Previously Funded Projects
QRC members lead and participate in a wide range of disciplinary and interdisciplinary research projects from the study of past earth climates and glaciations to shifts in the geographic distributions and evolution of vegetation and faunal communities, to the evolution and dispersals of the genus Homo and the increasing scales of human modification of earth environments through the Holocene. QRC provides a venue for meeting and collaborating with scholars across Quaternary disciplines. We are also fortunate to be able to provide seed funding and small grants for member research projects. We are especially happy to support grad student and junior scholar research activities, much of which leads to larger, external funding from agencies like the National Science Foundation.
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Supplemental support for field research and training: Physical and chemical signature of paleoseismicity in hot spring deposits on active faults of the Central Nevada Seismic Belt
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Investigating ecological change and archaeology in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea
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West Greenland coastal temperatures during the 8.2 ka event derived from alkenones
Abstract: The transition from the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation of the Laurentide Ice Sheet (LIS) was punctuated by a number of large and abrupt cooling periods (e.g., Younger Dryas (12.4 ka to 11.7 ka BP), the last of which occurred ca 8.2 ka BP. These abrupt cooling events are thought to have occurred when glacial-melt lakes along the LIS margin overtopped their moraines releasing massive volumes of freshwater into the Labrador Sea. Ice core records from atop the Greenland ice sheet show a relatively small decrease in temperatures (1-2˚C) over about two-hundred years but the magnitude of terrestrial changes along the coastal margin have not been documented. This project seeks to characterize the climatic impacts of the 8.2 ka event along the west coast of Greenland, by measuring the alkenone unsaturation index Uk’37 (based upon lipid molecules specific to certain phytoplankton of the phylum Haptophyta in sediments from Limnaea Sø, a closed-basin, oligohaline lake approximately ~100 km from the coast. A number of studies have demonstrated the temperature dependence of Uk’37 for lacustrine alkenones and Uk’37 has been used to develop records of past temperature from lake sediments. We propose to produce a temperature reconstruction with decadal-to-centennial resolution spanning the onset of the 8.2 ka event through the mid-Holocene. Sediment cores for this project were collected in 2012 and initial core descriptions and radiocarbon chronologies have been generated. We hypothesize that the magnitude of changes were significantly larger along the coastal margin of Greenland than the ice sheet summit due to local sea ice changes in the Labrador Sea/Baffin Bay, as predicted by climate models, and that this resulted in significantly greater cooling along coastal Greenland. Funds are sought from QRC to test this hypothesis and obtain the pilot data necessary to support a larger NSF proposal next year.Report: [pending]
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Evaluating the paleohydrologic potential of triple oxygen isotopes across a natural salinity gradient in tropical Pacific lake waters
Abstract: Paleohydrologic data provides important constraint on the climate system that cannot be inferred from the brief observational record. This project will test the efficacy of a new paleohydrologic proxy based on the triple oxygen isotope composition of lake water. Evaporation of an isolated water body leads to an increase in the concentration of the rare 18O isotope, and subtle changes of a few thousandths of a percent in the ratio of 17O to 18O relative to the Global Meteoric Water Line. Referred to as 17Oexcess, this quantity is distinct from existing paleohydrologic proxies in that it is very insensitive to temperature. A critical step in the development of a 17Oexcess paleohydrologic proxy is to demonstrate that closed lake systems behave in a manner similar to theory, and laboratory pan evaporation experiments. Doing so can be challenging over observable timescales because recent variations in the hydrologic balance of many lake systems are relatively subtle in comparison to the larger changes characterizing the Quaternary. The proposed work will solve this problem by examining 17Oexcess variability across a range of evaporative environments represented by the hundreds of independent, closed system lakes on the central tropical Pacific atoll of Kiritimati, which span salinities of <20 to >300‰. Results that suggest that environmental systems exhibit a relationship similar to that expected from theory and laboratory experiments will be used to pursue additional support from NSF’s P2C2 program for downcore measurements of 17Oexcess in tropical Pacific lacustrine carbonates. These downcore analyses have the potential to estimate past hydrologic variability in regions highly sensitive to the El Nino Southern Oscillation across at least the Holocene.
Read the report here.
