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paleonet Graduate Student Research Opportunities




Dear Colleagues,

Please bring the advertisement below to the attention of people who, in your
judgment, may be suitable candidates for these positions.  Please excuse
cross-posting.

Thank you very much for this help.

Tim


Graduate Student Research Opportunities in Micropaleontology
Carleton University, Ottawa

I have received major funding for a research project entitled "High resolution
Holocene paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic records from small lakes and
anoxic basins along the British Columbia coast"
Funding is for $600,000CAN from the Canadian Foundation for Climate and
Atmospheric Sciences (CFCAS) with a further $1.6 millionCAN in ship time and
logistic support over the next three years from the Department of Fisheries and
Oceans, the Geological Survey of Canada and NOAA.

Part of the funding is earmarked to graduate student training with financial
support being provided for 3 years (through 2004).

Students with an expertise, or interest, in several areas of
micropaleontological research (foraminifera, thecamoebians, palynology, and
diatoms) are encouraged to apply.

Please contact me with an indication of your research interests and for
information on obtaining application forms for admission to graduate school at
Carleton University.

Project Overview

Earth's climate is highly variable, and this natural variability must be
understood if reliable predictions of future climate states are to be made.
Geological and historical records from coastal B.C. provide clear evidence that
the regional climate has oscillated on a variety of time-scales during the
Holocene interglacial (0-10,000 years before present). The present climate of
the west coast of Canada is influenced by the Aleutian Low, the Jet Stream, and
El Niņo/La Niņa, which are interdependent and have sub-decadal cycles.
Superimposed in these are less well understood, longer-scale events operating
on a global scale. The interactions of these climate-forcing phenomena
determine whether there will be costly droughts or flooding on land, and
influence recruitment to many BC fisheries. The purpose of this research is to
identify past changes in atmospheric and ocean conditions, and the relative
timing of these changes, over the last 2,000 years from the sedimentary record
in coastal BC inlets and lakes. This information is required by policy makers
attempting to recognize and adapt to anthropogenic climate change. Recognition
of the natural climatic cycles affecting the coastal ocean will also enable the
commercial marine fishing industry to respond more strategically to natural
variations in fish stocks.

Bottom sediments of inlets along southern Vancouver Island contain a
high-resolution record of climate change and paleoproductivity in the North
American Upwelling Domain throughout the late Holocene. A reconnaissance cruise
aboard the CCGS Vector in August 2000 found additional inlets with annually
laminated sediments in Smith, Seymore, and Belize inlets and Frederick Sound,
further up the coast in the Coastal Transition Domain. We will sample all these
sites, together with adjacent lakes, and utilize a combination of
oceanographic, sedimentological, geochemical, and micropaleontological methods
to identify and correlate long and short-term climate cycles, impossible to
resolve with the short, approximately 100-year instrument record.  We will also
determine the impact of coastal marine climate changes on the productivity and
distribution of pelagic fish stocks along the B.C. coast by examining fish
scales that are well preserved in core samples.

--
___________________
Dr. R. Timothy Patterson
Professor of Geology
Department of Earth Sciences
2240 Herzberg Building
College of Natural Sciences
Carleton University
Ottawa, Ontario
K1S 5B6
CANADA
___________________
(613) 520-2600 ex 4425
FAX: (613) 520-2569
tpatters@ccs.carleton.ca
www.carleton.ca/~tpatters

Personal Web Page
http://www.carleton.ca/~tpatters

NSERC Strategic Fisheries Initiative
http://www.earthsci.carleton.ca/Museum/strategicfisheriesproject/

Hooper Virtual Natural History Museum
http://www.earthsci.carleton.ca/Museum/hvpmdoor.html

Climate Change:  A Geological Perspective  WWW Course
http://www.carleton.ca/courses/67.242/

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