Erica Domen L&S Biological Sciences
Reconstructing Late Miocene pCO2 Using Fossil Ginkgo Cuticles
During the Miocene (~23-5 million years ago) Earth experienced a geologically abrupt warming event known as the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO). The MCO represents the most recent period in Earth’s history where abrupt warming coincided with reconstructed atmospheric CO2 concentrations comparable to modern-day and projected future levels. The UC Museum of Paleontology (UCMP) has extensive collections of Miocene fossils from the Molalla flora of northwestern Oregon which have yet to be described or published. In this project I will focus on surveying the vegetation of the Molalla flora during a time that Ginkgo was in decline in North America and refining CO2 estimates from this period using fossil Ginkgo leaves from this locality that are part of the UCMP collections. Insights from characterizing the climate and plant communities around the MCO can contribute to our understanding of current and future global warming responses.
Message To Sponsor
I would like to thank the sponsors for supporting this summer project. Your generous gift allows me to gain valuable skills and experience that will further my scientific education and greatly enhance my ability to contribute to a field I am deeply passionate about. I could not be more grateful!