PAST Gateways - Fourth International Conference

May 23 - 27, 2016, Trondheim, Norway

The 4th PAST Gateways Conference was hosted by the Geological Survey of Norway from May 23rd to 27th 2016 in Trondheim. Trondheim is located at a beautiful fjord at the Atlantic ocean - the area were warm Atlantic water flows north within the North Atlantic Current - one of the currents that are most interesting for the climate of northern Europe, if not the worldwide climate. PAST Gateways (Palaeo-Arctic Spatial and Temporal Gateways) is a network aiming to increase the understanding of Arctic environmental change of preinstrumental times on decadal to millennial timescales. A special focus is put on spatial and temporal gateways with a focus on Cenozoic glacial-interglacial transitions and Holocene climate fluctuations - the later is with I am working on.There were four main topics of the conference 1. Grown and decay of the Arctic Ice Sheets, 2. Arctic sea-ice and ocean changes, 3. Non-glaciated Arctic environments including permafrost change, 4. Sea-level change in the Arctic. With my research I am dealing with the first two topics and had the ideal opportunity to meet scientist from the same fields in Trondheim.The PAST Gateways conferences are relatively small conference, with less than 100 participants, which gives a perfect frame for getting in touch with other scientists and building a strong network.

It was the second time I participated in this conference, the first time in 2015 was already really useful but this time I presented my first complete dataset of sea-ice reconstruction and got a lot of feedback and new ideas. I got in touch with scientist working on small-scale variability such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and got a new perspective on my dataset, which I will include in the manuscript I am currently working on.I would highly recommend this conference to anyone working on a related field. Due to its structure and size it is an ideal place to get in touch with people and discuss your results in a very friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

Henriette Kolling