Contents

• There is no substitute for water
• How long is long?
• Sediments : an ecosystem’s memory
• Retrieving the sedimentary archive and establishing the geochronological clock : collecting and dating sediment cores
• Reading the records stored in sediments : the present is a key to the past
• The paleolimnologist’s Rosetta Stone : calibrating indicators to environmental variables using surface sediment training sets
• Acidification : finding the "smoking gun"
• Metals, technological development, and the environment
• Persistent organic pollutants : industrially synthesized chemicals ‘hopping’ across the planet
• Mercury
• ‘the metal that slipped away’
• Eutrophication : the environmental consequences of over- fertilization
• Erosion : tracking the accelerated movement of material from land to water
• Species invasions, biomanipulations, and extirpations
• Greenhouse gas emissions and a changing atmosphere : tracking the effects of climatic change on water resources
• Ozone depletion, acid rain, and climatic warming : the problems of multiple stressors
• New problems, new challenges
• Paleolimnology : a window on the past, a key to our future