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 environments.
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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 and Fall semesters
CURRENT PROJECTS
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, and the southeastern San Juan Mountains, near Alamosa.
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***Graduate student project opportunities Fall 2020: 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 2020: Fire frequency and severity baselines in northern California
Recent Publications (*student)
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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
Lab Director
Christy Briles, PhD
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Education:
PhD and MS in Geography; BS in Environmental Science
Specialities:
Paleoecology, Biogeography, Pollen, Bee Ecology
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EUReCA! Undergraduate Lab Assistant/Researcher
Matt Davis
Education:
BA in Geography with an emphasis in Environmental Science (in progress)
Project:
Paleoenvironmental History of the southeastern San Juan Mountains, CO​
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Graduate Student Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Erin McKay
Education:
BS in Environmental Biology; MS in Environmental Science (in progress)
Thesis:
Late Holocene Sedimentology of Ha Long Bay, northern Vietnam
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EUReCA! Undergraduate Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Hillary Hillam
Education:
BA in Geography with an emphasis in Environmental Science (in progress)
Project:
Colorado Pollen Atlas
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Graduate Student Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Jeremy McClung
Education:
BS in Biology; MS in Environmental Science (in progress)
Thesis:
Late Holocene Foram Ecology of Ha Long Bay, northern Vietnam
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CURRENT LAB MEMBERS
Lab Director
Christy Briles, PhD
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Education:
PhD and MS in Geography; BS in Environmental Science
Specialities:
Paleoecology, Biogeography, Pollen, Bee Ecology
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Undergraduate Student Lab Assistant/EUReCA!/UROP Researcher
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Melissa Allen
Education:
BA in Geography with an emphasis in Environmental Science (in progress)
Project:
Native Bee Resources in Denver
Graduate Lab Assistant
Alix Bakke
Education:
BA in Geography at Sonoma State University
MA in Geography at CU Denver in progress
Undergraduate Lab Assistant/EUReCA!/UROP Researcher
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Hillary Hillam
Education:
BA in Geography with an emphasis in Environmental Science (in progress)
Project:
Colorado Pollen Atlas and Bee Resources
Graduate Researcher
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Sam Blake
Education:
BA Environmental Studies CU Boulder
Thesis:
Mapping Tree Resources for Bees in Downtown Denver using High-resolution LiDAR Data
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Graduate Student Lab Assistant
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Peter Zerbe
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Education:
Project:
CU Denver Pollen Reference Collection
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ALUMNI LAB MEMBERS
Graduate Student Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Erin McKay
Thesis:
Late Holocene Sedimentology of Ha Long Bay, northern Vietnam.
Graduate Student Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Jeremy McClung
Thesis:
Late Holocene Foraminera Ecology of Ha Long Bay, northern Vietnam
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Undergraduate Lab Assistant/EUReCA! /UROP Researcher
Matt Davis
Project:
Late Holocene Fire History of Beaver Lake, Colorado.
Graduate Student Lab Assistant/Researcher
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Rosemary Downing
Thesis:
Invasive species abundance in disturbance areas along hiking trails in Rocky Mountain National Park.
Graduate Student Professional Research Assistant/Researcher
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Kristen Birdshire
Thesis:
Bee diversity and abundance along an urban-rural gradient in Denver CO.
Graduate Student Researcher
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Bethany Walker
Thesis:
Late Holocene Aquatic Change Based on Diatoms from Lily Pond, CO.
Graduate Lab Assistant/Researcher
Shelley Morton
Thesis:
Late Holocene Fire Activity and Severity in Northern California.
Graduate Lab Assistant/Researcher
Zara Hickman
Thesis:
Characterizing Avalanches and Other Sedimentological Events in Lake Sediments.
Undergraduate Lab Assistant/UROP Researcher
Kade Beem
Project:
Measuring the Effectiveness of Flow vs Traditional Beehives.
Undergraduate Lab Assistant/UROP Researcher
Olga Serenchenko
Thesis:
Three thousand years of anthropogenic and climate influences on a tropical island ecosystem, Quan Lan Island, northern Vietnam
Undergraduate Lab Assistant/UROP Researcher
Ashley Bouck
Thesis:
Do you know where your honey comes from? Product labeling and geographic origins of Colorado honeys using melissopalynologic analysis.
Graduate Lab Assistant/Researcher
Tera Del Priore
Thesis:
4,000 years of environmental change in central Colorado: A paleoecological perspective.
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Graduate Researcher
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John Steelman
Project:
Dendroecological Study at Lily Pond, Southwestern Colorado
Graduate Lab Assistant & Researcher
Ben Wise
Project:
Sedimentology of Ralph Price Reservoir.
Thesis:
Community structure of denitrification genes in an acid mine drainage environment.
Graduate Researcher
James Suddreth
Thesis:
The influence of sodium in recycled water on ponderosa pine in Denver urban parks.
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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
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Contact Info: please email
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