Significance of cave guano (summary)

The advantages of using cave bat guano deposits as environmental proxy are four fold: 1) many caves all over Romania (from low- to high-altitude locations) host important guano accumulations, 2) the ability to generate an accurate age-depth model based on 14C dating , 3) the presence of significant amounts of pollen grains and charcoal, and 4) the possibility of recovering a variety of stable isotope signatures by analyzing insect chitin or bulk guano samples.  Therefore, this archive offers a unique opportunity to analyze at high resolution past environmental and climate changes using a multi-proxy approach (isotope ratios (δ13C, δ15N) in guano, pollen, charcoal, trace elements, mineral magnetic properties, and phosphate minerals).

Created: October 3, 2011

Changed: June 5, 2020

Copyright: Bogdan P. ONAC

A grant funded by:

Host Institution:  Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca

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