research
A range of disciplines...
At Lehigh, faculty and students in the EES Department carry out externally funded research in a broad range of subjects that we organize under two broad overlapping foci, "Solid Earth" and "Environmental Change". In detail, our work spans some areas within ecology, environmental science, and geology that might be unfamiliar to people having a traditional understanding of geology, biology, chemistry, or physics. To learn more, have a look at our faculty and student research activities to see if something piques your interest, please contact us.
A wide range of research programs, equipment and computing facilities are available to support research in EES, located both within the department and in cooperating departments. The department houses some major, NSF-supported equipment and laboratories, and several groups of faculty and students are involved in larger collaborative research efforts of various types. Below, you will find links to pages describing these facilities and programs.
Larger Programs and Collaborations
Faculty and Staff Research
- David Anastasio (Structural geology)
- Gray Bebout (Petrology, stable-isotope geochemistry, and astrobiology)
- Claudio Berti (field geology, active tectonics, GIS)
- Robert Booth (Ecology, paleoecology, and paleoclimatology)
- Edward Evenson (Glacial and Quaternary Geology)
- Benjamin Felzer (Climate and biogeochemical modeling)
- Bruce Idleman (Geochronology, isotope geochemistry, tectonics)
- Ken Kodama (Paleomagnetism)
- Jill McDermott (Oceanography, geology, geochemistry)
- Anne Meltzer (Seismology, tectonics, geodynamics)
- Don Morris (Microbial ecology and limnology)
- Frank Pazzaglia (Geology, geomorphology, active tectonics)
- Steve Peters (Low-temperature geochemistry)
- Joan Ramage (Remote sensing, cryosphere)
- Dork Sahagian (Tectonics, environmental change)
- Zicheng Yu (Paleoecology and paleoclimatology)
- Peter Zeitler (Geochronology, tectonics, geodynamics)
Some Recent Faculty and Staff Publications
Bebout, G. E. and Penniston-Dorland, S. C., 2016. Fluid and mass transfer at subduction interfaces—The field metamorphic record (Invited Review Article), Lithos, DOI: 10.1016/j.lithos.2015.10.007.
Bebout, G. E., Lazzeri, K., and Geiger, C.A., 2015. Nitrogen and its isotopes in the silicate Earth: A review and new data for microporous beryl and cordierite. Invited Centennial Review Article, American Mineralogist, 101, 7-24.
Berti, C., Pazzaglia, F.J., Meltzer, A.S., and Harrison, R.J., 2015. Geomorphic evidence for persistent, cumulative deformation of the Virginia Piedmont in the vicinity of the 23 August 2011 Mineral earthquake, in Horton, J.W., Jr., Chapman, M.C., and Green, R.A., eds., The 2011 Mineral, Virginia, Earthquake, and Its Significance for Seismic Hazards in Eastern North America: Geological Society of America Special Paper 509, doi:10.1130/2015.2509(21).
Burrows, J.E., Peters, S.C., Cravotta, C.A., 2015. Temporal and Geochemical Variations in Above- and Below-Drainage Coal Mine Discharge. Applied Geochemistry Special Issue Dedicated to Kirk Nordstrom. doi:10.1016/j.apgeochem.2015.02.010
Clifford, M.J. and Booth, R.K. 2013. Increased probability of fire during late Holocene droughts in northern New England. Climatic Change. 119, 693-704.
Dempsey, C., Morris, D.P., and Peters, S. 2013. Assessing changes in microbial respiration, BGE, and bacterial production with nutrient addition to batch cultures. Freshwater Ecology, 28, 411-421, doi:10.1080/02705060.2013.773463.
Felzer, B. and Sahagian, D., 2014. Climate impacts on regional ecosystem services in the United States from CMIP3-based multimodel comparisons. Climate Research. doi:0.3354/cr01249.
Gallen, S. F., Pazzaglia, F. J., Wegmann, K. W., Pederson, J. L., and Gardner, T. W., 2015. The dynamic reference frame of rivers and apparent transience in incision rates. Geology, doi: 10.1130/G36692.1.
Hopkins, N.R., Kleman, J., Evenson, E.B., and Kodama, K.P., 2016. An anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) fabric record of till kinematics within a late Weichselian low Baltic till, southern Sweden. Boreas 45(2), 846-860.
Jiang, M., Felzer, B.S., and Sahagian, D., 2016, Characterizing predictability of precipitation means and extremes over the conterminous United States, 1949-2010. J. Climate, http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-15-0560.1.
Kodama, K.P., 2012. Paleomagnetism of Sedimentary Rocks: Process and Interpretation, Wiley-Blackwell, Oxford, 157 pp.
Loisel, J. and Z.C. Yu. 2013. Holocene peatland carbon dynamics in Patagonia. Quaternary Science Reviews 69: 125-141.
Schmidt, J.L., Zeitler, P.K., Pazzaglia, F.J., Tremblay, M.M., Shuster, D.L., and Fox, M., 2015. Knickpoint evolution on the Yarlung River: Evidence for late Cenozoic uplift of the southeastern Tibetan plateau margin. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.08.041.
Sunderlin, D., Trop, J.M., Idleman, B.D., Brannick, A., White, J.G., and Grande, L., 2015. Paleoenvironment and paleoecology of a Late Paleocene high-latitude terrestrial succession, Arkose Ridge Formation at Box Canyon, southern Talkeetna Mountains, Alaska. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 401, 57-80, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.02.012.
Wolin, E., Stein, S., Pazzaglia, F., Meltzer, A., Kafka, A., and Berti, C., 2012. Mineral, Virginia earthquake illustrates seismicity of a passive-aggressive margin. Geophysical Research Letters, 39, L02305, doi:10.1029/2011GL050310.
Zeitler, P.K., Koons, P.O., Hallet, B., and Meltzer, A.S., 2015. Comment on “Tectonic control of Yarlung Tsangpo gorge revealed by a buried canyon in southern Tibet”. Science, 349(6250), 799, doi: 10.1126/science.aaa9380.
Zhang, J. Felzer, B.S., and Troy, T.J., 2016, Extreme precipitation drives groundwater recharge: the Northern High Plains Aquifer, Central United States, 1950-2010. Hydrological Processes, doi:10/1002/hyp.10809.
Zhao, M., Ramage, J., Semmens, K.A., Obleitner, F., 2014, Recent ice cap snowmelt in Russian High Arctic and anti-correlation with late summer sea ice extent. Environmental Research Letters (Special Issue : Focus on Northern Eurasia in the Global Earth System: Changes and Interactions) 9, 045009, doi:10.1088/1748-9326/9/4/045009.
