PALEOECOLOGY, PALYNOLOGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE LABORATORY
EXPLORE THE PAST
UNDERSTAND THE FUTURE
ABOUT THE PPCC LAB
The PPCC Lab was established in 2013 at CU Denver to examine:
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Long-term ecosystem dynamics, including how climate, human activities, geology, and natural disturbances have influenced plant communities since the last glacial period (~16,000 years ago) in the western US and Vietnam
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Distribution of and food availability for bees in resource-limited and contaminated environments.
CU Denver courses that provide an introduction to these two areas of study include:
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Mountain Biogeography (GEOG/ENVS 4731/5731): Fall semester
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Beeography (GEOG/ENVS 4750/5750): Summer (Maymester) semesters
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CURRENT PROJECTS
Wetland Sequestration of Heavy Metals and Carbon
Wetlands are excellent filters of toxins, like heavy metals, and they are some of the best natural accumulators of carbon. Using a temporal perspective, we are examining how well natural wetlands are sinks for contaminants and carbon, and how natural (e.g., climate and disturbance) and anthropogenic factors (e.g., mining and logging) influence their uptake.
NORTHERN VIETNAM
SHALLOW MARINE PALEOECOLOGY
In late 2015, we collected several cores from the shallow waters of Ha Long Bay amongst floating island communities and in secluded areas not frequented by people. We are examining forams, charcoal and sediment geochemistry to determine the extent and nature of climate and human impacts on diverse marine and terrestrial ecosystems.
Forest and Fire Response to Climate Change in Colorado
Colorado has a complex climate due to its mountainous intercontinental location. We are using paleodata from lakes in the region to understand how past climate change influences forests and fire regimes along environmental gradients. We are also interested in both long-term and more recent human impacts on Colorado ecosystems. Studies are currently being conducted in Taylor Park, east of Buena Vista, sites near Aspen, and the southeastern San Juan Mountains, near Alamosa.
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***Graduate student project opportunities Fall 2025: Late Holocene Environmental Change of the Central Rocky Mountains.
NORTHERN CALIFORNIA
CONTROLS ON FOREST BIODIVERSITY
The Klamath-Siskiyou Mountain Ecoregion (KMSE) of Northern California has the largest number of conifers in North America and high levels of endemism (i.e. biodiversity hotspot). Nearly three decades of paleoenvironmental work in the region has resulted in a network of records that allow us to ask historical ecological and biogeographical questions that address how this diversity developed and is maintained. Our current project is understanding the spatiotemporal role of fire in the KSME.
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***Graduate Student Project Fall 2025: Fire frequency and severity baselines in northern California
Recent Publications (*student)
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*Rees JC, Lininger KB, Landis JD, Briles CE. 2024. Assessing controls on sedimentation rates and sediment organic carbon accretion in beaver ponds. Sci Total Environ. 949:174951.
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Armstead, S., A. Carper, D. Davidson, M. Blanchard, J. Hopwood, R. Larcom, S. Black, C. Briles, R. Irwin, G. Jolma, J. Resasco, S. Davis, J. Mola, and D. Inouye. 2024. Colorado Native Pollinating Insects Health Study. Denver: Colorado Department of Natural Resources.
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Mariani, M., Connor, S. E., Theuerkauf, M., Herbert, A., Kuneš, P., Bowman, D., …Briles, C. 2022. Disruption of cultural burning promotes shrub encroachment and unprecedented wildfires. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/fee.2395
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Andrews, B.N., Meltzer, D.J., Emslie, S.D., Briles, C.E., and Whitlock, C. 2021. The environmental context. In: B.N. Andrews, D.J. Meltzer, and M. Stiger, editors. The Mountaineer site: a Folsom winter camp in the Rockies. University Press of Colorado, Louisville, CO.
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Anderson, R.S., Jimenez-Moreno, G., Belanger, M., Briles, C.E. 2020. Fire history of the unique high-elevation Snowmastodon Site during MIS 6 – 4, with comparisons of TII to TI in the southern Colorado Rockies. Quaternary Science Reviews. 232, 106213.
