Paleoecology: Documenting Long-term Environmental Variability

 

Robert K. Booth, Mark E. Lyford, and Jane M. Beiswenger

Tested Studies in Laboratory Teaching, 2002, Volume 23

Abstract

The objectives of this lab are to 1) provide students with an overview of paleoecological techniques, 2) illustrate how these techniques are used to document local changes in peat-accumulating wetlands over long time-scales (centuries to millennia), and 3) illustrate how long-term perspectives on environmental variability aid in the interpretation of recent environmental changes. Students actively create and interpret a hypothetical plant macrofossil and charcoal record spanning the last few thousand years. The macrofossil record places human-caused changes within the context of long-term natural variability. Interpretation of the record also reveals interrelationships among climate, vegetation, hydrology, and fire.

Keywords:  paleoecology, wetlands, plant macrofossils, environment

University of Chicago (2001)