The Sonoma Quaternary Laboratory specializes in reconstructing ecological, climate and landscape change caused by environmental and climate forces as well as human impacts over the past several thousand years. These paleoenvironmental reconstructions provide an important context for evaluating current and future environmental and climate change. The SQUAL houses state-of-the-art equipment for micro and macro botanical analysis as well as other sedimentary analyses. Students working in SQUAL have the opportunity to gain unique field and laboratory research skills.

Director of SQUAL: Dr. Michelle Goman (goman@sonoma.edu)

SQUAL is located in Stevenson Hall, Room 2401

Dr. Michelle Goman is an organizer of the Pacific Climate Workshop (PACLIM), a multidisciplinary workshop that broadly addresses the climatic phenomena occurring in the eastern Pacific Ocean and western North America. The purpose of the workshop is to understand climate effects in this region by bringing together specialists from diverse fields including physical, social, and biological sciences. Time scales from weather to the Quaternary are addressed in oral and poster presentation.