Paleoecology of Western Canada: vegetation dynamics and paleoclimate during the Quaternary and Eocene.

我的研究项目旨在重建加拿大西部植被和生态系统结构的变化模式，并利用这些信息来评估环境因素，特别是气候因素是如何导致这些变化的。在这个框架内，我们专注于几个研究主题。第一个研究领域是海达瓜伊岛(夏洛特女王群岛)的冰川和生物史，也被称为“加拿大加拉帕戈斯群岛”。海达瓜伊独特动植物的起源存在争议，主要是关于冰川历史以及上一次和前一次冰川期间可能存在的冰川避难所。在最后一次冰川盛期之前(约2万年前)，有一次更早、更大的冰川，太老了，不能用放射性碳测年方法来研究。我们将使用新的测年技术，并利用格雷厄姆岛上的花粉和植物化石来重建植物群落和气候条件，并了解气候变化和干扰对植物生存和局部灭绝的影响。 我们还将研究夏威夷南莫尔兹比地区Kilgii Gwaay考古遗址附近的晚冰川池塘沉积物核心的花粉化石。利用这些结果，我们将重建这一特殊遗址的环境，这是夏威夷最古老(9500年)的人类居住地之一。花粉分析还将测试这里是否发生了突然降温事件(年轻仙女木)，我们将利用这些信息来了解非常迅速的全球气候变化如何影响动植物和人类群落。 最后，我们将利用公元前中南部奥卡纳根高地保存完好的昆虫和植物化石，研究5300万-5000万年前气候迅速变暖与生物多样性之间的联系。这一时期的气候是自恐龙灭绝以来最温暖的，标志着北美、亚洲和欧洲类似现代森林的生态系统的开始。这些化石可以告诉我们在过去迅速变暖(可能是未来？)生物多样性是如何变化的。全球气候。

My research program aims to reconstruct patterns of change in vegetation and ecosystem structure in Western Canada, and to use this information to assess how environmental factors, in particular, climate, are responsible for those changes. Within this framework, we are focusing on several research topics. The first area of study is the glacial and biological history of Haida Gwaii (the Queen Charlotte Islands), also known as the "Canadian Galapagos." The origin of the unique fauna and flora of the Haida Gwaii is controversial, and centres on glacial history and the likely existence of glacial refuges during the last and previous glaciation. Prior to the last glacial maximum (~20,000 years ago), there was an earlier, larger glaciation that is too old to study by radiocarbon dating methods. We will use new dating techniques and employ pollen and plant fossils on Graham Island to reconstruct plant communities and climatic conditions, and to understand the effects of climate change and disturbance on plant survival and local extinction. We will also examine pollen fossils from the sediment core of a late-glacial pond adjacent to the Kilgii Gwaay archaeological site in the South Moresby area of Haida Gwaii. Using the results, we will reconstruct the environment at this particular site, which is one of the oldest (9,500 years) human occupation sites in Haida Gwaii. Pollen analysis will also test whether a sudden cooling event (Younger Dryas) occurred here, and we will use the information to understand how very rapid global climate change affected plant, animal, and human communities. Finally, we will study the connections between rapid climatic warming and biodiversity 53-50 million years ago by using well-preserved fossil insects and plants from that period (the Early Eocene) in the Okanagan highlands of south-central BC. This period had the warmest climate since extinction of dinosaurs, and marks the beginning of ecosystems that resemble modern forests in North America, Asia, and Europe. These fossils can tell us how biodiversity changed in a past rapidly warming (and possibly future?) global climate.