[INVITED LECTURE] Petra Bajo, PhD
"Speleothems: Time Capsules of Earth’s Climate History"
Natural climate changes have been a fundamental part of Earth’s geological history. Evidence of these changes is preserved in natural archives such as ice cores, deep-sea sediments, and speleothems. Understanding the timing and causes of past climate variability is not only a scientific endeavour aimed at gaining deeper insight into our planet, but also a crucial baseline for placing current and future human-induced climate changes into a broader context.
Speleothems—secondary cave deposits such as stalagmites and flowstones—play a vital role in palaeoclimatology due to their suitability for radiometric dating and their ability to preserve a wealth of climate-sensitive proxies. In this presentation, we will explore how speleothems record climate changes, with a focus on climate shifts that occurred during the Quaternary period. In addition, I will present recent research conducted in Nova Grgosova Cave in central Croatia, and the exciting new opportunities it offers for advancing our understanding of past climate change.
Petra Bajo, PhD
Petra Bajo is a Scientific Adviser at the Croatian Geological Survey in Zagreb, specialising in palaeoclimate research. She earned her PhD in 2016 from the University of Melbourne, Australia, where she focused on reconstructing past climate changes using geochemical analyses of speleothems (cave deposits). Dr Bajo has held academic and research positions in Australia, including Lecturer and Research Assistant at the University of Melbourne, and Senior Researcher in nuclear forensics at the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) in Sydney. In 2019, she returned to Croatia as part of a national initiative supporting the return of scientists. Her research has resulted in 35 peer-reviewed publications, and she currently leads two research projects, including one funded by the Croatian Science Foundation. Her scientific achievements have been recognised with the State Award for Scientific Achievements and the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts Award in the field of natural sciences.