  Stalagmites are an extraordinarily powerful resource for the reconstruction
of climatological palaeoseasonality. Here, we provide a comprehensive review of
different types of seasonality preserved by stalagmites and methods for
extracting this information. A new drip classification scheme is introduced,
which facilitates the identification of stalagmites fed by seasonally
responsive drips and which highlights the wide variability in drip types
feeding stalagmites. This hydrological variability, combined with seasonality
in Earth atmospheric processes, meteoric precipitation, biological processes
within the soil, and cave atmosphere composition means that every stalagmite
retains a different and distinct (but correct) record of environmental
conditions. Replication of a record is extremely useful but should not be
expected unless comparing stalagmites affected by the same processes in the
same proportion. A short overview of common microanalytical techniques is
presented, and suggested best practice discussed. In addition to geochemical
methods, a new modelling technique for extracting meteoric precipitation and
temperature palaeoseasonality from stalagmite d18O data is discussed and tested
with both synthetic and real-world datasets. Finally, world maps of
temperature, meteoric precipitation amount, and meteoric precipitation oxygen
isotope ratio seasonality are presented and discussed, with an aim of helping
to identify regions most sensitive to shifts in seasonality.
