Chemical Elements at High and Low Redshifts

Abstract

The past few years have seen a steady progress in the determination of element abundances at high redshifts, with new and more accurate measures of metallicities in star-forming galaxies, in QSO absorbers, and in the intergalactic medium. We have also become more aware of the limitations of the tools at our disposal in such endeavours. I summarise these recent developments and--in tune with the theme of this meeting--consider the clues which chemical abundance studies offer to the links between the high redshift galaxy populations and today's galaxies. The new data are `fleshing out' the overall picture of element abundances at redshifts z = 2 - 3 which has been gradually coming into focus over the last decade. In particular, we can now account for at least 40% of the metals produced by the global star formation activity in the universe from the Big Bang to z = 2.5, and we have strong indications of where the remainder are likely to be found.