A.A. 1988 Anthem College Architectural Drafting/ Design
Research Interest:
Northern Arizona University School of Earth Sciences and Environmental Sustainability Undergraduate Research Mentoring (URM) Paleoecological Research; Laboratory Assistant
Researched disturbance ecology, primarily the effect of fire and insect infestation on former plant communities; Paleoecology and climate history of plant communities; and Global change issues, especially as they relate to human activities in forested ecosystems
Assisted with paleoecological research under the supervision of Dr. R. Scott Anderson in analyzing past environments to attempt to anticipate future changes.
Field experience under the direction of mentor.
Reconstruction of past environments and fire history.
Analyze sediment cores in laboratory setting; collection of sediment cores, sampling of sediment cores, description of sediment cores, analyze for charcoal content.
I cannot remember a time in my life that I was not interacting with the natural world and environment, especially, in the form of domesticated animals; cattle, sheep, and horses. In my daily interactions with animals, I also observed the landscape and the vegetation. As I grew up in northeastern Arizona my first love was for the care of animals, continually caring for the creatures until I left for college. I noticed a lot of changes in the environment and vegetation over this time. This experience, specifically, gave me an interest in the natural and physical sciences.
Much of our fieldwork consists of taking sediment cores from lakes and wetlands. This figure shows individual core segments taken from Montezuma Well in Montezuma Castle National Monument in central Arizona, a particularly deep spring, with laminated sediments, often corresponding to deposition during individual years. Sediments like these allow paleoecologists to reconstruct vegetation (using pollen and plant remains), fire history (identifying charcoal particles), and many other aspects of environments in the past.