The Madison-Hills Paleoecology Project ("MPEP")

Introduction

The MPEP is a privately funded endeavor that will drill and sample the layers of soft sediment that have accumulated in the deepest part of Big Pea Porridge Pond ("BPPP") in Madison, New Hampshire during the past +/- 14,000 years. The purpose of the work is to scientifically analyze, technically describe/catalogue, and radiocarbon/proxy date these progressively deposited materials to establish the ecologic change-sequence history of the Pond's basin since the departure of the last ice sheet. The work described above will begin in late January or early February 2008 and be completed by late Spring or Summer 2008.

Scientific Basis of the MPEP

Lake-bottom sediments represent the most continuously detailed records of post-glacial (Pleistocene to Holocene) climate and environmental change available, and such records provide the best long term context for the dramatic physical and biological/ecological changes that have occurred during what has become to be known as the "Anthropocene" period (time since the beginning of extensive human habitation).

Who's Involved

The scientific staff of MPEP includes the following individuals, all of whom are donating their professional expertise to the project:

P. Thompson Davis, Ph.D., Dept. of Natural & Applied Sciences, Bentley College.
Brian Fowler, Quaternary Scientist, Project Director.
Lee Pollock, Ph.D., Dept. of Biology, Drew University.
Lisa Doner, Ph.D., Center for the Environmental, Plymouth State University



Monday, September 29, 2008

NEWS

LATEST NEWS

Now that the summer's activities and travels, along with two weddings(!), are out of the way, work is scheduled to restart on the project. The splitting, sampling, and logging of the remaining core samples is scheduled to be completed over the weekend of October 25-26, and thereafter, the remaining laboratory work (C-14, pollen analyses, Loss-On-Ignition, magnetic susceptibility, etc.) will be completed as soon as practical by the various labs services. Meantime, scheduling discussions will begin soon for the completion of the pond bottom-surface ground penetrating radar survey (GPR) that had to be postponed last winter because of slushy ice surface conditions on the pond.

So, as all this gets retarted, the blog will begin to become more active as this Autumn and Winter progress. For now, sorry for the long silence. We didn't quit the project - just had lots of professional and family obligations.
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