Syllabus

Schedule of Lectures and Labs
Lectures are in Scovel Hall Room 116 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 – 11:50 a.m. Labs will meet in various locations throughout the semester – mostly in labs and classrooms in Scovel Hall.

14-18 January: The Earth’s NRG Balance and the Organization of the Atmosphere and Oceans
Reading: First Chapter in the Paleoclimate Text. Also take a look at a Summary of Climate Change by Spencer Wert from his book and website: The Discovery of Global Warming. This will be a valuable resource.
Laboratory: Lab will meet in Scovel 305 Computer Lab.
Assignments: Take the climate quiz here – take the oceans one this week.(preparation questions)

23 – 25 January: The Energy Balance and the structure of the Ocean-Atmosphere System
Reading: Handouts and Reading 10 in the Readings page – it is the reading about ATM Circulation.
Laboratory: No Lab this week see you at MLK day on Monday.
Assignments: Learn the Energy Budget handout that I will provide Weds. (preparation questions).

28 January – 1 February –
Reading: Take a look at the basics of ATM circulation. This video is a good review. We will be confused for a while regarding the carbon cycle we will start the long-term or tectonic carbon cycle (reading passed out in class) and then back to the Keeling Record and the modern carbon cycle..
Laboratory: We will begin work on the Alaska Cedar – each of you will obtain a cross-section and we will begin the fundamentals of tree-ring dating.

Assignments: (preparation questions)

4 – 8 February – The History of CO2 Over Deep Time
Reading:Chapter 4 and 5 in Bender.
Laboratory: We will meet in Scovel 305 to begin work with the tree ring data and start looking at the climate data that we will ultimately compare to our cedar ring-width chronology.
Assignments: (preparation questions); Hand-in research paper topic (project) Friday 8 February.

11 – 15 February – Continuation cooling through the Cz and then – The Ice Ages (First Exam on Friday) – Here is the review ppt.
Reading: Chapter 9 (through page 190 – it’s a long chapter) in Bender.
Laboratory: Lab will be back in Scovel 305. The article in the dropbox on La Perouse Glacier by Gaglioti et al. is in the La Perouse folder. This is a great resource and way to begin the discussion of tree-ring principles. We will be covering this in class and in lab.
Assignments: First Lecture Exam (15 February). I will cover what I expect on the exam and we will have a review sheet and ppt. (preparation questions).

18- 22 February – The Ice Ages continued.
Reading: The remainder of Chapter 9 from Bender book on Paleoclimate
Lab: We need to work in 305 again – the mission is to develop a regression equation and estimate past temperatures using the tree-ring records we have been working with.

25 February – 1 March – Lab will be processing the lake core that Nick and I collected (mostly Nick). We will meet in the Petrology Lab. Hand-in the writeup for the Yakutat temperature reconstruction. We are finishing up learning about ACCs this week and then need to work though the climate history of the Holocene and the last 2000 years for the remainder of the course.

4 – 8 March – We will move into the discussion of the transition from the ice ages to The Holocene.

Reading: Bender – Chapter 11
Laboratory:We will be back in the Petrology lab working on the lake core from Browns Lake.

Your stratigraphic description and photos of the sediment are due on Monday. The Radiocarbon samples has been received by ICA.
Assignments: (preparation questions)

9 – 24 March – Midterm Break

25 – 29 – Monday we will go in the field in the afternoon (likely without the seniors). Secrets Arboretum is the location and European larch trees are the trees. Note that it will be partly cloudy and 45 degrees in the field – we will take a short walk and core some of the larch trees.

Reading: Continue with the Speer reading on the fundamentals of tree – rings. Pages 19-47 from Reading 19 on the Readings page.

Assignments: Trun in your exercise on radiocarbon calibration on Wednesday (preparation questions)
1 – 5 April – Exam 2 will be Friday. Trip to Byrd Polar Research (Ohio State University) on Monday. We will leave at 11:30 and return by 4:30 pm – it is a bit of a drive to Columbus.

Laboratory: The trip to Byrd covers the lab period and we will continue work on the larch cores during class and review for the test.

Assignments: 1 April hand in an outline for your project and what data/analyses you may need to complete it – I call this a draft (preparation questions)

Exam on Friday (5 April)

8 – 12 April – Report writing for the director of the Secrest Arboretum.

Lab: We will spend class and lab in assembling the tree-ring record for the Larix Decidua site. The goal is to put together the chronology and then analyze the climate signal.

Reading: This is the reading and the template for our report. Discussion on Friday will revolve around Reading 14 – Ruddiman.

Assignments: A draft of your project was due last Monday. The semester gets busy so you should too when it comes to getting your project done – I can field questions during lab. (preparation questions)

15 – 19 April – Completing (or at least moving it along) the Report to Secrest

Readings: The reading this week is here. It is a youtube video by Jim White the director of the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research. Dr. White is next year’s Osgood speaker. Listen to it and write down any questions you have.

Laboratory: Larix Decidua Report.


Assignments: (preparation questions)

22 – 24 April (Friday is the senior IS symposium) – We are still working on the report – let’s consider a submission to the Ohio Journal of Science.

Assignments: Final research due project due Monday (29 April) by 4pm – talks will be done during lab and the balance of the time will be dedicated to the report – Larix Decidua (preparation questions)

29 April – 3 May Monday during lab are the presentations of your project and the paper is due.

Reading: Read this from the IPCC and pay close attention to the forcing diagram – Figure SPM.5. (I handed this out in class). We will spend the class time finishing up the Larch Report and Summarizing the lessons learned from the Paleoclimate Record and the lessons learned.

Jim White (UC-Boulder) gives a good summary of the Paleoclimate record and what we can learn – moving into the future.


Laboratory: 29 April – project presentations 8 minutes with 2 minutes of questioning. Upload your presentations to the dropbox folder labeled Presentations.

Assignments: (preparation questions)

Final Exam (Monday 6 May at 9 AM in Scovel 116)

Schedule of Lectures and Labs Lectures are in Scovel Hall Room 116 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 11:00 – 11:50 a.m. Labs will meet in various locations throughout the semester – mostly in labs and classrooms in Scovel Hall.

Assignments: (preparation questions)

18- 22 February – The Ice Ages continued. Reading: The remainder of Chapter 9 from Bender book on Paleoclimate Lab: We need to work in 305 again – the mission is to develop a regression equation and estimate past temperatures using the tree-ring records we have been working with.

4 – 8 March – We will move into the discussion of the transition from the ice ages to The Holocene.

Reading: Bender – Chapter 11 Laboratory:We will be back in the Petrology lab working on the lake core from Browns Lake.

Your stratigraphic description and photos of the sediment are due on Monday. The Radiocarbon samples has been received by ICA. Assignments: (preparation questions)

9 – 24 March – Midterm Break

25 – 29 – Monday we will go in the field in the afternoon (likely without the seniors). Secrets Arboretum is the location and European larch trees are the trees. Note that it will be partly cloudy and 45 degrees in the field – we will take a short walk and core some of the larch trees.

1 – 5 April – Exam 2 will be Friday. Trip to Byrd Polar Research (Ohio State University) on Monday. We will leave at 11:30 and return by 4:30 pm – it is a bit of a drive to Columbus.

8 – 12 April – Report writing for the director of the Secrest Arboretum.