MODELING CLIMATE AND VEGETATIONAL CHANGE SINCE THE LAST GLACIAL MAXIMUM USING STABLE ISOTOPES AND DIGITAL ANALYSIS Pennilyn Higgins Florida Museum of Natural History Gainesville, FL
Isotopes as environmental proxy C – Dietary proxy C3 vs C4 plants in herbivores C3 13 C lower than C4 13 C O – Climatic proxy 18 O increases with warmer temperatures 18 O decreases with high rainfall in warm weather
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications
Data generation
One tooth; how many data points?
Database
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications
Plotting isotopic values against geographical information
Localities sampled
Stacked plots
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications
Database query
Plot and contour the data
Change your data and color scheme.
Look at a specific part of the fauna
…and compare with other species
Liven it up with color
…and get a closer look
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications
Exporting to other formats
Initial diagrams can be pretty ugly…
…but are easy enough to sharpen with other software
Plotting oxygen and carbon
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice A real applications
Full Glacial + Glacial Carbon
FG + G Bison and Camelops
FG + G Equus
Full Glacial + Glacial Carbon
Late Glacial Carbon
Outline An overabundance of data Geographical data Using the computer to sort it out Visualizing large data sets Making it look nice Real applications