Special attention will be paid to periglacial and aeolian sedimentary environments and peat environments.

Periglacial environments (Kasse): processes and landforms that are specific to this environment and their paleoclimatic significance will be discussed. Special attention is paid to those phenomena which are also preserved in the fossil record.

Aeolian environments (Prins): the sedimentary processes responsible for sand and dust transport, the specific climatic setting of such environments, and associated landforms and deposits will be discussed. Special attention will be given to present-day dust source areas, associated erosion-transport-deposition processes and the resulting dust deposits (terrestrial and marine) and their paleoclimatic significance. A guest lecture by J.B. Stuut (NIOZ) is envisaged.

Peat environments (Van der Putten): the climatic conditions and geomorphological settings favourable for the formation of extensive peat deposits will be discussed. Important plant macro- and microfossils which allow to reconstruct the evolution of the local mire vegetation will be introduced. The use of (changes in) species assemblages as a tool to infer environmental and climate change during the Holocene and last glacial-interglacial transition will be discussed.

Contact hours listed under a course description may vary due to the combination of lecture-based and independent work required for each course therefore, CEA's recommended credits are based on the ECTS credits assigned by VU Amsterdam. 1 ECTS equals 28 contact hours assigned by VU Amsterdam.

Course includes field work.