ABSTRACT
Stable-isotope ratios in the marine, terrestrial and lacustrine environment are important in palaeoclimate reconstruction. In lakes, isotopes can be used over a range of time-scales from interannual to millennial. In the recent past, it is often one of the few methods that can be successfully used where anthropogenic influences may be the predominant effect on faunal and floral change. However, to understand and interpret isotopic data from various components within lake sediments requires a knowledge of the processes that control and modify the signal, their effects need to be quantified and a robust calibration is necessary to establish the relationship between the measured signal and the isotopic composition of the host waters. This chapter is aimed at giving an insight into this process, describing the potential as well as the problems of using isotope data from various types of lake sediment components.
