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.
Investigating Vegetation Changes in Northern Australia in the Late Pleistocene – Holocene
Abstract: Madjebebe in Northern Australia is one of the oldest archaeological sites in Australia, with evidence for human occupation at 50-60 ka (Roberts et. al. 1990a). Because of the age of this site, Madjebebe has the potential to provide insight into the dispersal of modern homo sapiens out of Africa along the southern arc through Southeast Asia.
The samples will be prepared for carbon isotope analysis in the UW Geoarchaeology laboratory as described in Biedenbender et. al. 2004. The organic biomolecule analysis will follow the protocol described in Reber and Evershed (2004) and will be conducted with the assistance of Dr Seungki Kwak, who recently completed his PhD research using the organic geochemistry facilities in the UW School of Oceanography.