Seasonal Precipitation across Baja California, Mexico

This project will establish a transect of sites along the Baja peninsula to study the long-term fluctuations of winter/summer precipitation in this region

and the impacts on societal livelihoods and decisions. This research uses paleoecological records (sediment cores) from ciénegas—unique wetland systems—to reconstruct environmental change. Ciénegas and lakes act as an archive of past environments and climate conditions as they are repositories for charcoal, pollen, and macrofossils from thousands of years ago. Continuous records of environmental change reveal how local environments and communities have historically responded to perturbation, and provide insight into the trajectory and rate of change that these

 environments may experience in the future.