My research interests include Quaternary paleoecology, climatology, biogeography, and environmental geography, and I am especially interested in understanding changing environmental conditions in arid environments from the last ice age until present. I use macrofossils and pollen to reconstruct late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation and climate dynamics, and my research has taken me to deserts in both the western United States and South America.

 

 

 

 

 

Research Projects:

 

Long-Term Vegetation History of the Mojave-Colorado Desert Ecotone at Joshua Tree National Monument

 

Quaternary Vegetation History of Death Valley National Park with Felisa A. Smith, University of New Mexico and Julio L. Betancourt, USGS Desert Lab, Tucson AZ

 

Bioclimatic envelopes for quantifying Quaternary climates in the northern Chihuahuan Desert

 

Quaternary ecology, climatology, and biogeography of the Chihuahuan Desert from fossil packrat middens

 

Late Holocene vegetation stability on the Pacific slope of the Andes near Arica, Chile

 

Research