The aim of the Ashley National Forest Research Project is to investigate the long-term climate, vegetation, and disturbance history of the Uinta Mountains, Utah. The Ashley Project aims to identify the timing of species arrival into the Uinta Mountains, the role of disturbance in low versus high elevation settings, and vegetation community response to both long-term and abrupt climate change.
Through interrogating the plant collection in the Garrett Herbarium we are exploring the controls of shifting phenology in Utah and the western U.S.. The specific goals of this phenological study are to document changes in the timing of spring flowering for selected species. This research began during the spring of 2013 with a graduate seminar (GEOG 5275) and will continue over the next several years. The ultimate goal of the project is to explore potential linkages between the climate controls on plant specimens through time and the impact of anthropogenic-caused climate and landscape change.
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The Fish Lake Research Project developed out of a graduate level seminar GEOG 6410: Paleoclimatology at the University of Utah. This research project investigates the role of natural climate variability and historical land-use histories in the Fish Lake Range on 19th and 20thc. forest composition in central Utah.
The Tortola Historic Hurricane
Research Program investigates variability in hurricane activity following European settlement. Additionally this research provides the first long-term reconstruction of the ecological history from the Virgin Islands that can provide insight into the extent of impact human colonization has had on the island ecosystem.
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The Reader
Fen Research Project in the eastern Uinta Mountains explores long-term vegetation and disturbance history from the Uinta Mountains. Natural disturbance regimes and community vegetation response is investigated form the
past 10,000 years providing insight to the catalyst of vegetation change for
making informed management decisions on present and future ecological change in
the Uintas.
The Ponderose Pine Dendroclimatology Research Project in Big Cottonwood Canyon implements tree cores to reconstruct prehistoric precipitation patterns in the Wasatch Front. The aim of this research is to extend the records of hydrologic variability in order to identify drivers of past climate variability. This research will inform management decisions and policies in the upcoming decades as climate change and increased population growth with continue to increase demand of the hydrologic resources in the Wasatch Front.
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The aim of the Global Charcoal Database (GCD) is to provide the scientific community a global palaeofire dataset for research and archiving sedimentary records of fire. Global syntheses have enabled the examination of broad-scale patterns in palaeofire activity, created a framework for exploring the linkages among fire, climate and vegetation at centennial-to-multi-millennial time scales and allows evaluation of fire model simulations at regional to global scales.
Daniau, A-L, Tinner, W, Bartlein, PJ, Harrison, SP, Prentice IC, Brewer, S, Friedlingstein, P, Harrison-Prentice, TI, Inoue, J, Marlon J, Mooney, S, Power, MJ, Stevenson, J and members of the Global Palaeofire Working Group (2012) Predictability of biomass burning in response to climate changes. Global Change Biology, 1-12. PDF
Morris, J, Brunelle, A, Munson, AS, Spencer, J, and Power, MJ (2012). Holocene vegetation and fire reconstructions from the Aquarius Plateau, Utah, USA. Quaternary International, 1-13. PDF
Whitlock C, Dean W, Fritz S, Stevens, L, Stone JF, Power, MJ, Rosenbaum JR, Pierce KL, and Bracht-Flyr, B (2012) Holocene seasonal variability inferred from multiple proxy records from Crevice Lake, Yellowstone National Park, USA. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, vol 331-332: 90-103. PDF
Iriarte, J, Power, MJ, Rostain, S, Mayle, FE, Jones, H, Watling, J, Whitney, BS, McKey, D (2012) Fire-free land-use in pre-1492 Amazonian savannas. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1-6. PDF
Marlon, JM, Bartlein, PJ, Long, C, Gavin, DG, Long, CJ, Anderson, RS, Briles, CE, Brown, KJ, Colombaroli, D, Hallett, DJ, Power, MJ, Scharf, EA, Walsh, MK (2012) Long-term perspective on wildfires in the western USA Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 1-9. PDF