Adirondack Climate Research
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Welcome
Climate of the recent past

• Observed temperature & precipitation
• Ice cover
• Lake levels
• Phenology

Climate of
 the 
deeper past

• Lake sediment cores
• Peat cores


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Projects Gallery (click to enlarge)
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Paul Smith's College students Ben Eck and Alex Byrne with a sediment core they helped to collect from Lost Pond in June, 2012.  A radiocarbon date from the base of the core suggests that these sediments represent the last 2000 years of Adirondack precipitation history.
The glassy shell of Cyclotella bodanica, a planktonic diatom commonly found in Adirondack lakes and sediment cores.
Brendan Wiltse developing a bathymetric map for Wolf Lake, a key study site in the central Adirondacks.  Brendan is a former Paul Smith's College student who is now pursuing a PhD in environmental history reconstruction at Queen's University, Ontario.
Ice-out on Lower Saint Regis Lake, as seen from the campus of Paul Smith's College.  Ice-out is coming earlier as the region warms, but the largest changes are actually in freeze-up dates, which are 2 weeks later than they were a hundred years ago.
Queen's University grad student Cassie Cummings with a sediment corer on Wolf Lake in June, 2012.
The future of Adirondack climate
as informed by the past
The Adirondack region is warming, and it is likely to continue to do so for centuries. But climate models conflict on whether it will be a wetter or drier future.  What can climate history tell us about that future?

This site shows some of what we've found so far.  

It also shows how you can help to support this low-cost, high-impact research in rural upstate New York, bringing global climate science down to the local level.