April 2023

As an undergraduate, I worked on a project that used sediment cores from the Andvord Bay on the Antarctic Peninsula to reconstruct when ice shelves were present or absent. I found it fascinating that you could literally see changes in the sediments that indicated either open water conditions or a bay that was covered in ice. It was also amazing to think of sediment cores as time machines. Their top begins at the present day and then as you go deeper, you go back in time and see what conditions at specific locations were in the past and how they changed. Linking data from different sites, in some cases from across the planet, to understand how Earth’s climate functioned as a system and responded to different perturbations also captivated me and made me want to learn more about how the Earth worked and what this meant for our future. 

Climate change and its impacts pose existential threats not just to human society, but life systems as we know them on this planet. The heart of my work is to understand how our climate systems function and respond to different forcings, both natural and anthropogenic. By understanding how the climate system functioned before major anthropogenic influences began during the industrial revolution, and how they have functioned since then, we can better understand how the system is likely to respond to continued anthropogenic influences.

One problem that my research is addressing here in the Midwest, is the relationships between climate, land use, and fluvial (river) systems. My work has reconstructed climate conditions during what we call the Common Era (the last 2,000 years), including changes in the seasonality of precipitation, where moisture is derived from, and regional warm season temperatures. I have also reconstructed flooding on large and small streams in the Midwest, which has allowed us to better understand “natural” climate-flood relationships and how they have been modified by anthropogenic activities.

By determining the natural and anthropogenic drivers of Midwestern climate and flooding, we are aiding predictions of how projected climate changes are likely to impact these systems. In addition to changes in flood frequencies, I have also been investigating the mobility of streams across their floodplain. With this information, we are contributing to efforts to determine which river reaches (river sections) are more likely to flood and experience fluvial erosion hazards as streams respond to increased discharges. This helps communities plan for and recover from flood events.

I enjoy all aspects of my work from sample collection in the field, to processing cores and samples in the lab, to disseminating my results. But I suppose it is the discovery of new and unexpected findings that keeps me going. And as we learn more and refine our understanding of the integrated climate-landscape system, we are able to help society deal with current and future climate-related issues.

Students are an integral part of my research program. To reconstruct climate and fluvial processes (i.e., flooding), I collect sediment cores from lakes that are located across the Midwest in a variety of environmental settings. Graduate and undergraduate students are involved in all aspects of this work. Through IUPUI’s Multidisciplinary Undergraduate Research Initiative (MURI) program, I have engaged over 60 undergraduates in my Midwestern research program. I have also mentored several MSc and Ph.D. students. These students have helped to collect lake sediment cores in the field, process the cores and develop proxy climate and flood records in the lab, and disseminate the results in talks, posters, and publications.

The community is engaged in my work through collaborations with community organizations and governments such as The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. Through these institutions, we address issues surrounding fluvial hazards, including mitigation and zoning. We are also working to develop a post-flood recovery plan that will help communities respond to floods and recover from their aftermath.

Despite our work, there is still a need to get additional data. So, I am continuing to collect sediment cores to develop new paleoclimate records and flood frequency records from Indiana and across the Midwest. We are also working on a post-flood recovery plan to help communities impacted by floods rebuild in a way that accounts for changes in fluvial systems as a result of anthropogenic activities.