Publications
Listed here are publications, reports and articles by the Climate R&D program.
Filter Total Items: 1020
Extreme events trigger terrestrial and marine ecosystem collapses: A tale of two regions
We outline the multiple, cross-scale, and complex consequences of terrestrial and marine ecosystem heatwaves in two regions on opposite sides of the planet: the southwestern USA and southwestern Australia, both encompassing Global Biodiversity Hotspots, and where ecosystem collapses or features of it have occurred in the past two decades. We highlight ecosystem shifts that have clearly demonstrate
Authors
Katinka X. Ruthrof, Joseph B. Fontaine, David D. Breshears, Jason P. Field, Craig D. Allen
The marine terraces of Santa Cruz Island, California: Implications for glacial isostatic adjustment models of last-interglacial sea-level history
Glacial isostatic adjustment (GIA) models hypothesize that along coastal California, last interglacial (LIG, broadly from ~130 to ~115 ka) sea level could have been as high as +11 m to +13 m, relative to present, substantially higher than the commonly estimated elevation of +6 m. Areas with low uplift rates can test whether such models are valid. Marine terraces on Santa Cruz Island have previousl
Authors
Daniel R. Muhs, R. Randall Schumann, Lindsey T. Groves, Kathleen R. Simmons, Christopher R. Florian
Estimating Piacenzian sea surface temperature using an alkenone-calibrated transfer function
Stationarity of environmental preferences is a primary assumption required for any paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossil materials based upon calibration to modern organisms. Confidence in this assumption decreases the further back in time one goes, and the validity of the assumption that species temperature tolerances have not changed over time has been challenged in Pliocene studies. We
Authors
Harry J. Dowsett, Marci M. Robinson, Kevin M. Foley
The biophysical role of water and ice within permafrost nearing collapse: Insights from novel geophysical observations
The impact of permafrost thaw on hydrologic, thermal, and biotic processes remains uncertain, in part due to limitations in subsurface measurement capabilities. To better understand subsurface processes in thermokarst environments, we collocated geophysical and biogeochemical instruments along a thaw gradient between forested permafrost and collapse-scar bogs at the Alaska Peatland Experiment (APE
Authors
Stephanie R. James, Burke J. Minsley, Jack McFarland, Eugenie S. Euskirchen, Colin W. Edgar, Mark Waldrop
Persistent multidecadal variability since the 15th century in the southern Barents Sea derived from annually resolved shell-based records
In the North Atlantic Ocean, multidecadal variability in sea surface temperatures (SSTs) over the past several centuries has largely been inferred through terrestrial proxies and decadally resolved marine proxies. Annually resolved proxy records from marine archives provide valuable insight into this variability, but are especially rare from high latitude environments, particularly for centennial
Authors
Madelyn Jean Mette, Alan D. Wanamaker, Michael J. Retelle, Michael L. Carroll, Carin Andersson, William G. Ambrose
Remote and local drivers of Pleistocene South Asian summer monsoon precipitation: A test for future predictions
South Asian precipitation amount and extreme variability are predicted to increase due to thermodynamic effects of increased 21st-century greenhouse gases, accompanied by an increased supply of moisture from the southern hemisphere Indian Ocean. We reconstructed South Asian summer monsoon precipitation and runoff into the Bay of Bengal to assess the extent to which these factors also operated in t
Authors
Steven C Clemens, Masanobu Yamamoto, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Liviu Giosan, Julie N. Richey, Katrina Nilson-Kerr, Yair Rosenthal, Pallavi Anand, Sarah M McGrath
Greater Yellowstone climate assessment: Past, present, and future climate change in the greater Yellowstone watersheds
The Greater Yellowstone Area (GYA) is one of the last remaining large and nearly intact temperate ecosystems on Earth. GYA was originally defined in the 1970s as the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, which encompassed the minimum range of the grizzly bear. The boundary now includes about 22 million acres (8.9 million ha) in northwestern Wyoming, south central Montana, and eastern Idaho (Figure ES-1).
Authors
Steven W. Hostetler, Cathy Whitlock, Bryan Shuman, David Liefert, Charles Wolf Drimal, Scott Bischke
Using tree-rings to unravel avalanche frequency and associated climate drivers in the northern Rocky Mountains
No abstract available.
Authors
Erich Peitzsch
Assessing the uncertainties in climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages: Examples from modern vegetation assemblages in the American Southwest
Assemblages of fossil plant remains have been widely used to reconstruct past climatic conditions, usually through the application of methods that involve either finding vegetation analogues on the modern landscape (and using the modern associated climatic values as the basis for an estimate) or using the modern climatic ranges of individual taxa in an assemblage to determine the range of a given
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
Development of soil radiocarbon profiles in a reactive transport framework
Today, there is a greater appreciation for the importance of the physical protection of carbon (C) through interactions with mineral surfaces, isolation from microbes, and the important role of transport in shaping soil properties and controlling moisture limitations on decomposition. As our paradigm for soil organic carbon (SOC) preservation changes, so too should our representation of the underl
Authors
Jennifer Druhan, Corey Lawrence
Prototyping a methodology for long-term (1680-2100) historical-to-future landscape modeling for the conterminous United States
Land system change has been identified as one of four major Earth system processes where change has passed a destabilizing threshold. A historical record of landscape change is required to understand the impacts change has had on human and natural systems, while scenarios of future landscape change are required to facilitate planning and mitigation efforts. A methodology for modeling long-term his
Authors
Jordan Dornbierer, Steve Wika, Charles Robison, Gregory Rouze, Terry L. Sohl
Aeolian sediments in paleowetland deposits of the Las Vegas Formation
The Las Vegas Formation (LVF) is a well-characterized sequence of groundwater discharge (GWD) deposits exposed in and around the Las Vegas Valley in southern Nevada. Nearly monolithologic bedrock surrounds the valley, which provides an excellent opportunity to test the hypothesis that GWD deposits include an aeolian component. Mineralogical data indicate that the LVF sediments are dominated by car
Authors
Harland L. Goldstein, Kathleen B. Springer, Jeffrey S. Pigati, Marith C. Reheis, Gary L. Skipp