Human activities are increasingly influencing climate and other environmental systems on Earth, yet in order to put current and future anthropogenic impacts into perspective, we must better understand natural variability in the Earth’s climate system, including the response of ecosystems to climatic and anthropogenic change. Department faculty are engaged in interdisciplinary research on paleoclimate and environmental change attributed to both natural phenomena and human activity at local to global scales, and on time scales ranging from reaction kinetics to geological.

Our research encompasses a broad range of topics, including improving our ability to link climate and hydrology with ecological change, enhancing our understanding of biogeochemical cycling processes within the Earth system, and the co-evolution of these Earth, life, and climate processes through time. We have strong laboratory and field programs in these areas, with sites ranging from the Tropics to the Arctic, and from Africa to Peru to Pennsylvania.