Don Wyckoff's Presentation about Oklahoma's Past Climate

We gathered last Thursday to hear Dr. Don Wyckoff, the Curator of Archaeology at Sam Noble Museum of Natural History, talk about reconstructing past climates using all sorts of different types of "proxies", which are different types of preserved materials that indirectly tell scientists what environmental conditions in a particular region must have been like. As an example, Dr. Wyckoff talked about different types of pollen that are preserved for thousands of years, and existence of a pollen for a particular tree might indicate that there was a range of temperatures and precipitation in that location when the pollen was created. He showed several pollen records that describe the natural variability of the climate over the most recent 10000 to 35000 years. He also discussed the finding of "buried soils", which are different types of soil lying in layers below the uppermost layer. These also serve as indicators of the climate at a particular time, with darker carbon rich soils indicating periods of significant plant growth and favorable conditions.

Based on his findings, Dr. Wyckoff expressed a concern for people living in Oklahoma in the future, since the past points to long periods of drought, with short periods in between of relatively moist conditions. He placed a strong emphasis on the need for wiser use of water and resources, since the state's past implies a future where these will be in limited supply.