Our interests are centered around the mechanisms and impacts of environmental change. We use a variety of numerical tools, including global and regional climate models, to understand the processes that govern the behavior of the climate system. These processes are characterized both by observations of the present state of the system and by records of past changes. By combining climate model experiments with direct and proxy observations, we seek to understand the mechanisms that shape, and have shaped, known expressions of the climate system. Additionally, through model experiments that test climate system responses to external forcings and internal feedbacks, we seek to define the mechanisms by which climate may change in the future, and the impacts that those changes may have on natural and human systems. We have pursued a number of research themes, all of which are focused at the interfaces of the atmosphere-biosphere-hydrosphere-cryosphere-geosphere-anthrosphere system. These themes include:

• Atmosphere-vegetation feedbacks.

• Response of extreme temperature and precipitation events to anthropogenic radiative forcing.

• Response of eastern boundary current regions to changes in radiative forcing.

• Mechanisms of Holocene climate variability.

• Impacts of climate change on natural and human systems

We are also developing a number of new research directions, including seasonal prediction of monsoon systems, the processes linking sea surface temperatures and terrestrial precipitation through time, and relationships between climate and continental dynamics.