Donald T. Rodbell, associate professor of geology at
Union College, will deliver a faculty colloquium on “Global
Climate Change: The View from the Tropical Andes” on Tuesday,
May 21, at 11:30 a.m. in the F.W. Olin Center Auditorium.
Rodbell specializes in the geology of the Andes
Mountains in Peru and Ecuador, and his research centers on what
the region can tell about long-term changes in global climate.
He was the lead author of a 1999 article in
Science that suggested that during the past 5,000 years, El Niño
occurred every two to eight years, the same frequency we see in modern
times. The study also suggested that the phenomenon was weak or
non-existent between 5,000 and 12,000 years ago.
Rodbell also is a co-author of a paper to be published
this month in Science about a study suggesting that the tropics
may drive the global climate system. “The results of this study
really fly in the face of conventional wisdom about climate change
on glacial-interglacial time scales,” he said. “For years we have been
led to believe that the high latitudes – particularly in the
Northern Hemisphere – hold the key to globally synchronous
climate change.”
Rodbell's research has been supported by a number of
grants from the National Science Foundation.
At Union since 1993, he holds a bachelor's from St.
Lawrence University, and master's and Ph.D. degrees from the University
of Colorado.