I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Axford Group at Northwestern University, and I study how the climate and environment have changed along the west coast of Greenland over the last 11,000 years. This time frame is known as the Holocene, a period of pretty stable and (fortunately for humans) comfortable climate. I use lake sediments, and organic matter in those sediments to try and learn something about how the landscape and the climate influencing those lakes changed through time.

Check out some results from the NW Greenland Holocene climate project here. [June 2017]

And a review of stable isotopes in lake sediment fossil material here. [August 2018]

*NEW* Evidence for warming in South Greenland while the Vikings settled the island [February 2019].

In particular, I look for the remains of chironomid larvae down core, and through time. These aquatic insects can tell us a lot about what the environment was like when they were alive. I analyze the oxygen isotope composition of the chironomids to reconstruct past lake water composition, past precipitation composition, and sometimes controlling factors like temperature.

Factors that influence the measured oxygen isotope composition of chironomids

I occasionally tweet things about climate:
@everettlasher

Or you can email me at:
everett at earth.northwestern.edu