Using natural archives to track sources and long-term trends of pollution: some final thoughts and suggestions for future directions

Newly produced, as well as some so-called legacy contaminants, continue to be released into the environment at an accelerated rate. Given the general lack of integrated, direct monitoring programs, the use of natural archival records of contaminants will almost certainly continue to increase. We conclude this volume with a short chapter highlighting some of our final thoughts, with a focus on a call to action to develop and apply methodologies to assess the fidelity of the archival record.