Bob Thompson
Bob Thompson is a Scientist Emeritus with the Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center.
Science and Products
USGS North American Packrat Midden Database
A Database of Paleoecological Records from Neotoma Middens in Western North America Dry caves and rockshelters in western North America host a unique and valuable paleobotanical resource known as packrat middens. Packrat ( Neotoma spp.) middens composed of desiccated fecal matter and urine also contain well preserved fossil plant materials. Over fifty years of scientific investigations on packrat...
Digital Archive of the R.S. Thompson western United States Packrat Midden Collection Digital Archive of the R.S. Thompson western United States Packrat Midden Collection
This data release provides a digital inventory of the Robert S. Thompson packrat midden collection consisting of 1,740 midden samples and subsamples primarily collected in the Great Basin region of Nevada, as well as in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington, USA, by Robert S. Thompson (USGS scientist emeritus) and others between 1977 and 2006. Middens are waste...
A gridded database of the modern distributions of climate, woody plant taxa, and ecoregions for the continental United States and Canada A gridded database of the modern distributions of climate, woody plant taxa, and ecoregions for the continental United States and Canada
On the continental scale, climate is an important determinant of the distributions of plant taxa and ecoregions. To quantify and depict the relations between specific climate variables and these distributions, we placed modern climate and plant taxa distribution data on an approximately 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid with 27,984 points that cover Canada and the continental United...
USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, Version 5.0 USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, Version 5.0
This data release contains the data tables for the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database (version 5.0). This version of the Midden Database contains data for 3,331 packrat midden samples obtained from published sources (journal articles, book chapters, theses, dissertations, government and private industry reports, conference proceedings) as well as unpublished data contributed by...
Data release for Assessing the Uncertainties in Climatic Estimates Based on Vegetation Assemblages: Examples from Modern Vegetation Assemblages in the American Southwest Data release for Assessing the Uncertainties in Climatic Estimates Based on Vegetation Assemblages: Examples from Modern Vegetation Assemblages in the American Southwest
This data release includes climatic variables and associated descriptive material created for the purpose of assessing uncertainties associated with climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages (Thompson and others, 2021). The data are from the interior of the western United States, including all of Arizona, and portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah...
Filter Total Items: 33
Plant macrofossil data for 48-0 ka in the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, version 5.0 Plant macrofossil data for 48-0 ka in the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, version 5.0
Plant macrofossils from packrat (Neotoma spp.) middens provide direct evidence of past vegetation changes in arid regions of North America. Here we describe the newest version (version 5.0) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) North American Packrat Midden Database. The database contains published and contributed data from 3,331 midden samples collected in southwest Canada, the western...
Authors
Laura E. Strickland, Robert S. Thompson, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Richard T. Pelltier, Katherine H Anderson, R. Randall Schumann, Andrew K. McFadden
Assessing the uncertainties in climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages: Examples from modern vegetation assemblages in the American Southwest Assessing the uncertainties in climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages: Examples from modern vegetation assemblages in the American Southwest
Assemblages of fossil plant remains have been widely used to reconstruct past climatic conditions, usually through the application of methods that involve either finding vegetation analogues on the modern landscape (and using the modern associated climatic values as the basis for an estimate) or using the modern climatic ranges of individual taxa in an assemblage to determine the range...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: Since the termination of Lake Bonneville History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: Since the termination of Lake Bonneville
During the past half century or so diverse histories of Great Salt Lake have been written from differing perspectives and all of them have contributed ideas and essential data. The published literature, however, can be confusing and misleading. In this chapter, we review and provide context for a number of those publications. This chapter is intended as a summary of what is known, what...
Authors
Charles G. Oviatt, Genevieve Atwood, Robert S. Thompson
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Late quaternary changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate in the Bonneville Basin reconstructed from sediment cores from Great Salt Lake: Chapter 11 Late quaternary changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate in the Bonneville Basin reconstructed from sediment cores from Great Salt Lake: Chapter 11
Sediment cores from Great Salt Lake (GSL) provide the basis for reconstructing changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate for the last ~ 40 cal ka. Initially, the coring site was covered by a shallow saline lake and surrounded by Artemisia steppe or steppe-tundra under a cold and dry climate. As Lake Bonneville began to rise (from ~ 30 to 28 cal ka), Pinus and subalpine conifer pollen...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Charles G. Oviatt, Jeffrey S. Honke, John McGeehin
Early Holocene Great Salt Lake Early Holocene Great Salt Lake
Shorelines and surficial deposits (including buried forest-floor mats and organic-rich wetland sediments) show that Great Salt Lake did not rise higher than modern lake levels during the earliest Holocene (11.5–10.2 cal ka BP; 10–9 14C ka BP). During that period, finely laminated, organic-rich muds (sapropel) containing brine-shrimp cysts and pellets and interbedded sodium-sulfate salts...
