MODELING CLIMATE AND VEGETATIONAL CHANGE SINCE THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM USING STABLE ISOTOPES AND DIGITAL ANALYSIS

Pennilyn Higgins Florida Museum of Natural History

Gainesville, FLloligo@earth.rochester.edu

Isotopes as environmental proxyC – Dietary proxy

C3 vs C4 plants in herbivoresC3 13C lower than C4 13C

O – Climatic proxy18O increases with warmer temperatures18O decreases with high rainfall in warm weather

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications

Data generation

One tooth; how many data points?

Database

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications

Plotting isotopic values against geographical information

Localities sampled

Stacked plots

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications

Database query

Plot and contour the data

Change your data and color scheme.

Look at a specific part of the fauna

…and compare with other species

Liven it up with color

…and get a closer look

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications

Exporting to other formats

Initial diagrams can be pretty ugly…

…but are easy enough to sharpen with other software

Plotting oxygen and carbon

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceA real applications

Full Glacial + Glacial Carbon

FG + G Bison and Camelops

FG + G Equus

Full Glacial + Glacial Carbon

Late Glacial Carbon

Late Glacial Carbon

OutlineAn overabundance of dataGeographical dataUsing the computer to sort it outVisualizing large data setsMaking it look niceReal applications