2. INTRODUCTION

3. RATIONALES AND OBJECTIVES

Long, high-resolution cores are clearly one of the fundamental observational requirements for paleoclimatic reconstruction. Particularly useful are long cores obtained by drilling methods. Such cores have been obtained in many different environments, but the results of studies based on marine and ice-sheet cores have been particularly visible and influential in paleo-science. Because climatic records from the continents provide critical information for the complete reconstruction of the Earth's environmental history, and because continental climatic changes are most pertinent to human activities, it is essential that long, high-quality paleoclimate records be retrieved from terrestrial locations.

Typical drilling projects aimed at recovering continental paleoclimate records have been conducted on an ad-hoc basis. Many such projects are supported by national funding sources and in many cases they produce valuable data and interpretations. From a global or international perspective, however, the aggregate of these projects appears to be poorly coordinated, and to be inefficient or redundant with respect to personnel, equipment, core archives, and sample analysis. This may be related partly to scientific culture, national funding structures, or independence from the need for large share-use facilities, such as those required for ocean or ice-sheet drilling projects. The situation is likely to continue; individual projects will develop and use their own drilling equipment and analyze cores for specific purposes. Only in the case of large, deep lakes (e.g., Lake Baikal and the East African Lakes) is the need for large-scale technology and facilities likely to provide enough impetus for coordination among large groups of researchers.

In the case of lake sediments, paleolimnology developed separately from paleoceanography, partly because of the diversity of lakes and their distinct depositional environments. Hence, many researchers focused on their own specific sites, rather than on broader correlations. Cores typically became exclusive property of one scientist, and analyses commonly were limited to those performed in their own laboratory. Cores of differing standards and sizes were subject to limited analyses for immediate needs, were rarely archived properly, and were commonly discarded. Problems related to lakes, such as unusual physical and biological limnology, endemism of taxa, unique depositional environments, and inaccurate bulk radiocarbon dating have discouraged long-range correlations. Most lake cores cover a relatively short period of time, commonly post-glacial, Holocene, or less.

For these reasons, PAGES would like to provide a framework for developing more organized and coordinated research on long continental paleoclimate records for the global-change community. Recommendations associated with this framework will serve as a set of guidelines or a "template" for continental drilling projects aimed at recovering paleoclimatic records.

These guidelines will provide:
1) a basis for evaluating proposed drilling projects by scientific organizations and by funding agencies,
2) incentives for advance planning and coordination,
3) support for the scientific synergy that emerges from large, interdisciplinary projects,
4) a basis for comparison of continental paleoclimate records.

Additional objectives of the workshop were to:
1) develop strategies for organizing drilling projects,
2) consider ways of developing technology related to continent-al drilling,
3) encourage national support for drilling projects aimed at global change objectives.

0. TABLE OF CONTENTS

4. IMPORTANCE OF RECORDS