Holocene Paleoclimatology, Paleoecology, and Stream Behaviorin Eastern Iowa (Collaborative Research)

该项目的目标有两个：1)修订爱荷华州东部草原-森林边界全新世植被覆盖和气候变化的现有模型；2)重建植被和气候影响可以比较的地区的河流行为和土壤发育历史。这是爱荷华大学和北达科他州圣大学研究人员之间的合作项目。他们将分析花粉、植物大型化石、苔藓植物、软体动物和昆虫遗骸，这些样本是在爱荷华州东部的两条溪流中收集的。从河流切割处提取的样本至少跨越了12500年。这项研究的重要意义在于，它将解决该地区全新世气候重建中的差异，并提供第一个包含这些化石分类群的完整的全新世序列。

The objectives of this project are twofold: 1) to revise the existing models of Holocene vegetational cover and climate change along the prairie-forest border in eastern Iowa and 2) to reconstruct the history of stream behavior and soil development in a region where the effects of vegetation and climate can be compared. This is a cooperative project between investigators at the University of Iowa and North Dakota St. University. They will analyze pollen, plant macrofossils, bryophytes, mollusks and insect remains in samples collected along two streams in eastern Iowa. The samples from the stream cuts span at least the last 12,500 years. This research is important because it will resolve discrepancies in our climate reconstructions for the Holocene in this region and it will provide the first complete Holocene sequence containing these fossil taxa.