Mapping climate change

Dartmouth College Office of Public Affairs • Press Release
Posted 12/10/07 • Susan Knapp • (603) 646-3661

"Climate change is one of the scariest topics of my generation," says Tim Bolger, a member of the Dartmouth class of 2010. He's immersed himself in this issue during his time at Dartmouth. In addition to taking numerous courses that focused on climate and the environment, he spent last summer in Alaska studying thousand-year trends in climate patterns, a field called paleoclimatology. 

Paleoclimatology interests him for the perspective it provides on what the Earth is experiencing today, and also "because it provides data that helps verify Global Climate Models, which are responsible for predicting the future effects of climate change," he says.

Through his advisor, Associate Professor of Geography Laura Conkey, Bolger connected with Dan Lawson, a researcher with the U.S. Army's Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, or CRREL. Lawson's team works regularly in Glacier Bay National Park, on the southern coast of Alaska near Juneau, collecting samples of "interstadial" wood. These wood pieces are found within the deposits of the glaciers that have covered Glacier Bay several times over the last 10,000 years. During each advance of the ice, forests are overridden and stumps and logs are often preserved. Analyzing the tree-ring record of the interstadial wood provides information on the climate when the trees were alive.

Lawson welcomed Bolger's help and his curiosity.

"Tim was an excellent field assistant and although he came to Alaska not knowing too much about the field aspects of the project, it was not long before he was deeply involved in the science," says Lawson. "His questions sparked interesting conversations on climate change in the past and how it was extremely relevant to understanding climatic warming in the future."

Bolger learned how to locate and identify interstadial wood, which Lawson used to generate a dendrochronology of the region, the process of tree-ring dating to map changes in environmental conditions. "I also learned how to operate a chainsaw and how to bushwhack. It was a multifaceted adventure," he says.

Now that Bolger has some field experience under his belt, which was supported by the Dean of the Faculty Office through the Paul K. Richter and Evalyn E. Cook Richter Memorial Fund, he feels he is now ready to tackle the societal aspects of climate change. "I want to be more connected to the social affairs of climate change in order to help generate necessary political, economic, and social reform."

Bolger's efforts in Alaska, however, will continue to serve as inspiration to other students, says professor Conkey.

"Tim created a poster about his research, and I've hung that here in the department to encourage others to take that step and do field research," she says.

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