Wooster Earth Scientists traveled to Erie PA to attend the joint Northeast /North-Central Geological Society of America for a weekend of geology talks, posters and fieldtrips.
Above Grace presents her senior Independent study research entitled “A LAKE RECORD OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE IN NORTHEASTERN OHIO SINCE EUROPEAN COLONIZATION” abstract here.
Proto presented ALASKA’S FIRST WESTERN RED CEDAR TREE-RING CHRONOLOGY described here.
Proto here describes the winter signal that they discovered in the tree-ring record of the red coastal cedar from Southeast Alaska.
Lauren describes her Alaskan tree-ring work on the southern coast of central Alaska.
Lauren’s poster FIVE NEW MOUNTAIN HEMLOCK TREE-RING CHRONOLOGIES FROM SOUTHEAST ALASKA: NEW RECORDS OF CLIMATE – here she just shared the research with alum Nick Fedorchuk who now a professor at Southern Connecticut University.
Evie (foreground) with Anika and Ihaja looking on – explains their work on four deciduous conifers from Secrest Arbooretum. These trees may be key players in future high CO2 environments in a warming world as they were in the past. the title: USING DENDROCLIMATIC ANALYSIS OF EXOTIC DECIDUOUS CONIFERS IN AN ABORETUM TO DOCUMENT TREE GROWTH IN RESPONSE TO CLIMATE CHANGE, NORTHEAST OHIO, USA described in their abstract here.
Amanda’s IS work is explained in this poster and her lightening talk is shown below. The title CAN VOLCANIC EVENTS FORCE DECADAL COOLING IN THE NORTH PACIFIC? is described in this abstract.
Linking short scale (1-2 year cooling forced by volcanic events) appears to serve to force cooling SSTs in the North Pacific that can persist for a few decades.
Wooster faculty also presented results of research – above Dr. Eva Lyon describes her work on a Pleistocene lake from West Virginia. Her title PALEO-LAKE BUCKEYE: A NEW SEDIMENTARY ARCHIVE OF PALEOENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS ACROSS THE PLEISTOCENE-HOLOCENE TRANSITION IN THE CENTRAL APPALACHIAN MOUNTAINS and abstract can be found here. . Wooster students are now working on these lacustrine sediments. G. Wiles also presented: PROGRESS IN USING TREE-RING CHRONOLOGIES TO RECONSTRUCT LAURENTIAN GREAT LAKE LEVELS, which focused on reconstructing Lake Erie levels using tree rings. Tim Fisher (U.Toledo) also presented collaborative work with Wooster on Lake Erie water levels here.
Drs. Lyon and Wiles attended a fiedtrip to Presque Isle during the meeting to examine the coastal erosion. This trip will serve as a planning trip for a potential future fieldtrip of a combined course in Paleoecology and Hydrology in the fall of 2025.
A breakwater offshore dampens the power of the waves and the piles perpendicular to shore slow the longshore drift and sediment loss of the beach.
This van at the visitor’s center is a map of the features viewed on the trip – Presque Isle and, on the Canadian side, Long Point, are spits and tombolos located on glacial moraines that formed about 14,000 years ago during deglaciation of the Laurentide Icesheet.
It was a lively group – of students, professionals and faculty.
Great to see such fine Wooster student and faculty representation at this meeting!