Co-authorship analysis of the speleothem proxy-climate community: working together to tackle the big problems

Understanding the environmental context of speleothem palaeo-climate proxies is fundamental to their interpretation. We analyse four methodological approaches to accomplish this: stalactitedischarge analysis, proxy/process tracer studies, discharge modelling, and geophysics. Datamining produced citation data sets that reflected these methodological subdisciplines. Social network analysisis used to examine co-authorship within and between these sub-disciplines, and between the joint methodological community and the broader speleothem proxy climatecommunity. Members of the sub-disciplines have become more connected to one another over time, and to members of the other sub-disciplines. High degrees of connectivity between and within communities allows for the rapid and efficient adoption of new ideas and methods, and will enable the community to effectively tackle emerging complex problems.