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*Birdshire, K., Carper, A., Briles, C.E.. 2020. Bee community response to local and landscape factors along an urban-rural gradient. Urban Ecosystems. 23: 689-702.
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*Subotic, S, *Boddicker, A.M., *Nguyen, V.M., *Rivers, J., Briles, C.E., Mosier, A. 2019. Honeybee microbiome associated with different hive and sample types over a honey production season. PLoS ONE 14(11): e0223834. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0223834.
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Briles, C.E., *Serenchenko, O., Stevens, L., White, A.J., and Huong, Mai. 2019. Late Holocene climate and human impacts on a tropical ecosystem in northern Vietnam. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution. 7(121), 1-11. (doi: 10.3389/fevo.2019.00121).
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Skinner, C.N., Taylor, A.K., Agee, J.K., Briles, C.E., and Whitlock, C. 2018. Klamath Mountains Bioregion. In: N. G. Sugihara, J. W. van Wagtendonk, J. Fites-Kaufmann, K. E. Shaffer, and A. E. Thode, editors. Fire in California's Ecosystems. University of California Press, Berkeley. pp. 171-193.
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Briles, C.E., 2017. Controls on mountain plant diversity: a 14,000-year overview. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 107(2), 238-249. (doi: 10.1080/24694452.2016.1232617).
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Rathburn, S.L., Bennett, G.L., Wohl, E.E., Briles, C.E., McElroy, B., Sutfin, N. 2017.The fate of sediment, wood and organic carbon eroded during an extreme flood, Colorado Front Range, USA. Geology 45(6), 499-502. (doi: 10.1130/G38935.1).
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Cook, P.L.M, *Jennings, M., Holland, D.P., Beardall, J., Briles, C.E., Atun, Z., Doan, P.L., Mills, K., Gell, P. 2016. Blooms of cyanobacteria in a temperate Australian lagoon system post and prior to European settlement. Biogeosciences 113 (12), 3677-3686. (doi: 10.5194/bg-13-3677-2016).
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*White, A., Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C. 2015. Postglaical vegetation and fire history of the southern Cascade Range, Oregon, USA. Quaternary Research 84, 348-357. (doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2015.09.007).
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Higuera, P.E., Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C. 2014. Fire regime complacency and sensitivity to centennial- through millennial-scale climate variability in Rocky Mountain subalpine forests, Colorado, USA. Journal of Ecology 102, 1429-1441. (doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.12296).
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Dunnette, P.V., Higuera, P.E., McLauchlan, K.K., Derr, K.M., Briles, C.E., and Keefe, M.H. 2014. Biogeochemical impacts of wildfires over four millennia in a Rocky Mountain subalpine watershed. New Phytologist 203, 900-912. (doi: 10.1111/nph.12828).
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Morey, A.E., Goldfinger, C., Briles, C.E., Gavin, D., Colombaroli, D. and Kusler, J.E. 2013. Are great Cascadia earthquakes recorded in the sedimentary records from small forearc lakes? Natural Hazards and Earth System Science 13, 2441-2463. (doi: 10.5194/nhess-13-2441-2013).
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Briles, C.E., Whitlock, C., and Meltzer, D. 2012. Late-glacial-interglacial environments in the southern Rocky Mountains, USA and implications for Younger Dryas-age human occupation. Quaternary Research 77, 96-103. (doi: 10.1016/j.yqres.2011.10.002).
CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
ALUMNI LAB MEMBERS
CONTACT US
Mailing:
Geography and Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
P.O. Box 173364
Campus Box 172
Denver, CO 80217-3364
Deliveries:
Geography and Environmental Sciences
University of Colorado Denver
1201 5th Street-NC 3014
Denver, CO 80204
Walk In:
1200 Larimer Street
North Classroom-3514 (office) or 3208 (lab)
Denver, CO 80204
Contact Info: please email