Paleo-Climate Research on Lower Suwannee Refuge

photo credit: Larry Woodward

photo credit: Libby Cagle

Researcher Joe Donoghue, of the Planetary Sciences Group in the Department of Physics at the University of Central Florida, and his graduate students are conducting research on the Lower Suwannee NWR to determine the paleo-climate of Florida.  They are collecting sediment cores from coastal ponds that would likely have  been inundated by marine water and sediment during long-ago storm surges.  The sediment cores will be carbon-dated and analyzed to determine sediment grain size and geo-chemical make up.  The results may be able to provide a history of major storm events in the region for as far back as several thousand years.

Friends members Libby Cagle and Roger McDaniels happened upon the researchers when taking visitors along the Nature Drive recently.