events that take place in the lake basin, in the catchment area and in the area around it. Transported by atmospheric circulation, signals of activity from far away, from areas of the globe apparently out of reach, also reach the lake and its sediments.
The task of paleolymnology is to bring to light and decipher the different signals recorded in the sediment over time, using methodologies of different scientific disciplines. A synthetic and interdisciplinary science on the border between limnology, the branch of ecology that deals with lakes, and paleontology, the science that studies fossils.
