Professional Background
• Associate Professor of Geology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
(2009-Present)
• Lab Director: Las Vegas Isotope Science Lab (LVIS)
• Assistant Professor of Geology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
(2003- 2009)
• Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Massachusetts, Amherst (2002-2003)
• Postdoctoral Fellow, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama City, Panamá (2001-2002)
• Ph.D. in Paleoclimatology at Syracuse University, New York (2001)
• Fulbright Fellow to Costa Rica, for dissertation research in paleoclimatology (2000-2001)
• M.S. in Quaternary Geology and Hydrogeology, Michigan State University (1997)
• B.A. in Geology, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio (1995)
Research Grants and Academic Awards:
• Millennial-scale tropical rainfall variability from 100 to 20 ka: Testing cross-isthmian water vapor transport and feedbacks on thermohaline circulation. National Science Foundation, Paleoclimate Program. 2007. Collaborative with Yemane Asmerom at University of New Mexico.
• Climatic instability in interior Alaska from the isotopic record of Late Quaternary ground ice, National Science Foundation, Arctic Programs. 2007. Collaborative with Dan Lawson, CRREL, New Hampshire.
• Acquisition of a Stable Isotope Ratio Mass Spectrometer for Earth Systems Science Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 2005. National Science Foundation, Major Research Instrumentation Program.
• A Holocene history of the El Niño/Southern Oscillation, solar variability, and the Central American Monsoon from speleothem calcite. 2003-2005. National Science Foundation.
International Experience
• Ongoing field research in Central and South America (Panamá, Costa Rica, Brazil, and Mexico)
• Speaks Spanish; proficient in Portuguese
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Teaching
Undergraduate:
• GEOG 101 Physical Geography
• GEOL 110 Global Warming (Starting Spring 2009)
• GEOL 333 Principles of Geomorphology (every Spring Semester)
• GEOL 334 Environmental Geology
• GEOL 437 Paleoclimatology
• Death Valley Field Trip Photographic Highlights: 2005, 2006, 2007
Graduate:
• GEOL 637 - Paleoclimatology
• GEOL 707 - Stable Isotope Geochemistry
• GEOL 730 - Seminar in Quaternary Studies
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Research
Dr. Lachniet has an active research program in which he uses light stable and radiogenic isotope geochemistry, hydrology, speleology, glacial geology, geomorphology, and the sedimentary record to answer questions of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic change. His primary research areas are Costa Rica, Panama, Mexico, Alaska, and the Great Basin.
His research goal is to constrain past climate changes in these regions using proxy records. He is particularly interested in generating rainfall histories for Central America and to evaluate the climate forcings of climate change and variability in the neotropics. What processes control tropical and subtropical paleoclimates? Do the tropics have a stable or unstable climate? As the 'heat engine' of the earth, do the tropics drive climate change in higher latitudes? Or do the tropics respond passively to extratropical climate perturbations? How has the El Niño/Southern Oscillation changed over time? What will be the tropical response to anthropogenic climate change? These are some of the questions he is attempting to answer with his research.
His research attempts to resolve this problem through generation of high-resolution (sub-annual to decadal), precisely dated, quantitative isotopic proxy records from speleothems (cave calcite deposits). Speleothem isotopic records will help to resolve continuing debates about tropical-extratropical teleconnections on both a regional and a global scale, and provide insight into the history and dynamics of monsoonal precipitation. Together with studies on modern stable isotope climatology and hydrology, and traditional geologic investigations such as tropical glaciation, his research is making substantial progress in elucidating neotropical Quaternary paleoclimates.
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Selected Publications
(Full
Publication List)
Lachniet, M. S., 2009a. Climatic and environmental controls on speleothem oxygen isotope values. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 412-432, doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2008.10.021.
Lachniet, M. S., 2009b. Sea surface temperature control on the stable isotopic composition of rainfall in Panama. Geophysical Research Letters 36, L03701, doi:10.1029/2008GL036625.
Lachniet, M. S., Patterson, W. P., 2009. Oxygen isotope values of precipitation and surface waters in northern Central America (Belize and Guatemala) are dominated by temperature and amount effects. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 284, 435-446, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2009.05.010.
Lachniet, M.S., Patterson, W. P., Burns, S. J., Asmerom, Y., and Polyak, V. J., 2007. Caribbean and Pacific moisture sources on the Isthmus of Panama revealed from stalagmite and surface water ä18O gradients. Geophysical
Research Letters 34, doi:10.1029/2006GL028469.
Lachniet, M.S., 2007, Glacial Geology and Geomorphology, in Bundschuh, J., and Alvarado, G., eds., Central America: Geology, Resources, and Hazards: London, Taylor, & Francis, p. 171-182.
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Students
•Alison Sloat, [Ph.D. in progress]. Stable Isotopes in Ancient Permafrost Ice Wedges and Modern Surface Waters, Central Alaska.
•Corinne Griffing, [M.S. in progress]. Pleistocene Climate in Alaska from Stable Isotopes in Ice Wedges.
•Kevin Donahue, [M.S. in progress]. Late Quaternary Paleoclimate of Southern Nevada.
•Alex Roy, [M.S. completed 2008]. Late Quaternary Glaciation of the Sierra Cuchumatanes, Guatemala.
•April Azouz, [M.S. completed 2006]. Paleoclimatology of Costa Rica from Speleothem Proxy Records.
•Lindsay Burt, [M.S. completed 2005]. Paleoclimatology of Costa Rica, from Speleothem Isotopes, Barra Honda Cave, Costa Rica.
*Prospective Students: Please contact me if you are interested in pursuing a graduate degree in Paleoclimatology.
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