Terrestrial vegetation both provides a primary record of environmental and climatic change, and vegetation change is a driving force for environmental and climatic change. The Department of Geosciences is allied with the Laboratory of Tree Ring Research, Department of Geography and Regional Development, The Arizona State Museum, and other UA programs to provide high quality vegetation reconstructions on all time scales and geographical scales. The fossils used in studying terrestrial vegetation include pollen, spores, charcoal, seeds, leaves, stomata, cuticles, phytoliths, organic chemical markers, and stable isotopes. These fossils are obtained from a host of deposits including packrat middens, coprolites, lakes, and caves.
Faculty
Owen Davis (Emeritus) - Quaternary paleoecology
Faculty with related interests
Julio Betancourt – Paleoclimatology and paleoecology
Susan Fish - Archeology, Palynology
Steve Jackson