New Harvard Forest Publication: Climate Change Shown in Paleo Record in Southwestern CT

Records of past environmental variability provide insights into how ecosystems respond to climate change. In a study published in the Journal of Quaternary Science, Harvard Forest researchers Wyatt Oswald, David Foster, Elaine Doughty, and Ed Faison analyze a lake-sediment record from southwestern Connecticut to reconstruct changes in climate, hydrology, and vegetation at the beginning and end of the Younger Dryas event (13,000-11,600 years ago). Pollen and sedimentary evidence suggest that the New England climate became warmer and drier at the onset of the Holocene.

Oswald, W.W., D.R. Foster, E.D. Doughty, and E.K. Faison (2009) A record of Lateglacial and early Holocene environmental and ecological change from southwestern Connecticut, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 24: 553-556.