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Permafrost distribution in High Andes
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Constraining ages of glacial deposits recorded in a Victoria Valley permafrost core
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Understanding the technological transition during the Late Pleistocene in Korea
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Rainshadow Effect on Stable Isotopes of n-Alkanes across the Cascade Mountains of Washington, USA
Abstract: The Cascade Mountains, which run north-south through Oregon and Washington into British Columbia, are one of the dominant geographic features of the Pacific Northwest. This project seeks to examine the stable-isotopic orographic rainshadow effect produced by the Cascades by comparing the d2H (dD) and d13C of n-alkanes (a long-chain hydrocarbon found in the waxy cuticles of plant leaves) from living plants, leaf detritus, and soil organic matter in a transect across the Cascades of Washington state. The dD of a plant is dominantly dependent on the dD of local rainfall, while the d13C depends mainly on the species of the plant and the aridity of its environment; the dD and d13C of n-alkanes in the soil depend on the plants which have contributed leaf litter to that soil. Documenting how the Cascade rainshadow affects and/or controls hydrogen and carbon isotopic trends is critical to understanding the fate of atmospheric moisture when it passes through orogens, and how plants (and soils) react to those changes. Moreover, understanding how isotopic trends evolve across the Cascade rainshadow is a mandatory step towards documenting the topographic evolution of the Cascades through geologic time via isotopic proxies. Identifying the nature of the isotopic trends – for instance, where and how transitions in isotopic composition occur – will allow us to determine if the degree and trend of isotopic depletion is directly correlated to rainshadow intensity and, by extension, the Cascades’ topography. This will provide a dataset for researchers studying isotopic distillation both by plants and by atmosphere dynamics, and a modern comparator for studies of ancient isotopic trends in this and similar settings.Report: [pending]
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San Pablo Archaeological Project
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Quantifying Climate Change During The Petm In Continental North America
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Could the West Antarctic Ice Sheet have Collapsed in the Previous Interglacial Warm Period? A Modeling Assessment based on Stable Isotopes in the Deep Ice from Siple Dome
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Assisted Migration and the Future of Great Basin pikas (Ochotona princeps)
Abstract: Since the end of the Pleistocene, warming climates have seen acceptable habitat for pikas (Ochotona princeps) move upslope by approximately 785 m in the Great Basin. As a result, the future of these iconic mammals in arid western North America is a matter of great concern to conservation biologists. Given that an attempt to place pikas on the federally endangered list failed, it seems extremely likely that these animals will now be the focus of proposals for what has come to be known as “Assisted Migration”—the purposeful movement of animals across space to establish new, and hopefully successful, populations of those animals. The work to be conducted under this grant brings together three individuals to address issues related to pika assisted migration. Those individuals are myself, with expertise in the history of small mammals in arid western North America, including pikas, and two of the world’s experts on these animals, Dr. Constance Millar (USFS Research Scientist) and Dr. Andrew Smith (Professor, Arizona State University). The work will: 1) include an examination of current occupied pika habitats in the western Great Basin, and, 2) begin the process of producing a position paper dealing with pika assisted migration for a major biological/conservation biological journal.Report: read the article published on this project here.
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High latitude terrestrial climate and ecology during peak greenhouse warming
Abstract: This project supports field and laboratory work to enable an interdisciplinary investigation of gradients in temperature, hydrologic conditions, and vegetation across North American mid- to high-latitudes during the early Eocene global warming event (~52–50 Ma). The primary goal of this project is to advance the understanding of carbon cycling, climate dynamics, and terrestrial ecological responses to high atmospheric pCO2. By improving high latitude proxy records of climate and ecology in the deep past, this work can improve our understanding of climate feedbacks and their biological impacts during the glacial-interglacial cycles of the Quaternary as well as potential future climate states involving extremely warm or “greenhouse” conditions. This is particularly crucial as the planet has begun exhibiting unexpectedly rapid rates of change recently that may be related to high-latitude climate conditions and feedbacks.Report: This proposal requested support for field and laboratory work to enable an interdisciplinary investigation of gradients in temperature, hydrologic conditions, and vegetation across North American mid- to high-latitudes during the early Eocene global warming event (~52–50 Ma). The primary goal of the work was to advance the understanding of carbon cycling, climate dynamics, and terrestrial ecological responses to high atmospheric pCO2. In addition to having important implications for understanding climate change and ecology during the Quaternary and beyond, this project advanced the intellectual life of the QRC and associated junior scientists, and also provided pilot data for externally funded research.
The work on temperature gradients and seasonality in North American mid- to high-latitudes is primarily completed, and has resulted in two manuscripts (Hyland et al., in review at EPSL; Hyland et al., in preparation). The work on hydrologic gradients in the same regions is ongoing in collaboration with UW faculty (Huntington, Roe) and has become a dissertation project for a current graduate student (Kelson) in the ESS department. Results from this will likely be published in the next year, with the graduate student as lead author. The work on vegetation gradients is also ongoing, in collaboration with UW faculty (Stromberg) and external faculty (Greenwood, Brandon University; Basinger, University of Saskatchewan), and will likely be published within the next 2 years. All publications acknowledge the QRC as a primary funding source.
Additionally, the grant provided preliminary data for an NSF-EAR grant that was submitted in 2015 with UW faculty (Huntington, Stromberg, Swann). The grant was unsuccessful, however it will likely be reworked and resubmitted to a new program in the coming year. Two local presentations have also been given on the topic of the QRC grant, during a department seminar (ESS, Fall 2015) and during a QRC annual meeting (Spring 2016), as have multiple presentations at professional meetings (AGU 2015 and 2016; GSA 2015).
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Climate Change and the Historical Record: Engaging Area Studies in the Large Research University