Authors
Charles G. Oviatt, David B. Madsen, David M. Miller, Robert S. Thompson, John P. McGeehin
A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A
Apparent changes in vegetation distribution, fire, and other disturbance regimes throughout western North America have prompted investigations of the relative importance of human activities and climate change as potential causal mechanisms. Assessing the effects of Euro-American settlement is difficult because climate changes occur on multi-decadal to centennial time scales and require...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Andrea Brunelle, Robert S. Thompson
Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America: Revisions for all taxa from the United States and Canada and new taxa from the western United States Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America: Revisions for all taxa from the United States and Canada and new taxa from the western United States
This is the seventh volume in an atlas series that explores the relations between the geographic distributions of woody plant species and climatic variables in North America. A 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid of modern climatic and bioclimatic variables was constructed from weather data. The geographic distributions of selected tree and shrub species were digitized, and the presence or...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah L. Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Andrew K. McFadden
A high-elevation, multi-proxy biotic and environmental record of MIS 6-4 from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA A high-elevation, multi-proxy biotic and environmental record of MIS 6-4 from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA
In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village...
Authors
Ian M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Pigati, R. Scott Anderson, Kirk R. Johnson, Shannon Mahan, Thomas A. Ager, Richard G. Baker, Maarten Blaauw, Jordon Bright, Peter M. Brown, Bruce Bryant, Zachary T. Calamari, Paul E. Carrara, Cherney Michael D., John R. Demboski, Scott A. Elias, Daniel C. Fisher, Harrison J. Gray, Danielle R. Haskett, Jeffrey S. Honke, Stephen T. Jackson, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Douglas Kline, Eric M. Leonard, Nathaniel A. Lifton, Carol Lucking, H. Gregory McDonald, Dane M. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen E. Nash, Cody Newton, James B. Paces, Lesley Petrie, Mitchell A. Plummer, David F. Porinchu, Adam N. Rountrey, Eric Scott, Joseph J. W. Sertich, Saxon E. Sharpe, Gary L. Skipp, Laura E. Strickland, Richard K. Stucky, Robert S. Thompson, Jim Wilson
Last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from Ziegler Reservoir, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA Last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from Ziegler Reservoir, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA
Ninety plant macrofossil taxa from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado, record environmental changes at high elevation (2705 m asl) in the Rocky Mountains during the Last Interglacial Period. Present-day vegetation is aspen forest (Populus tremuloides) intermixed with species of higher (Picea, Abies) and lower (Artemisia, Quercus) elevations. Stratigraphic...
Authors
Laura E. Strickland, Richard G. Baker, Robert S. Thompson, Dane M. Miller
U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a nonregulatory Federal science agency with national scope and responsibilities, is uniquely positioned to serve the Nation’s needs in understanding and responding to global change, including changes in climate, water availability, sea level, land use and land cover, ecosystems, and global biogeochemical cycles. Global change is among...
Authors
Virginia R. Burkett, David A. Kirtland, Ione L. Taylor, Jayne Belnap, Thomas M. Cronin, Michael D. Dettinger, Eldrich L. Frazier, John W. Haines, Thomas R. Loveland, Paul C.D. Milly, Robin O'Malley, Robert S. Thompson, Alec G. Maule, Gerard McMahon, Robert G. Striegl
Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America—Modern data for climatic estimation from vegetation inventories Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America—Modern data for climatic estimation from vegetation inventories
Vegetation inventories (plant taxa present in a vegetation assemblage at a given site) can be used to estimate climatic parameters based on the identification of the range of a given parameter where all taxa in an assemblage overlap ("Mutual Climatic Range"). For the reconstruction of past climates from fossil or subfossil plant assemblages, we assembled the data necessary for such...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah L. Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
Science and Products
USGS North American Packrat Midden Database
A Database of Paleoecological Records from Neotoma Middens in Western North America Dry caves and rockshelters in western North America host a unique and valuable paleobotanical resource known as packrat middens. Packrat ( Neotoma spp.) middens composed of desiccated fecal matter and urine also contain well preserved fossil plant materials. Over fifty years of scientific investigations on packrat...
Digital Archive of the R.S. Thompson western United States Packrat Midden Collection Digital Archive of the R.S. Thompson western United States Packrat Midden Collection
This data release provides a digital inventory of the Robert S. Thompson packrat midden collection consisting of 1,740 midden samples and subsamples primarily collected in the Great Basin region of Nevada, as well as in Arizona, California, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah, and Washington, USA, by Robert S. Thompson (USGS scientist emeritus) and others between 1977 and 2006. Middens are waste...
