Summary: Priority question exercises are becoming an increasingly common tool to frame future agendas in conservation and ecological science. They are an effective way to identify research foci that advance the field and that also have high policy and conservation relevance. To date, there has been no coherent synthesis of key questions and priority research areas for palaeoecology, which combines biological, geochemical and molecular techniques in order to reconstruct past ecological and environmental systems on time‐scales from decades to millions of years. We adapted a well‐established methodology to identify 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Using a set of criteria designed to identify realistic and achievable research goals, we selected questions from a pool submitted by the international palaeoecology research community and relevant policy practitioners. The integration of online participation, both before and during the workshop, increased international engagement in question selection. The questions selected are structured around six themes: human–environment interactions in the Anthropocene; biodiversity, conservation and novel ecosystems; biodiversity over long time‐scales; ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycling; comparing, combining and synthesizing information from multiple records; and new developments in palaeoecology. Future opportunities in palaeoecology are related to improved incorporation of uncertainty into reconstructions, an enhanced understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics and processes and the continued application of long‐term data for better‐informed landscape management. Synthesis. Palaeoecology is a vibrant and thriving discipline, and these 50 priority questions highlight its potential for addressing both pure (e.g. ecological and evolutionary, methodological) and applied (e.g. environmental and conservation) issues related to ecological science and global change.

Late Pleistocene and/or Holocene high-resolution palynological studies are available for the south basin of the Caspian Sea (CS), the world's largest lake. However, the north and middle basins have not been the object of high-resolution palynological reconstructions. This new study presents the pollen, spores and dinoflagellate cysts records obtained from a 10 m-long sediment core recovered in the middle basin, which currently has brackish waters and is surrounded by arid and semi-arid vegetation.An age–depth model built based on six radiocarbon dates on ostracod shells indicates that the sequence spans the period from 14.47 to 2.43 cal. ka BP. The present palaeoenvironmental study focuses on the top 666 cm, or from 12.44 to 2.43 cal. ka BP.At the vegetation level, the Younger Dryas is characterised by an open landscape dominated by desert vegetation composed by Amaranthaceae with shrubs and salt-tolerant plants. However, although the Early Holocene is also characterised by desert vegetation, it is enriched in various shrubs such as Ephedra and Calligonum, but tree expansion is not important at the Holocene onset. After a major shift at 8.19 cal. ka BP, the Middle Holocene displays now both the character of desert and of steppe, although some trees such as Quercus and Corylus slightly spread. The Late Holocene records steppe vegetation as dominant, with more tree diversity.Regarding the lacustrine signal, the dinocyst assemblage record fluctuates between slightly brackish conditions highlighted by Pyxidinopsis psilata and Spiniferites cruciformis, and more brackish ones – similar to the present day – with the dominance of Impagidinium caspienense. The Late Pleistocene is characterised by low salinities, related to the Khvalynian highstand. From 11.56 cal. ka BP, slightly more saline waters are reconstructed with an increase of I. caspienense for a period of 1000 years, which could be attributed to the Mangyshlak lowstand. From 10.55 cal. ka BP, low salinity conditions return with remains such as Anabaena and Botryococcus abundant until 8.83 cal. ka BP, followed by a slow, progressive decrease of P. psilata and S. cruciformis until 4.11 cal. ka BP, which is the main assemblage change at lacustrine scale. Since then, higher salinities, similar to the present one, are reconstructed. Finally, Lingulodinium machaerophorum starts its development only at 2.75 cal. ka BP, in the Late Holocene.The present research revealed fundamental differences from previously published sea-level curves, in that a 6000 yr-long highstand suggested by low salinities is shown between 10.55 and 4.11 cal. ka BP. Amongst other arguments, using a comparison to a similar palynological regard but in the south basin, a N–S salinity gradient that is the reverse of the present one across the CS, suggests that the Amu Darya was flowing in the CS. Hence the CS levels during the Late Pleistocene and Holocene were influenced by a combination of precipitation over the high European latitudes and the indirect influence of the Indian summer monsoon over the Pamirs

Although archaeological research suggests that mining/metallurgy already started in the Chalcolithic (3rd millennium BC), the earliest atmospheric metal pollution in SW Europe has thus far been dated to ~3500-3200 cal.yr. BP in paleo-environmental archives. A low intensity, non-extensive mining/metallurgy and the lack of appropriately located archives may be responsible for this mismatch. We have analysed the older section (>2100 cal.yr. BP) of a peat record from La Molina (Asturias, Spain), a mire located in the proximity (35-100 km) of mines which were exploited in the Chalcolithic/Bronze Age, with the aim of assessing evidence of this early mining/metallurgy. Analyses included the determination of C as a proxy for organic matter content, lithogenic elements (Si, Al, Ti) as markers of mineral matter, and trace metals (Cr, Cu, Zn, Pb) and stable Pb isotopes as tracers of atmospheric metal pollution. From ~8000 to ~4980 cal.yr. BP the Pb composition is similar to that of the underlying sediments (Pb 15 ± 4 μg g(-1); (206)Pb/(207)Pb 1.204 ± 0.002). A sustained period of low (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios occurred from ~4980 to ~2470 cal.yr. BP, which can be divided into four phases: Chalcolithic (~4980-3700 cal.yr. BP), (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios decline to 1.175 and Pb/Al ratios increase; Early Bronze Age (~3700-3500 cal.yr. BP), (206)Pb/(207)Pb increase to 1.192 and metal/Al ratios remain stable; Late Bronze Age (~3500-2800 cal.yr. BP), (206)Pb/(207)Pb decline to their lowest values (1.167) while Pb/Al and Zn/Al increase; and Early Iron Age (~2800-2470 cal.yr. BP), (206)Pb/(207)Pb increase to 1.186, most metal/Al ratios decrease but Zn/Al shows a peak. At the beginning of the Late Iron Age, (206)Pb/(207)Pb ratios and metal enrichments show a rapid return to pre-anthropogenic values. These results provide evidence of regional/local atmospheric metal pollution triggered by the earliest phases of mining/metallurgy in the area, and reconcile paleo-environmental and archaeological records.