M.S. student
Department of Geology

mfarmer@life.uiuc.edu

My background education includes and B.S. in Environmental Geosciences and a B.A. in Geography with an emphasis in GIS and cartography, both of which I received from Concord University in Athens, WV. I am currently working towards my Masters degree in Geology here at UIUC. My research interest is climate change over the last 2000 years. This period is of interest to me because it encompasses the time in which anthropogenic influences became a dominant part of the climate system (ie, the industrial revolution). Specifically, I utilize ecological proxy indicators in lake sediment, such as diatom assemblages and biogenic silica accumulation rates, in order to gauge the response of the lake system to climate fluctuations. My field sites include three lakes in southern Alaska. My goal is to find out if the lakes in this region have responded to large scale climate events such as the Little Ice Age.