A gridded database of the modern distributions of climate, woody plant taxa, and ecoregions for the continental United States and Canada A gridded database of the modern distributions of climate, woody plant taxa, and ecoregions for the continental United States and Canada
On the continental scale, climate is an important determinant of the distributions of plant taxa and ecoregions. To quantify and depict the relations between specific climate variables and these distributions, we placed modern climate and plant taxa distribution data on an approximately 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid with 27,984 points that cover Canada and the continental United...
USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, Version 5.0 USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, Version 5.0
This data release contains the data tables for the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database (version 5.0). This version of the Midden Database contains data for 3,331 packrat midden samples obtained from published sources (journal articles, book chapters, theses, dissertations, government and private industry reports, conference proceedings) as well as unpublished data contributed by...
Data release for Assessing the Uncertainties in Climatic Estimates Based on Vegetation Assemblages: Examples from Modern Vegetation Assemblages in the American Southwest Data release for Assessing the Uncertainties in Climatic Estimates Based on Vegetation Assemblages: Examples from Modern Vegetation Assemblages in the American Southwest
This data release includes climatic variables and associated descriptive material created for the purpose of assessing uncertainties associated with climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages (Thompson and others, 2021). The data are from the interior of the western United States, including all of Arizona, and portions of California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas, and Utah...
Filter Total Items: 33
Plant macrofossil data for 48-0 ka in the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, version 5.0 Plant macrofossil data for 48-0 ka in the USGS North American Packrat Midden Database, version 5.0
Plant macrofossils from packrat (Neotoma spp.) middens provide direct evidence of past vegetation changes in arid regions of North America. Here we describe the newest version (version 5.0) of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) North American Packrat Midden Database. The database contains published and contributed data from 3,331 midden samples collected in southwest Canada, the western...
Authors
Laura E. Strickland, Robert S. Thompson, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Richard T. Pelltier, Katherine H Anderson, R. Randall Schumann, Andrew K. McFadden
Assessing the uncertainties in climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages: Examples from modern vegetation assemblages in the American Southwest Assessing the uncertainties in climatic estimates based on vegetation assemblages: Examples from modern vegetation assemblages in the American Southwest
Assemblages of fossil plant remains have been widely used to reconstruct past climatic conditions, usually through the application of methods that involve either finding vegetation analogues on the modern landscape (and using the modern associated climatic values as the basis for an estimate) or using the modern climatic ranges of individual taxa in an assemblage to determine the range...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein
History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: Since the termination of Lake Bonneville History of Great Salt Lake, Utah, USA: Since the termination of Lake Bonneville
During the past half century or so diverse histories of Great Salt Lake have been written from differing perspectives and all of them have contributed ideas and essential data. The published literature, however, can be confusing and misleading. In this chapter, we review and provide context for a number of those publications. This chapter is intended as a summary of what is known, what...
Authors
Charles G. Oviatt, Genevieve Atwood, Robert S. Thompson
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Late quaternary changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate in the Bonneville Basin reconstructed from sediment cores from Great Salt Lake: Chapter 11 Late quaternary changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate in the Bonneville Basin reconstructed from sediment cores from Great Salt Lake: Chapter 11
Sediment cores from Great Salt Lake (GSL) provide the basis for reconstructing changes in lakes, vegetation, and climate for the last ~ 40 cal ka. Initially, the coring site was covered by a shallow saline lake and surrounded by Artemisia steppe or steppe-tundra under a cold and dry climate. As Lake Bonneville began to rise (from ~ 30 to 28 cal ka), Pinus and subalpine conifer pollen...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Charles G. Oviatt, Jeffrey S. Honke, John McGeehin
Early Holocene Great Salt Lake Early Holocene Great Salt Lake
Shorelines and surficial deposits (including buried forest-floor mats and organic-rich wetland sediments) show that Great Salt Lake did not rise higher than modern lake levels during the earliest Holocene (11.5–10.2 cal ka BP; 10–9 14C ka BP). During that period, finely laminated, organic-rich muds (sapropel) containing brine-shrimp cysts and pellets and interbedded sodium-sulfate salts...
