Miriam Jones, Ph.D.
I use a range of proxies (plant macrofossils, pollen, charcoal, stable isotopes) to interpret climate and landscape change over centennial to millennial timescales. Current topics include responses to abrupt permafrost thaw, sea-level rise, sea-ice retreat, and centennial-scale land-use change.
Biography
Current Position:
Research Geologist
Education:
- Columbia University, PhD, 2008
- Columbia University, MPhil, 2006
- Columbia University, M. A., 2005
- Barnard College, A.B., 2002, Magna Cum Laude
Science and Products
Wetlands in the Quaternary
Wetlands accumulate organic-rich sediment or peat stratigraphically, making them great archives of past environmental change. Wetlands also act as hydrologic buffers on the landscape and are important to global biogeochemical cycling. This project uses wetland archives from a range of environments to better understand how vegetation, hydrology, and hydroclimate has changed on decadal to multi-...
Macrofossil and Sediment Processing Laboratory
In the Macrofossil and sediment processing lab we analyze the physical, biological, and geochemical characteristics of peat and sediment samples collected from lake, wetland, and peat cores as proxies for past changes to these depositional environments on timescales of decades to millennia. We primarily study terrestrial wetland ecosystems from subtropical to arctic regions in order to...
Wetlands in the Quaternary Project
Wetlands accumulate organic-rich sediment or peat stratigraphically, making them great archives of past environmental change. Wetlands also act as hydrologic buffers on the landscape and are important to global biogeochemical cycling. This project uses wetland archives from a range of environments to better understand how vegetation, hydrology, and hydroclimate has changed on decadal to multi-...
Palynology Laboratory
In this lab, we specialize in extracting pollen palynomorphs from geologic field samples. We also assist our center's scientists with outreach programs to educate students and inform policy makers as to the importance of our science.
Permafrost thaw in northern peatlands: Rapid changes in ecosystem and landscape functions
Peatlands within the northern permafrost region cover approximately 2 million km2 and are characterized by organic soils that can be several meters thick, and a fine-scale mosaic of permafrost and non-permafrost landforms interspersed by shallow ponds and lakes. Ongoing permafrost thaw is transforming these peatlands, causing abrupt changes...
Olefeldt, David; Hefferman, Liam; Jones, Miriam C.; Sannel, A. Britta; Treat, Claire C.; Turetsky, Merritt R.
USGS permafrost research determines the risks of permafrost thaw to biologic and hydrologic resources
The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), in collaboration with university, Federal, Tribal, and independent partners, conducts fundamental research on the distribution, vulnerability, and importance of permafrost in arctic and boreal ecosystems. Scientists, land managers, and policy makers use USGS data to help make decisions for development, wildlife...
Waldrop, Mark P.; Anderson, Lesleigh; Dornblaser, Mark; Erikson, Li H.; Gibbs, Ann E.; Herman-Mercer, Nicole M.; James, Stephanie R.; Jones, Miriam C.; Koch, Joshua C.; Leewis, Mary-Cathrine; Manies, Kristen L.; Minsley, Burke J.; Pastick, Neal J.; Patil, Vijay; Urban, Frank; Walvoord, Michelle A.; Wickland, Kimberly P.; Zimmerman, Christian Spatiotemporal patterns of northern lake formation since the last glacial maximum
The northern mid- to high-latitudes have the highest total number and area of lakes on Earth. Lake origins in these regions are diverse, but to a large extent coupled to glacial, permafrost, and peatland histories. The synthesis of 1207 northern lake initiation records presented here provides an analog for rapid landscape-level change in response...
Brosius, L. S.; Walter Anthony, K. M.; Treat, C. C.; Lenz, J.; Jones, Miriam C.; Bret-Harte, M. Syndonia; Grosse, G. Expert assessment of future vulnerability of the global peatland carbon sink
The carbon balance of peatlands is predicted to shift from a sink to a source this century. However, peatland ecosystems are still omitted from the main Earth system models that are used for future climate change projections, and they are not considered in integrated assessment models that are used in impact and mitigation studies. By using...
