SBR-9508272 William C. Johnson Kyeong Park U. Kansas, Main Campus Doctoral Dissertation Research: Reconstruction of Later Quaternary Paleoclimates of the Central Great Plains Using Magnetic and Non-Magnetic Parameters This dissertation-improvement award supports rock-magnetic analysis, radiocarbon dating, and carbon isotope analysis of materials extracted from two sites in south-central Nebraska. The purpose of the analysis is to reconstruct climate and climate change during the late Quaternary period. The central Great Plains has experienced major climatic and associated environmental change during this period. Little high-resolution climatic proxy record exists for the region, largely reflecting a lack of traditional information sources (such as peat bogs or natural lakes for botanical micro- and macro-fossil analysis). An alternative source of proxy information is available in the nearly continuous loess and paleosol sequences in the region. These will be the sources of the material to be analyzed in the dissertation research. The results will include a high-resolution climatic reconstruction where none currently exists, better parameterization of rock-magnetic measurements, and combination of contrasting proxies in a single climatic record.
