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-...
Pollen 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.
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 L. 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. Widespread global peatland establishment and persistence over the last 130,000 y
Glacial−interglacial variations in CO2 and methane in polar ice cores have been attributed, in part, to changes in global wetland extent, but the wetland distribution before the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 21 ka to 18 ka) remains virtually unknown. We present a study of global peatland extent and carbon (C) stocks through the last glacial...
Treat, Claire C.; Kleinen, Thomas ; Broothaerts , Nils ; Dalton , April S. ; Dommain, Rene; Douglas, Thomas A.; Drexler, Judith Z.; Finkelstein, Sarah A; Grosse, Guido; Hope , Geoffrey ; Hutchings , Jack ; Jones, Miriam C.; Kuhry, Peter; Lacourse, Terri; Lähteenoja, Outi ; Loisel, Julie; Notebaert , Bastiaan; Payne, Richard; Peteet, Dorothy M.; Sannel , A. Britta K. ; Stelling , Jonathan M. ; Strauss , Jens; Swindles, Graeme T.; Talbot, Julie ; Tarnocai, Charles; Verstraeten, Gert ; Williams , Christopher J. ; Xia , Zhengyu ; Yu, Zicheng; Väliranta, Minna ; Hättestrand, Martina ; Alexanderson, Helena ; Brovkin , Victor An assessment of plant species differences on cellulose oxygen isotopes from two Kenai Peninsula, Alaska peatlands: Implications for hydroclimatic reconstructions
Peat cores are valuable archives of past environmental change because they accumulate plant organic matter over millennia. While studies have primarily focused on physical, ecological, and some biogeochemical proxies, cores from peatlands have increasingly been used to interpret hydroclimatic change using stable isotope analyses of cellulose...
Jones, Miriam; Anderson, Lesleigh; Keller, Katherine; Nash, Bailey; Littell, Virginia; Wooller, Matthew J.; Jolley, Chelsea The impact of late Holocene land-use change, climate variability, and sea-level rise on carbon storage in tidal freshwater wetlands on the southeastern United States Coastal Plain
This study examines Holocene impacts of changes in climate, land use, and sea-level rise (SLR) on sediment accretion, carbon accumulation rates (CAR), and vegetation along a transect of tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) to oligohaline marsh along the Waccamaw River, South Carolina (4 sites) and along the Savannah River, Georgia (4 sites)....
Jones, Miriam; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Krauss, K.W.; Noe, Gregory B. Latitudinal limits to the predicted increase of the peatland carbon sink with warming
The carbon sink potential of peatlands depends on the balance of carbon uptake by plants and microbial decomposition. The rates of both these processes will increase with warming but it remains unclear which will dominate the global peatland response. Here we examine the global relationship between peatland carbon accumulation rates during the...
Gallego-Sala, Angela; Charman, Dan; Brewer, Simon; Page, Sue; Prentice, I. Colin; Friedlingstein, Pierre; Moreton, Steve; Amesbury, Matthew; Beilman, David; Bjorck, Svante; Blyakharchuk, Tatiana; Bochicchio, Christopher; Booth, Robert K; Bunbury, Joan; Camill, Philip; Carless, Donna; Chimner, Rodney A.; Clifford, Michael; Cressey, Elizabeth; Courtney-Mustaphi, Colin; De Vleeschouwer, Francois; de Jong, Rixt; Fialkiawicz-Koziel, Barbara; Finkelstein, Sarah A; Garneau, Michelle; Githumbi, Esther N.; Hribjlan, John; Holmquist, James; Hughes, Paul; Jones, Chris D.; Jones, Miriam; Karofeld, Edgar; Klein, Eric S.; Kokfelt, Ulla; Korhola, Atte; Lacourse, Terri; LeRoux, Gael; Lamentowicz, Mariusz; Large, David ; Lavoie, Martin; Loisel, Julie; MacKay, Helen; MacDonald, Glen M.; Makila, Markku; Magnan, Gabriel; Marchant, R.; Marcisz, Katarzyna; Martinez-Cortizas, Antonio; Massa, Charly; Mathijssen, Paul; Mauquoy, Dmitri; Mighall, Timothy; Mitchell, Fraser J.G.; Moss, Patrick; Nichols, J.; Oksanen, P.O.; Orme, L.; Packalen, Maara S.; Robinson, Stephen; Roland, Thomas P.; Sanderson, Nicole K.; Sannel, A.B.K.; Silva-Sanchez, Noemi; Steinberg, Natasha; Swindles, Graeme T.; Turner, T. Edward; Uglow, Joanna; Valiranta, M.; van Bellen, Simon; van der Linden, Marjolein; Wang, Guoping; Yu, Zicheng; Zaragoza-Castells, Joana; Zhao, Yan The role of the upper tidal estuary in wetland blue carbon storage and flux
Carbon (C) standing stocks, C mass balance, and soil C burial in tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFW) and TFFW transitioning to low‐salinity marshes along the upper estuary are not typically included in “blue carbon” accounting, but may represent a significant C sink. Results from two salinity transects along the tidal Waccamaw and Savannah...
Krauss, Ken W.; Noe, Gregory B.; Duberstein, Jamie A.; Conner, William H.; Stagg, Camille L.; Cormier, Nicole; Jones, Miriam C.; Bernhardt, Christopher E.; Lockaby, B. Graeme; From, Andrew S.; Doyle, Thomas W.; Day, Richard H.; Ensign, Scott H.; Pierfelice, Katherine N.; Hupp, Cliff R.; Chow, Alex T.; Whitbeck, Julie L.
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.