I study recent Earth history to better understand the coupled ocean/atmosphere/ice climate system. Reconstructing past environmental changes allows a better understanding of the rates and magnitude of natural climate variability, and feedbacks in the global climate system. To reconstruct the global climate system, local records must be placed in a secure independent time frame. The need for improved methods of dating these deposits fueled my interest in geochronology. My current research projects include 1) the timing, mechanism and impacts of ice growth and decay in Arctic Canada, 2) developing new or improved applications of protein diagenesis to date geological and archaeological events, 3) the role of humans in late Quaternary environmental change in Australia and Madagascar, 4) high resolution records of North Atlantic climate variability derived from lake sediment, and 5) Placing 20th century Arctic warming in a longer term perspective.
keywords
Climate Science, Quaternary Paleoclimate, Arctic Quaternary History, Quaternary Geochronology, Impacts of Human Colonization, Late Quaternary High-Resolution Climate Reconstructions, Quaternary history of Australia
GEOL 1060 - Global Change: An Earth Science Perspective
Primary Instructor
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Fall 2018 / Fall 2019 / Fall 2020 / Fall 2021
Focuses on evidence for planetary warming, climate change, glacier and ice-sheet melting and sea level rise both now and in the recent past. Attempts to develop understanding of the interactions within the coupled Earth system that regulate such changes. Utilizes examples from the geological and instrumental records, and evaluates the global warming forecast. Degree credit not granted for this course and ATOC 1060.
GEOL 3040 - Global Change: The Recent Geological Record
Primary Instructor
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Spring 2021
Geological records in lakes, oceans, deserts, and around glaciers indicate the significant changes in the global systems that have taken place over the last few hundred or thousand years. Explores the timing and nature of these changes. Department enforced prerequisites: any two-course sequence of natural science core courses.
