See below for the colloquium info. Looking forward to seeing you all on Thursday.

Time: 4:30-5:45 pm on Feb. 25

Zoom: https://tennessee.zoom.us/j/93826309464 

Speaker: Dr. Jessie Pearl (CV)

Institution: USGS

Title: Multiproxy reconstructions of Late Holocene coastal climate and extreme events in the United States

Abstract: The densely populated coastlines of the United States face unique natural hazards and are at the forefront of global change phenomena, and including sea level rise, rising global temperatures, changing storm frequency and intensity, and growing anthropogenic pressures. Adaptation to, and mitigation of, the impacts of these phenomena rely on extensive and accurate records of coastal stressors and an understanding of their secondary ecological effects. Instrumental data of physical and biological changes along the coast extend, at best, about 120 years and are usually much shorter. Thus, longer high-resolution records of coastal phenomena are essential to determine the potential range and return interval of storms, floods, droughts, and earthquakes. Multi-centennial to multi-millennial length tree-ring records are annually-resolved proxies for environmental change that fill these critical data gaps. These records ultimately improve coastal management and hazard planning, as well as to detect and attribute trends in regional climate phenomena. Using climate field reconstructions, a network of subfossil 'drowned' forests and co-located sediment records, radiocarbon, and paleoecology studies I date and characterize both long term trends and punctuated extreme events along the northeastern and northwestern coastlines of the United States.