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Beth E. Caissie, PhD

Beth is a Physical Scientist at the Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center. She received a PhD in Geosciences from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2012. Since joining the USGS in 2020, she has been working to understand how past climate warming impacted our oceans. She specializes in sea ice extent in the subarctic North Pacific.

Beth Caissie is the lab manager for the Pacific Ocean Patterns, Processes, and Productivity project. In this role, she helps to develop records of ancient sea surface conditions such as sea surface temperature and primary productivity in the North Pacific. Her own research focuses on single-celled algae called diatoms as proxies for sea ice in the Bering and Chukchi seas, Gulf of Alaska, and coastal North Pacific over glacial-interglacial transitions. She is skilled as a micropaleontologist and sedimentologist and also uses organic geochemistry, light microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and grain size analysis in her work.

Professional Experience

  • 2020-Present, Physical Scientist, US Geological Survey, Menlo Park, CA

  • 2020-Present, Associate Adjunct Professor, University of California Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA

  • 2012-2020, Assistant Professor, Iowa State University, Ames, IA.

Education and Certifications

  • Ph.D. Geology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2012

  • M.Sc. Geology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, 2006

  • B.Sc. Geology, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Magna cum laude, 2003

  • B.A. Photography and Children’s Writing, Hampshire College, 1997

Affiliations and Memberships*

  • 2021-present, PAGES, Past Global Changes, Arctic Cryosphere Change and Coastal Marine Ecosystems (ACME) Working Group

Science and Products

link
Photo of planktic foraminifers from the Gulf of Mexico sediment trap seen through the microscope

Pacific Ocean Patterns, Processes, and Productivity (POP3): Impacts of ancient warming on marine ecosystems and western North America

Projections for AD 2100 suggest warming of +1-4°C in the North Pacific Ocean, which will result in widespread transformations throughout the marine environment and western North America. Many of these changes are beyond the predictive capabilities of current climate models. To better address this future uncertainty, our team is developing a geological framework using past warm intervals as...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization
link

Pacific Ocean Patterns, Processes, and Productivity (POP3): Impacts of ancient warming on marine ecosystems and western North America

Projections for AD 2100 suggest warming of +1-4°C in the North Pacific Ocean, which will result in widespread transformations throughout the marine environment and western North America. Many of these changes are beyond the predictive capabilities of current climate models. To better address this future uncertainty, our team is developing a geological framework using past warm intervals as...
Learn More

Polar bear's range dynamics and survival in the Holocene

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the apex predator of the Arctic, largely dependent on sea-ice. The expected disappearance of the ice cover of the Arctic seas by the mid 21st century is predicted to cause a dramatic decrease in the global range and population size of the species. To place this scenario against the backdrop of past distribution changes and their causes, we use a fossil dataset to in
Authors
Heikki Seppä, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Beth Elaine Caissie, Marc Macias Fauria
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Ice and ocean constraints on early human migrations into North America along the Pacific Coast

Founding populations of the first Americans likely occupied parts of Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The timing, pathways, and modes of their southward transit remain unknown, but blockage of the interior route by North American ice sheets between ~26 and 14 cal kyr BP (ka) favors a coastal route during this period. Using models and paleoceanographic data from the North Pacific, we
Authors
Summer K. Praetorius, Jay R. Alder, Alan Condron, Alan Mix, Maureen Walczak, Beth Elaine Caissie, Jon Erlandson
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Evaluating the paleoenvironmental significance of sediment grain size in Bering Sea sediments during Marine Isotope Stage 11

Grain size is an important textural property of sediments and is widely used in paleoenvironmental studies as a means to infer changes in the sedimentary environment. However, grain size parameters are not always easy to interpret without a full understanding of the factors that influence grain size. Here, we measure grain size in sediment cores from the Bering slope and the Umnak Plateau, and rev
Authors
Natalie Thompson, Beth Elaine Caissie
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Science and Products

link
Photo of planktic foraminifers from the Gulf of Mexico sediment trap seen through the microscope

Pacific Ocean Patterns, Processes, and Productivity (POP3): Impacts of ancient warming on marine ecosystems and western North America

Projections for AD 2100 suggest warming of +1-4°C in the North Pacific Ocean, which will result in widespread transformations throughout the marine environment and western North America. Many of these changes are beyond the predictive capabilities of current climate models. To better address this future uncertainty, our team is developing a geological framework using past warm intervals as...
By
Ecosystems Mission Area, Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Deep Sea Exploration, Mapping and Characterization
link

Pacific Ocean Patterns, Processes, and Productivity (POP3): Impacts of ancient warming on marine ecosystems and western North America

Projections for AD 2100 suggest warming of +1-4°C in the North Pacific Ocean, which will result in widespread transformations throughout the marine environment and western North America. Many of these changes are beyond the predictive capabilities of current climate models. To better address this future uncertainty, our team is developing a geological framework using past warm intervals as...
Learn More

Polar bear's range dynamics and survival in the Holocene

Polar bear (Ursus maritimus) is the apex predator of the Arctic, largely dependent on sea-ice. The expected disappearance of the ice cover of the Arctic seas by the mid 21st century is predicted to cause a dramatic decrease in the global range and population size of the species. To place this scenario against the backdrop of past distribution changes and their causes, we use a fossil dataset to in
Authors
Heikki Seppä, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Beth Elaine Caissie, Marc Macias Fauria
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

Ice and ocean constraints on early human migrations into North America along the Pacific Coast

Founding populations of the first Americans likely occupied parts of Beringia during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM). The timing, pathways, and modes of their southward transit remain unknown, but blockage of the interior route by North American ice sheets between ~26 and 14 cal kyr BP (ka) favors a coastal route during this period. Using models and paleoceanographic data from the North Pacific, we
Authors
Summer K. Praetorius, Jay R. Alder, Alan Condron, Alan Mix, Maureen Walczak, Beth Elaine Caissie, Jon Erlandson
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center

Evaluating the paleoenvironmental significance of sediment grain size in Bering Sea sediments during Marine Isotope Stage 11

Grain size is an important textural property of sediments and is widely used in paleoenvironmental studies as a means to infer changes in the sedimentary environment. However, grain size parameters are not always easy to interpret without a full understanding of the factors that influence grain size. Here, we measure grain size in sediment cores from the Bering slope and the Umnak Plateau, and rev
Authors
Natalie Thompson, Beth Elaine Caissie
By
Climate Research and Development Program, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center

*Disclaimer: Listing outside positions with professional scientific organizations on this Staff Profile are for informational purposes only and do not constitute an endorsement of those professional scientific organizations or their activities by the USGS, Department of the Interior, or U.S. Government