Holocene Water Balance of the Northeastern Great Basin
Funded by the National Science Foundation
Work on this project is providing new Holocene climate records from northeastern Utah that will improve understanding of the causes and history of drought in the western U.S. Results obtained thus far include the development of a new paleoclimate proxy based on the isotopic composition of the structural carbohydrate chitin preserved in the cysts of brine shrimp living in saline lakes, multi-substrate radiocarbon age models that reveal changes in Holocene sedimentation rates and storage of carbon within the Great Salt Lake Basin, and mineralogical records showing climate-driven fluctuations in sedimentary deposits within the Great Salt Lake. The project has supported work by EAS graduate students Kristine Nielson and Justin VanDeVelde as well as 2 Purdue undergraduate students.
Investigator(s)- Gabe Bowen, EAS
Contact Information
Purdue University
PCCRC
203 S. Martin Jischke Drive
MANN 105
West Lafayette, IN 47907
- Phone: 765-494-5146
- Fax: 765-496-9322