Congratulations to three students of the Castañeda Biogeochemistry lab group who recently published their research findings on Arctic paleoclimatology!

For his graduate work, Dr. Boyang Zhao examined lake sediment cores from Southern Greenland to examine the area’s paleoclimate history during the Norse inhabitation period, and, most importantly, during the sudden exodus of Norse people out of Greenland in the 15th Century. The full paper can be found here, in the journal Science Advances. In the manuscript, we utilize the hydrogen isotope ratios of organic biomarkers, along with other chemical indicators in the lake sediments, to conclude that the climate shifted toward drier conditions, likely stressing the agricultural practices and thereby contributing to the abandonment of Norse settlements. To read more, here are some popular science outlets that reported on Boyang’s work: IFLS, UMass, Science, CNN.

Secondly, congratulations to Kurt Lindberg (UMass, ’20) on a recent publication in the journal Climate of the Past (link). Kurt worked with me and Isla on his senior thesis at UMass, in which he characterized Arctic climate change during the Mid-Pleistocene Transition. Kurt’s research utilized organic biomarkers preserved in the Lake El’gygytgyn drillcore from Northeast Russia to reconstruct temperature, and vegetation/aridity. The time period he studied was from 0.8 to 1.2 million years ago, which marked a critical transition interval in Earth’s climate history when global temperatures were cooling and ice ages were becoming more severe. Kurt is continuing to examine Arctic climate change as a graduate student at the University at Buffalo.

Most recently, Carly Lombardo, a current UMass undergraduate student working on the Lake El’gygytgyn project, shared the results of our research at the Northeast Section meeting of the Geologic Society of America. This was Carly’s first time presenting at a scientific conference, and her research prompted quite a bit of discussion at the meeting. Great job, Carly! Her research explores the history of wildfires at Lake El’gygytgyn, again using organic biomarkers preserved in the lake’s sediments. Wildfires are typically quite rare in the Arctic tundra, but appear to be increasing in frequency as a results of climate warming. Here, Carly was testing how temperature, aridity, and vegetation interact to control fire activitiy. In this case, Lombardo analyzed Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons, which are common byproducts of wildfires. Lombardo will also be sharing her research at the upcoming Massachusetts Undergraduate Research Conference, and a video link of her presentation can be found here.