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We take a long-term view on ecological questions. Using paleorecords (especially from lake-sediment archives) we reconstruct the environments of the late Pleistocene and Holocene to address the links between biodiversity, climate, and disturbance processes (especially wildfire).

*** Recruiting a graduate student for Fall 2025 with an interest in reconstruction ecosystem change using the biological and chemical composition of lake sediments ***
People in the lab  [Lab alumni]
New in the lab (2024)
  • Niamh Houston (MS Student). Vegetation communities, fuel accumulation, and fire hazard in recent burns and re-burns in western Oregon.
  • AJ Salzer Undergrad lab tech.
  • Field assistants, vegetation sampling, summer 2024
    • Jesse Brodrick
    • Ben Adams
    • Joey Vierra
Recent publications  [News archive]
Hendricks, L.B., G.Z. Anshari, and D.G. Gavin. 2024. Fire in the rainforest: A 3,200 year history of fire in a West Kalimantan, Indonesia tropical rainforests. Ecosphere 14:e4918.
Ruwaimana, M., G.Z. Anshari, and D.G. Gavin. 2024. Interplay of climate, fires, floods, and anthropogenic impacts on the peat formation and carbon dynamic of coastal and inland tropical peatlands in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. Ecosystems.
Gavin, D.G., P.J. Bartlein, and C. Mock. 2023. Historical archives reveal record rainfall and severe flooding in December 1867 resulting from an atmospheric river and snowmelt, Western Washington, USA. PLOS Climate.
Late Glacial through Early Holocene environments inferred using pollen from coprolites and sediments recovered from Paisley Caves, Oregon. Study by Chantel Saban et al. in Quaternary Research.
Impact of a thick tephra deposition on forests and the fire regime of the Oregon Cascade Range. Article in Quaternary Science Reviews by recent PhD Jamila Baig.
Current funding from:
  • Northwest Climate Adaptation Science Center (CASC)
Past funding from:

Other stuff
Late Pleistocene and Holocene Environmental Change on the Olympic Peninsula, Washington by D.G. Gavin and L.B. Brubaker.

Climate Refugia workshop (Two reports published from the August 2012 workshop).

Revealing Nature's Past: High-school curriculum for teaching climate-change concepts and an introduction to paleoecology.

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