Michael W. Kerwin

Degrees

2000 PhD, geology, University of Colorado-Boulder
1994 MS, geology, University of Colorado-Boulder
1992 BA, geology, Colorado College

Research Interests

My research expertise involves Quaternary paleoclimatology while I also have strong interests in botany, fire ecology, dendrochronology, desert ecology, natural and human hazards, and quantitative methods. I manage the dendrochronology laboratory at the University of Denver where my students are using tree rings to understand the connections between climate change, natural forest succession, and wildfires. I am currently working on a project near Evergreen, CO to quantify ring-width variability in ponderosa pine during extreme single-year drought events. I am also collaborating with the US Geological Survey’s Climate, Land Use and Environmental Sensitivity Project to develop high-resolution climate records (using tree rings) in the Upper Colorado River Basin (above Lees Ferry, AZ).

Publications

Thompson, R.S, Shafer, S, Anderson, K.H., Strickland, L, Pelltier, R., Kerwin, M.W. (in press). Geologic, Climatic, and Vegetation Characteristics of Three Ecoregion Systems in North America: Comparisons Along Continent-Wide transects. Environmental Management.

Kerwin, M.W., Overpeck, J.T., Webb, R.S., and Anderson, K.H. (2004). Pollen-based summer temperature reconstructions for the eastern Canadian boreal forest, subarctic, and arctic. Quaternary Science Reviews. 23: 1901-1924.

Reynolds, R.L., Rosenbaum, J.G., Rapp, J., Kerwin, M.W., Bradbury, J.P., Coleman, S., Adam, D. (2004). Record of Late Pleistocene glaciation and deglaciation in the southern Cascade Range. 1. Petrologic evidence from lacustrine sediment in Upper Klamath Lake, southern Oregon. Journal of Paleolimnology 31 (2): 217-233.

Kaufman, D.S, Ager, T.A., Anderson, N.J., Anderson, P.M., Andrews, J.T., Bartlein, P.J., Brubaker, L.B, Coats, L.L., Cwynar, L.C., Duvall, M.L., Dyke, A.S., Edwards, M.E., Gajewski, K., Geirsdóttir, A., Hu, F.S., Jennings, A.E., Kaplan, M.R., Kerwin M.W., Lozhkin, A.V., MacDonald, G.M., Miller, G.H. , Mock, C.J., Oswald, W.W., Otto-Bliesner, B.L., Rühland, K., Smol, J.P., Steig, E.J., and Wolfe, B.B. (2004). Holocene Thermal Maximum in the Western Arctic. Quaternary Science Reviews 23: 529-560.

Kerwin, M.W. (2000). “Quantifying and Modeling Holocene Climate Variability based on Modern and Fossil Pollen Records from the Eastern Canadian Arctic and Subarctic.” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Colorado.

Kerwin, M.W., Overpeck, J.T., Webb, R.S., DeVernal, A., Rind, D.H., and Healy, R.J. (1999). The role of oceanic forcing in mid-Holocene climatic change. Paleoceanography 14, 200-210.

Barber, D.C., Dyke, A., Hillaire-Marcel, C., Jennings, A.E., Andrews, J.T., Kerwin, M.W., Bilodeau, G., McNeely, R., Southon, J., Morehead, M.D., and Gagnon, J.M. (1999). Forcing of the cold event of 8,200 years ago by catastrophic drainage of Laurentide lakes. Nature 400, 344-348.

Rosenbaum, J.G., Reynolds, R.L., Rapp, J., Kerwin, M., Drexler, J., and Adam, D.A. (1997). Sediment magnetic, paleomagnetic, geochemical, and grain size data from lacustrine sediment in a core from Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon, U.S. Geological Survey Open-file Report 97-516, pp. 49. United States Geological Survey, Reston, VA.
Kerwin, M.W. (1996). A regional stratigraphic isochron (ca. 8000 14C yr B.P.) from final deglaciation of Hudson Strait. Quaternary Research 46, 89-98.

Andrews, J.T., Jennings, A.E., Kerwin, M.W., Kirby, M., Manley, W., Miller, G.H., Bond, G., and MacLean, B. (1995). A heinrich-like event, H-0 (DC-0): Source(s) for detrital carbonate in the North Atlantic during the Younger Dryas chronozone. Paleoceanography 10, 943-952.

Andrews, J.T., MacLean, B., Kerwin, M.W., Manley, W.F., Jennings, A.E., and Hall, F. (1995). Final stages in the collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet, Hudson Strait, Canada, NWT: 14C AMS dates, seismic stratigraphy, and magnetic susceptibility logs. Quaternary Science Reviews 14, 983-1004.

Rosenbaum, J.G., Reynolds, R.L., Adam, D.P., Sarna-Wojcicki, A.M., Whitney, C.G., Kerwin, M.W., and Fitzmaurice, P.L. (1995). Climate records from Quaternary sediment, Buck lake and Caledonia Marsh, southern Oregon; comparison of magnetic and pollen data. In “Workshop on the correlation of marine and terrestrial records of climate change in the western United States.” (D. P. Adam, J. P. Bradbury, W. E. Dean, J. V. Gardner, and A. M. Sarna-Wojcicki, Eds.), U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 95-34, pp. 199-202. U.S. Geological Survey, Reston, VA.

Kerwin, M.W. (1994). “Final Stages in the Collapse of the Laurentide Ice Sheet: A Rock Magnetic and Sedimentological Study from Hudson Strait, Canada.” Master of Science Thesis, University of Colorado.

Manley, W.F., MacLean, B., Kerwin, M.W., and Andrews, J.T. (1993). Magnetic susceptibility as a Quaternary correlation tool: examples from Hudson Strait sediment cores, eastern Canadian Arctic. In “Current Research, Part D, Eastern Canada and National and General Programs; Geological Survey of Canada.” pp. 137-145.

MacLean, B., Loncarevic, B.D., Hardy, I., Brown, R.G.B., Daigneault, R.A., Day, M., Kerwin, M.W., and Manley, W.F. (1993). Cruise Report: CSS Hudson Cruise 93034 in Hudson Strait and Ungava Bay, Canadian Eastern Arctic. Geological Survey of Canada open file report 2818. Atlantic Geoscience Centre, Geological Survey of Canada, Bedford Institute of Oceanography, Dartmouth, N.S., Canada.

Kerwin, M.W. and Hughen, K.A. (2007). Postglacial paleoceanographic records of the North Atlantic Ocean. In Elias, S.A. (Ed.) Encyclopedia of Quaternary Sciences: 1839-1847. Elsevier, Amsterdam.