Loisel, Julie; Gallego-Sala, A.V.; Amesbury, M.J.; Magnan, G.; Anshari, G.; Beilman, D. W.; Blewett, J.; Benevides, J. C.; Camill, P.; Charman, D. J.; Chawchai, S.; Hedgpeth, A.; Kleinen, T.; Korhola, A.; Large, D.; Müller, J.; Mansilla, C. A.; van Bellen, S.; West, J. B.; Yu, Z.; Bubier, J. L.; Garneau, M.; Moore, T.; Sannel, A. B. K.; Väliranta, M.; Page, S.; Bechtold, M.; Brovkin, V.; Cole, L. E. S.; Chanton, J. P.; Christensen, T. R.; Davies, M. A.; De Vleeschouwer, F.; Finkelstein, S.A.; Frolking, S.; Galka, M.; Gandois, L.; Girkin, N.; Harris, .L.I.; Heinemeyer, A.; Hoyt, A.M.; Jones, Miriam C.; Joos, F.; Juutinen, S.; Kaiser, K.; Lamentowicz, M.; Larmola, T.; Leifeld, M.; Lohila, A.; Milner, A.M.; Minkkinen, Kari; Moss, P.; Naafs, B.D.A.; Nichols, J.; O'Donnell, J.; Payne, R.; Philben, M.; Pilo, S.; Quillet, A.; Ratnayake, A.S.; Roland, T.P.; Sjogersten, S.; Sonnentag, O.; Swindles, G.T.; Swinnen, W.; Talbott, J.; Treat, C. C.; Valach, A.C.; Wu, J. Subsea permafrost carbon stocks and climate change sensitivity estimated by expert assessment
The continental shelves of the Arctic Ocean and surrounding seas contain large stocks of organic matter (OM) and methane (CH4), representing a potential ecosystem feedback to climate change not included in international climate agreements. We performed a structured expert assessment with 25 permafrost researchers to combine quantitative estimates...
Sayedi, Sara; Abbott, Benjamin W; Thornton, B.F.; Frederick, Jennifer M.; Vonk, Jorien E.; Overduin, Paul; Schadel, Christina; Schuur, E.A.G.; Bourbonnais, A.; Demidova, N.; Gavrilov, Anatoly; He, Shengping; Gustaf Hugelius, Gustaf; Jakobsson, Martin; Jones, Miriam C.; Joung, DoongJoo; Kraev, Gleb; Macdonald, Robie W.; McGuire, A. David; Mu, Cuicui; O'Regan, M.; Schreiner, Kathryn M.; Stranne, Christian; Pizhankova, Elena; Vasiliev, A.; Westermann, S.; Zarnetske, Jay P.; Zhang, Tingjun; Ghandehari, M; Baeumler, Sarah; Brown, Brian C.; Frei, Rebecca J. High sensitivity of Bering Sea winter sea ice to winter insolation and carbon dioxide over the last 5,500 years
Anomalously low winter sea ice extent and early retreat in CE 2018 and 2019 challenge previous notions that winter sea ice in the Bering Sea has been stable over the instrumental record, although long-term records remain limited. Here, we use a record of peat cellulose oxygen isotopes from St. Matthew Island along with isotope-enabled general...
Jones, Miriam C.; Berkelhammer, Max ; Keller, Katherine; Yoshimura, Kei; Wooller, Matthew J. Large stocks of peatland carbon and nitrogen are vulnerable to permafrost thaw
Over many millennia, northern peatlands have accumulated large amounts of carbon and nitrogen, thus cooling the global climate. Over shorter timescales, peatland disturbances can trigger losses of peat and release of greenhouses gases. Despite their importance to the global climate, peatlands remain poorly mapped, and the vulnerability of...
