Climate Change in the Western US & California

We are researching past climate change in California. The goal is to bring a longer term perspective and to water management. We bring new tools to bear on questions of the severity and processes driving wet and dry cycles in California. Lessons from the past inform discussions of the California’s drought and prognosis for future water scarcity – see press page.

We are reconstructing past climate variability at five sites (all NSF funded projects):

DSDP 467, offshore California

DSDP 467 is a marine core site due west of Los Angeles we are developing a Miocene record (NSF funded for MCO western US).

  • active project of PhD student Yunlang Zhang
  • Zhang et al., 2026
  • now working on additional sites in the region

 

Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah

Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah have each deep-drilled cores that allows us to span >200 ka of climate history, at mid-latitude sites, to extend the multi-biomarker reconstruction of the same length already completed for Southern Californian Searles Lake.

  •  PhD thesis focus of Dr. Rachel So
  • So et al., 2023, 2026, and 2 more in review.

Searles Lake, California

Searles Lake, in the Mojave desert, with sediment cores extending to the past warm period 120, 000 years ago. (NSF funding completed, many publications)

  • In collaboration with David McGee MIT, Tim Lowenstein Binghamton, Tripti Bhattacharya, Syracuse.
  • PhD thesis focus of Dr. Mark Peaple, PhD 2022.
  • e.g., Peaple et al., 2021, 2022, 2024

Breaking news!!! New ICDP Drilling Project: PlioWest at Searles 

Lake Elsinore, California

Lake Elsinore, in Riverside County, with sediment cores capturing the last glacial and 30, 000 years. (NSF funding and publications complete, e.g., Feakins et al., 2019).

Zaca Lake, California

Zaca Lake, close to the Santa Barbara Basin, with sediment cores capturing high resolution records of the last 3, 000 years. (NSF funding and publications complete, e.g., Feakins et al., 2014)

Submitted:

So, R.T.*, Ibarra, D.E., Jagniecki, E., Lowenstein, T.K., Tierney, J.E., Tierney, J.E., Feakins, S.J., Biomarker reconstructions of summer temperatures across glacial-interglacial cycles spanning 240 kyr at Bear Lake, Utah/Idaho, USA, in review Earth and Planetary Science Letters. ESSOAR preprint https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.15004832/v1

So, R.T.*, Jagniecki, E., Lowenstein, T.K., Jost, A.B., Kinsley, C.W., Tierney, J.E., Olson, K., McGee, D., Tierney, J.E., Feakins, S.J., Salinity reconstructions using microbial lipids and U-series dating at Great Salt Lake, Utah, spanning two glacial cycles, in review Paleoceangraphy and Paleoclimatology. data ESSOAR preprint 10.22541/essoar.176745549.94743633/v3 

Publications:

Zhang, Y.*, Zhang, Y.G., Feakins, S.J., Biomarker Preservation and Paleoclimate from Late Neogene Marine Sediment from DSDP Site 467 offshore Los Angeles, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005346  ESSOAR Preprint : https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.176087357.74404340/v1  Data: https://doi.org/10.5281/ZENODO.20317718 

So, R.T.*, Ibarra, D.E., Tierney, J.E., Jagniecki, E., Lowenstein, T.K., Jost, A.B., Olson, K., McGee, D., Feakins, S.J., Plant wax hydroclimate reconstructions from Great Salt Lake and Bear Lake, Utah, spanning 240 kyr, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005357 ESSOAR preprint https://doi.org/10.22541/essoar.176208372.23405266/v1   data at NOAA

Peaple, M.D.*, Bhattacharya, T., Lowenstein, T.K., Tierney, J.E., Knott, J.R., Feakins, S.J., Biomarker evidence for an MIS M2 glacial-pluvial in the Mojave Desert before warming and drying in the late Pliocene, in review Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, ESSOAR preprint data at NOAA

So, R.T.*, Lowenstein, T.K., Jagniecki, E., Tierney, J.E., Feakins, S.J. Holocene water balance variations in Great Salt Lake, Utah: application of GDGT indices and the ACE salinity proxy, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 38, e2022PA004558. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022PA004558. article ESSOAR preprint data at NOAA

Stroup, J.S., Olson, K.J., Lowenstein, T.K., Jost, A., Mosher, H.M., Peaple, M.D.*, Feakins, S.J., Chen, C.Y., Lund, S.P., McGee, D. A >200 ka U-Th based chronology from lacustrine evaporites, Searles Lake, CA, G3, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022GC010685. ESSOAR preprint data at NOAA

Olson, K.J.*, Guillerm, E., Peaple, M.D.*, Lowenstein, T.K., Gardien, V., Caupin, F., Feakins, S.J.  Tierney, J.E., Stroup, J., Lund, S., McGee, D. Brillouin thermometry applied to last glacial and Holocene evaporites in Searles Lake, EPSL, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117913. 50dayfreelink article data at NOAA

Peaple, M.D.*, Bhattacharya, T., Lowenstein, T.K., McGee, D., Olson, K.J., Stroup, J., Tierney, J.E., Feakins, S.J.  Biomarker and pollen evidence for late Pleistocene pluvials in the Mojave Desert, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 37, e2022PA004471, https://doi.org/10.1029/2022PA004471. article data

Peaple, M.D.*, Tierney, J.E., McGee, D., Lowenstein, T.K., Bhattacharya, T., Feakins, S.J. Identifying plant wax inputs in lake sediments using machine learning, Organic Geochemistry, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2021.104222. article data

Feakins, S.J., Wu, M.S.*, Ponton, C.*, Tierney, J.E. Biomarkers reveal abrupt switches in hydroclimate during the last glacial in southern California, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 515, 164-172. article, data at NOAA

Kirby, M.E., Feakins, S.J., Hiner, C.A.*, Zimmerman, S.R.H., Fantozzi, J.* 2014. Tropical Pacific forcing of late-Holocene hydrologic variability in the coastal southwest United States, Quaternary Science Reviews, 102, 27-38. article

Ibarra, Y.*, Corsetti, F.A., Feakins, S.J., Rhodes, E.J., Kirby, M.E. 2015. Fluvial tufa evidence of Late Pleistocene wet intervals from Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 422, 36-45. article

Dingemans, T.*, Mensing, S.A., Feakins, S.J., Kirby, M.K., Zimmerman, S.R.H., 2014. 3000 years of paleoenvironmental change at Zaca Lake, California, USA, Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution, 2:34. article

Ibarra, Y.*; Corsetti, F.A., Cheetham, M.I.*, Feakins, S.J. 2014. Were fossil spring-associated carbonates near Zaca Lake, Santa Barbara, California deposited under an ambient or thermal regime? Sedimentary Geology, 301, 15-25. article

Feakins, S.J., Kirby, M.E., Cheetham, M.I.*, Ibarra, Y.*, Zimmerman, S.R.H., 2014. Leaf wax D/H reconstructions of late Holocene hydroclimate from Zaca Lake, California, Organic Geochemistry, 66, 48-59. article

Kirby, M.E., Feakins, S.J., Bonuso, N., Fantozzi, J.M., Hiner, C.A., 2013. Latest Pleistocene to Holocene hydroclimates from Lake Elsinore, California, Quaternary Science Reviews, 76, 1-15. article

Research Activities