The Carbon-14 Time Machine: A Talk About Past as Prologue

Dr. Dorothy Peteet, NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies (NASA GISS) Senior Research Scientist, opens the door to Hudson River prehistory in her studies of marshes and wetlands. She has helped reconstruct ancient climates and ecosystems, locally and globally. Peteet discusses what her studies have revealed about our past—and where we may be heading.

In addition to her work at NASA GISS, Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet is an adjunct professor at Columbia University, where she directs the Paleoecology Division of the New Core Lab at Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) of Columbia University. She is currently studying the Late Pleistocene and Holocene record of lakes and wetlands, including peatlands, salt marshes, tidal freshwater marshes, bogs, and fens. Her research provides local and regional records of vegetational and climate history and carbon sequestration. She is interested in climate sensitivity from past climate changes and ecological shifts with future climate change. Dr. Peteet holds a Ph.D. in Biology from NYU and has served on professional scientific boards, as well as the board of the New York Audubon Society.