Quaternary Paleoecology and Paleoclimatology
My research interests are paleoecology and paleoclimatology.
Some of the questions we are addressing are: How long have modern
communities been in existence? What were conditions like at
the time of the last ice age, and how have they changed since
then? How have such human activities as cultivation, deforestation,
and urbanization affected natural environments? What do past
periods of warmer climate tell us about the future environment
if we experience a doubling of CO2 in the next few decades?
In other words, we add the time element to the study of modern
ecology.
My students and I address these questions by analyzing fossil
pollen and plant macrofossils (seeds, fruits, leaves, etc.)
of late Quaternary deposits in the Midwest and Rocky Mountains.
We frequently work with a team of other scientists on interdisciplinary
projects. This group includes people who 1) identify fossil
mosses, insects, molluscs, or vertebrates, 2) investigate
the paleoclimatologic record of cave deposits by analyzing
carbon and oxygen isotopes, 3) work out the history of soils,
streams, and other landforms, and 4) relate these factors
to changes in human cultures. By putting together evidence
from several independent sources, our reconstructions of past
environments are extremely robust.
Our work has been fundamental in understanding the changes
in vegetation and climate in the Midwest over the part 35,000
years, and in revising climatic models for this period. We
have concentrated on several critical times of climatic extremes
and rapid change. For example, we have shown that the period
from about 21,000 to 16,000 years ago was the coldest in the
last 100 millennia, and tundra vegetation was present in Iowa
1,000 km south of its previously understood limit. Our current
research on the last 10,000 years covers the entire Midwest.
Early results have shown that the expansion prairies in was
held up in eastern Iowa for 3,000 years, invalidating computer
models of the 1980s and early 1990s. We will soon be able
to trace vegetation communities throughout the Midwest. Our
work on the effects of EuroAmerican settlement in the Midwest
indicates that plowing and deforestation caused changes in
the environment as profound as those when we emerged from
the last glacial period.
E-mail: dick-baker@uiowa.edu
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Dr. Baker. "Outstanding" in his field.
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Winter coring crew. |
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Summer coring crew. |
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