Smithsonian Education Conference Blog: Climate Change

Reflecting with Scott Wing's Former Intern, Ben Casterline

I sat down with Ben Casterline a few hours before his internship at the National Museum of Natural History came to an end. He had been studying “paleoclimatology” while working with Smithsonian paleontologist Scott Wing. A fourth-year student at the University of Chicago majoring in biology and paleontology, Ben spent four weeks with Wing in Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, quarrying for leaf fossils, digging trenches to measure stratification, and prospecting for new dig sites. In the Bighorn, rocks exposed at the surface represent a period of global warming known as the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum, or PETM. (See "Going Behind the Scenes with Smithsonian Researchers."). In our interview, Ben remembered his time camped out with scientists and other interns (and, at one point, with Smithsonian Secretary, G. Wayne Clough) as “intellectually stimulating.”

On Working with Fossils
“It’s really about looking at the evidence of climate change, and we are trying to expose that!” Ben exclaimed when discussing his work back in Washington, D.C., after the Wyoming trip. He used an “air scribe,” a tool similar to a miniature jackhammer, to knock off rock from fossilized leaves, Ben assisted Wing through the process of revealing the visible history of climate change as witnessed through changing patterns in the morphology of those leaves. Ben’s other work included photographing the fossils and arranging specimens into groups of similar characteristics, known as “morphotypes.”

Climate Change "Finds" of the Week

One of the cool things about working on the upcoming conference is that every day my research unearths some pretty intriguing articles, exhibits, blogs, and other media related to climate change. Unsurprisingly, several come from the Smithsonian.

I get the chance to share such items with colleagues in my office, but I also want to create posts here so others can check out these resources. Thus, below is a list of my favorite finds of the week.

• Smithsonian Science Blog - "Study aims to give endangered Shenandoah salamander better odds at survival"
• Smithsonian magazine's Surprising Science Blog - "Weather vs. Climate"
• Smithsonian magazine's Surprising Science Blog - "Climate Change in Your Backyard"
• Smithsonian Marine Station at Fort Pierce - "Virtual Tour"
• National Museum of the American Indian - "Mother Earth"

Feel free to comment on these items or post any relevant items that you find!

from Global Climate Change Impacts in the United States,
a new report from the U.S. Global Change Research Program, USGS

Jarrid Green is a former Smithsonian intern and recent college graduate from the University of Maryland.

On the road in Wyoming: The Secretary’s travel journal (day two)

By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Wednesday, July 15: Weather, 62 degrees and sunny at 7 a.m.

A picture-perfect day for venturing into the field. We head first to the grocery store to obtain provisions for lunch and plenty of water, something that will be much needed in the dry climate and the heat of the day. Scott explains that we will visit three sites where teams are working to investigate the PETM and its consequences from different perspectives. He and his colleagues consider this area ideal for their work since the deep sedimentary deposits of the basin capture the stratigraphic profile of the time leading up to the PETM, the PETM itself and the years following it. The rock strata in this large basin slope inward at the sides and are relatively horizontal in the center, but regional uplift in the last few million years has once again loosed the power of erosion, carving deep gullies and valleys that expose PETM rocks and allow the researchers to find the fossils and other evidence they seek. Adding to the favorable geologic circumstances, much of the land is under the management of the U.S. Bureau of Land Management, which has been helpful to the research teams, and it is transected by a network of dirt roads maintained by an energy company that operates the many oil jacks that remove oil from the mature oil field in the region.

Scott Wing points out the red and gray strata
visible in the distant hills.
(Photo by Wayne Clough)

The drive to the research sites from Worland is about 15 miles. They are located to take maximum advantage of the exposures of the beds deposited during the time of the PETM. The relevant stratigraphy begins with the underlying gray, brown and tan deposits known as the Fort Union Formation, which formed during the Paleocene Epoch just before the time of the PETM. This was a period of relatively stable carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and a warm, moderate climate that allowed temperate and subtropical plants to grow as far north as Wyoming. The Paleocene was a time of rapid evolution among mammals, probably because the dinosaurs had gone extinct at its beginning. Many of these early mammals did not survive the PETM or began to decline in diversity at that time.

On the road in Wyoming: The Secretary’s travel journal (day one)

By G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution

Tuesday, July 14. Worland, Wyoming.

It is reasonable to ask why the Secretary of the Smithsonian would make a visit to tiny Worland, Wyo. Worland is located in the northern central part of Wyoming, in the Bighorn Basin to the west of the Bighorn Mountains. Drive east and you come to the towns of Ten Sleep and Buffalo; go north and you find Basin and Greybull; head south and you will arrive at Thermopolis; and to the west are Meeteetse and Cody.  Worland, with a population of about 5,000, is the county seat of Washakie County, named for a great chief of the Shoshone Indians. Familiar western legends abound here: Butch Cassidy lived in Meeteetse, and his Hole in the Wall hideout is near Buffalo. Cody is named after Buffalo Bill Cody himself who had a large ranch in the vicinity. But I did not come to Worland because of the western lore, or even to indulge in the hunting, fishing and scenery that attract visitors. I am here to learn more about global climate change.