Laboratory of Paleolimnology

What is Paleolimnology? 

Paleolimnology is the study of lakes of the past.

We use paleolimnological approaches to investigate everything from how local watersheds have responded in the recent past to human impacts to patterns of global change.

Paleolimnology involves a wide range of approaches to achieving these goals, including the study of sediments, erosional features left by past lakes, fossils, and geophysical data obtained from surveys of lake floors.
 

Facilities, Equipment, and Resources

Andrew Cohen’s Paleolimnology Laboratory at the UA maintains a wide range of facilities for core sample description and analysis relevant to this project, including the current CoreWall Suite operating on a PC workstation with dual monitors and a Mac workstation with 60” monitor for detailed core observation and analysis, plus 3 other workstation computers. The lab has an Olympus BX-43 upright microscope with DIC/phase contrast, a Nikon Optiphot-POL research grade polarizing microscope with high quality digital camera/imaging system, and Leica M165C, Olympus SZH and Olympus SZX12 research grade stereomicroscopes. It maintains a full core sample preparation laboratory and cold room for long term core and core sample storage. The lab also has access to SEM facilities (Hitachi 3400N SEM w/EDS, BSE and CL detectors) in the Arizona Laserchron Facility. We have extensive fossil and recent aquatic invertebrate comparative collections, focused on African and western North American ostracodes.

Opportunities for Graduate Study

I currently expect to have openings for graduate students interested in projects related to African lake paleoecology and Pliocene lakes of Arizona. UA Geosciences graduate admissions have closed for fall 2023 starts but if you are interested in learning more or applying for 2024 please contact me.

Andrew Cohen
Professor and Lab Director
Laboratories-Gould Simpson Bldg. 330 and 374
Cohen Office: Gould-Simpson Bldg. 325
Email: cohen@arizona.edu
Phone: 520-621-4691