“Caribbean environmental histories from pollen, charcoal, an

Schedule information
Event	“Caribbean environmental histories from pollen, charcoal, an
When	Thursday, November 5, 2009 from 12:15pm to 1:00am
Where	ICC ECR 7th floor
Ticket/RSVP	This event requires a ticket or RSVP
Event details
Details	Lake/wetland sediments provide a “window” into the past through which we can observe and study landscape changes over long time periods, often millennia. By way of proxy data sources contained in sediments, such as pollen, charcoal, and other microfossils, it is possible to reconstruct environmental history including climate, vegetation, fire, and sometimes human activities. This presentation will examine some of these proxy data sources through examples of such research in Caribbean sites. Topics will include reconstruction of prehistoric human activities in tropical rain forest, long-term fire history in high mountains of the Dominican Republic, and long records of hurricane landfalls (a subfield called “paleotempestology”) from coastal lake sediments, also in the Dominican Republic. Lisa Kennedy is a biogeographer with research experience in the Neotropics, the Caribbean, and the Southern Appalachian Mountains of the eastern U.S. Her research is aimed at reconstructing Quaternary environmental history through the study of lake/wetland sediments. She and her students also study tree rings, which yield information on environmental history over shorter time scales (decades to centuries). Kennedy teaches graduate and undergraduate courses on physical geography, human-environment interaction, and paleoenvironments, and also leads study abroad courses in the Dominican Republic. RSVP: https://www12.georgetown.edu/sfs/rsvp/stia
Access	» This event has been marked as open to the public.
Contact	tjg35@georgetown.edu
Sponsors	STIA and CFE
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