Hugelius, Gustaf; Loisel, Julie; Chadburn, Sarah; Jackson, Robert B.; Jones, Miriam C.; MacDonald, Glen; Marushchak, Maija; Olefeldt, David; Packalen, Maara S.; Siewert, Matthias B.; Treat, Claire C.; Turetsky, Merritt; Voigt, Carolina; Yu, Zicheng Using multiple environmental proxies and hydrodynamic modeling to investigate Late Holocene climate and coastal change within a large Gulf of Mexico estuarine system (Mobile Bay, Alabama, USA)
A high degree of uncertainty exists for understanding and predicting coastal estuarine response to changing climate, land-use, and sea-level conditions, leaving geologic records as a best-proxy for constraining potential outcomes. With the majority of the world's population focused in coastal regions, understanding how local systems respond to...
Smith, Christopher; Jones, Miriam C.; Osterman, Lisa; Passeri, Davina Carbon release through abrupt permafrost thaw
The permafrost zone is expected to be a substantial carbon source to the atmosphere, yet large-scale models currently only simulate gradual changes in seasonally thawed soil. Abrupt thaw will probably occur in <20% of the permafrost zone but could affect half of permafrost carbon through collapsing ground, rapid erosion and landslides. Here, we...
Turetsky, Merritt R.; Abbott, Benjamin W.; Jones, Miriam C.; Walter Anthony, Katey; Olefeldt, David; Schuur, Edward A.G.; Grosse, Guido; Kuhry, Peter; Hugelius, Gustaf; Koven, Charles; Lawrence, David M.; Gibson, Carolyn; Sannel, A. Britta K.; McGuire, A.D. Impacts of Hurricane Irma on Florida Bay Islands, Everglades National Park, U.S.A.
Hurricane Irma made landfall in south Florida, USA, on September 10, 2017 as a category 4 storm. In January 2018, fieldwork was conducted on four previously (2014) sampled islands in Florida Bay, Everglades National Park to examine changes between 2014 and 2018. The objectives were to determine if the net impact of the storm was gain or loss of...
Wingard, G. Lynn; Bergstresser, Sarah E.; Stackhouse, Bethany; Jones, Miriam; Marot, Marci E.; Hoefke, Kristen; Daniels, Andre; Keller, Katherine Rapid inundation of the southern Florida coastline despite low relative sea-level rise rates during the late-Holocene
Sediment cores from Florida Bay, Everglades National Park were examined to determine ecosystem response to relative sea-level rise (RSLR) over the Holocene. High-resolution multiproxy analysis from four sites show freshwater wetlands transitioned to mangrove environments 4–3.6 ka, followed by estuarine environments 3.4–2.8 ka, during a period of...
Jones, Miriam; Wingard, G. Lynn; Stackhouse, Bethany; Keller, Katherine; Willard, Debra A.; Marot, Marci E.; Landacre, Bryan D.; Bernhardt, Christopher E. Permafrost collapse is accelerating carbon release
This much is clear: the Arctic is warming fast, and frozen soils are starting to thaw, often for the first time in thousands of years. But how this happens is as murky as the mud that oozes from permafrost when ice melts.As the temperature of the ground rises above freezing, microorganisms break down organic matter in the soil. Greenhouse gases —...
Turetsky, Merritt R.; Abbott, Benjamin W.; Jones, Miriam; Walter Anthony, Katey; Olefeldt, David; Schuur, Edward A.G.; Koven, Charles; McGuire, A.D.; Grosse, Guido; Kuhry, Peter; Gustaf Hugelius; Lawrence, David M.; Gibson, Carolyn; Sannel, A. B. K.
Using Peat Oxygen Isotopes to Elucidate Patterns of Sea Ice Extent over the Last 5,500 Years in the Bering Sea, Alaska
This article is part of the Fall 2020 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.
Climate-cooling Arctic lakes soak up greenhouse gases
This article is part of the Spring 2015 issue of the Earth Science Matters Newsletter.