2, Francisco Cruz Jr.

Speleothems, such as stalagmites, stalactites and flowstones, are a rich archive of terrestrial paleoclimate information. The full potential of these materials has come to realization only during the last decade creating a surge in speleothem-based research. This has led to focused and high-quality research that has utilised many of the more recently available state-of-the-art sampling (e.g. laser ablation mass spectrometry) and dating (e.g. multi-collector ICPMS) techniques. This wave of research has contributed to some of the more compelling paleoclimate records produced in this period and placed speleothems at the forefront of paleo-environment reconstructions. However, it perhaps also due to their relative infancy that speleothem-based reconstructions often carry greater uncertainties than other archives such as sediments and tree rings that have long been the focus of terrestrial paleoclimate research. The more commonly examined speleothem-based paleoclimate proxies are: 1. Growth intervals: determined by Uranium-series age determinations and used to identify wetter vs. drier or warmer vs. cooler climate intervals (e.g., Ayliffe et al., 1998; Spötl et al., 2002). 2. Oxygen (