Authors
Charles G. Oviatt, David B. Madsen, David M. Miller, Robert S. Thompson, John P. McGeehin
A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A A multi-proxy record of hydroclimate, vegetation, fire, and post-settlement impacts for a subalpine plateau, Central Rocky Mountains U.S.A
Apparent changes in vegetation distribution, fire, and other disturbance regimes throughout western North America have prompted investigations of the relative importance of human activities and climate change as potential causal mechanisms. Assessing the effects of Euro-American settlement is difficult because climate changes occur on multi-decadal to centennial time scales and require...
Authors
Lesleigh Anderson, Andrea Brunelle, Robert S. Thompson
Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America: Revisions for all taxa from the United States and Canada and new taxa from the western United States Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America: Revisions for all taxa from the United States and Canada and new taxa from the western United States
This is the seventh volume in an atlas series that explores the relations between the geographic distributions of woody plant species and climatic variables in North America. A 25-kilometer (km) equal-area grid of modern climatic and bioclimatic variables was constructed from weather data. The geographic distributions of selected tree and shrub species were digitized, and the presence or...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah L. Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein, Andrew K. McFadden
A high-elevation, multi-proxy biotic and environmental record of MIS 6-4 from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA A high-elevation, multi-proxy biotic and environmental record of MIS 6-4 from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA
In North America, terrestrial records of biodiversity and climate change that span Marine Oxygen Isotope Stage (MIS) 5 are rare. Where found, they provide insight into how the coupling of the ocean–atmosphere system is manifested in biotic and environmental records and how the biosphere responds to climate change. In 2010–2011, construction at Ziegler Reservoir near Snowmass Village...
Authors
Ian M. Miller, Jeffrey S. Pigati, R. Scott Anderson, Kirk R. Johnson, Shannon Mahan, Thomas A. Ager, Richard G. Baker, Maarten Blaauw, Jordon Bright, Peter M. Brown, Bruce Bryant, Zachary T. Calamari, Paul E. Carrara, Cherney Michael D., John R. Demboski, Scott A. Elias, Daniel C. Fisher, Harrison J. Gray, Danielle R. Haskett, Jeffrey S. Honke, Stephen T. Jackson, Gonzalo Jiménez-Moreno, Douglas Kline, Eric M. Leonard, Nathaniel A. Lifton, Carol Lucking, H. Gregory McDonald, Dane M. Miller, Daniel R. Muhs, Stephen E. Nash, Cody Newton, James B. Paces, Lesley Petrie, Mitchell A. Plummer, David F. Porinchu, Adam N. Rountrey, Eric Scott, Joseph J. W. Sertich, Saxon E. Sharpe, Gary L. Skipp, Laura E. Strickland, Richard K. Stucky, Robert S. Thompson, Jim Wilson
Last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from Ziegler Reservoir, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA Last interglacial plant macrofossils and climates from Ziegler Reservoir, Snowmass Village, Colorado, USA
Ninety plant macrofossil taxa from the Ziegler Reservoir fossil site near Snowmass Village, Colorado, record environmental changes at high elevation (2705 m asl) in the Rocky Mountains during the Last Interglacial Period. Present-day vegetation is aspen forest (Populus tremuloides) intermixed with species of higher (Picea, Abies) and lower (Artemisia, Quercus) elevations. Stratigraphic...
Authors
Laura E. Strickland, Richard G. Baker, Robert S. Thompson, Dane M. Miller
U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change U.S. Geological Survey Climate and Land Use Change Science Strategy—A Framework for Understanding and Responding to Global Change
Executive SummaryThe U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), a nonregulatory Federal science agency with national scope and responsibilities, is uniquely positioned to serve the Nation’s needs in understanding and responding to global change, including changes in climate, water availability, sea level, land use and land cover, ecosystems, and global biogeochemical cycles. Global change is among...
Authors
Virginia R. Burkett, David A. Kirtland, Ione L. Taylor, Jayne Belnap, Thomas M. Cronin, Michael D. Dettinger, Eldrich L. Frazier, John W. Haines, Thomas R. Loveland, Paul C.D. Milly, Robin O'Malley, Robert S. Thompson, Alec G. Maule, Gerard McMahon, Robert G. Striegl
Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America—Modern data for climatic estimation from vegetation inventories Atlas of relations between climatic parameters and distributions of important trees and shrubs in North America—Modern data for climatic estimation from vegetation inventories
Vegetation inventories (plant taxa present in a vegetation assemblage at a given site) can be used to estimate climatic parameters based on the identification of the range of a given parameter where all taxa in an assemblage overlap ("Mutual Climatic Range"). For the reconstruction of past climates from fossil or subfossil plant assemblages, we assembled the data necessary for such...
Authors
Robert S. Thompson, Katherine H. Anderson, Richard T. Pelltier, Laura E. Strickland, Sarah L. Shafer, Patrick J. Bartlein