Cenozoic Paleoclimates in High-Latitude Terrestrial Environments

Sedimentary basins are often sensitive recorders of paleoclimate. Analysis of Eocene-Oligocene strata in strike-slip basins of the Saint Elias Mountains, Yukon Territory has allowed us to document the impact of global climate change on high-latitude terrestrial environments. Our work has shown that at high northern latitudes, the global temperature decline at 36.6 Ma resulted in a shift from warm temperate, angiosperm-dominated to cooler temperate, gymnosperm-dominated forest types. We are currently working on the Neogene paleoclimatic record contained in Miocene and Pliocene deposits on the north flank of the Alaska Range. This work is a collaboration with paleobiologists, Art Sweet and James White, from the Geological Survey of Canada.

Palynomorphs of the Amphitheatre Fm., Wrangell Mtns. Mapping by canoe, Saint Elias Mtns., Yukon Territory.