I am a paleopedologist, meaning I study ancient soils, or paleosols, in a processual context in order to discern the environment and climate under which these soils originally formed. Whereas geologists have traditionally lumped these profiles under the rubric of sedimentary rocks, we are beginning to understand that to ignore these weathering profiles is to dismiss some of the strongest clues for paleoenvironmental reconstruction we have - for paleosols, like their unburied forbears, are wholly products of their environment.

As a paleopedologist I am necessarily a highly interdisciplinary geoscientist. In addition to utilizing traditional geologic fields such as geochemistry, stratigraphy, and sedimentology, I also have a strong knowledge and understanding of modern surficial processes such as geomorphology, and in particular soil processes. I am also broadly interested in strengthening my general skills as a Geologist, and constantly work to deepen my understanding of fields outside of my own.

I am currently studying an ancient global warming event that occurred about 55ma, denominated the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, or the PETM. It is estimated that this event warmed temperate continental areas by as much as 5ºC and caused massive biospheric perturbations, yet the role of terrestrial weathering in this greenhouse climate has not yet been clearly discerned - in large part because evidence has often not been preserved. Our group, however, has discovered laterally extensive paleosols that formed during this greenhouse interval, and we have recognized that these profiles contain promising evidence for a well-preserved terrestrial PETM signature.

My role in this NSF-funded interdepartmental research is to elucidate apropos processual and geochemical attributes. I have two broad personal goals for this research: first, to clarify the terrestrial signature of the PETM; and second, because little of the already-limited body of terrestrial PETM research has focused on the role of paleopedology, I would like to represent this as a particularly salient example of the functionality of including the paleopedological approach in the geologist’s toolbox.