Member Since 1999
Cathy L. Whitlock
Professor Emerita, Montana State University
CATHY WHITLOCK is a Regents Professor Emerita of Earth Sciences at Montana State University and a Fellow of the Montana Institute on Ecosystems. Her research focuses on understanding fire history as it relates to past vegetation, anthropogenic, and climate change. She has studied the environmental history of the northern Rockies as well as comparable mountainous landscapes in New Zealand, Tasmania, Europe, and Patagonia. She is also lead author of the 2017 Montana Climate Assessment.
Professional Experience
Montana State University
Professor Emerita
2021 - Present
Education
University of Washington Seattle
Doctorate
1983
Honors & Awards
Union Fellow
Received December 2023
Citation
For ground-breaking and sustained contributions studying past and present interactions among climate change, fire regimes, and ecosystems
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Publications
Earth Sciences Are the Model Sciences of the Anthropocene
After 4.5 billion years as an evolving and dynamic planet, the Earth continues to evolve but with human‐altered dynamics. Earth scientists ha...
September 21, 2024
A Link Between Hydroclimate Variability and Biomass Burning During the Last Millennium in the Interi...
We present oxygen isotope and charcoal accumulation records from two lakes in eastern Washington that have sufficient temporal resolution to quanti...
November 08, 2023
AGU Abstracts
Hydroclimate and Biomass Burning in the Interior Pacific Northwest During the Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age: Reconciling Different Proxy Archives
CLIMATE OF THE COMMON ERA II ORAL
paleoceanography and paleoclimatology | 15 december 2022
Sam Mark, Mark B. Abbott, Byron A. Steinman, Erika...
Climate change and its relationship to biomass burning over the past 1200 yr in northwestern North America remains a topic of open debate. Existing re...
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Quantifying black carbon emissions from lake sediments near late 13th century Māori settlements
THE PAST AND FUTURE OF FIRE: PALEO PERSPECTIVES, HISTORICAL UNDERSTANDING, AND FUTURE PROJECTIONS II ORAL
atmospheric sciences | 16 december 2021
Sandra Bruegger, David B. McWethy, Nathan Chellman...
Refractory black carbon (rBC) aerosols emitted from biomass and fossil fuel burning contribute to radiative forcing of climate. Understanding long-ter...
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Southern Westerlies and interannual climate variability as drivers of regional vegetation and fire history in southern South America (35-55°S)
CHANGES AND IMPACTS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY IN SOUTH AMERICA I
global environmental change | 13 december 2019
William Nanavati, Cathy L. Whitlock, Virginia Igle...
Changes in fire activity and the position of the forest-steppe ecotone east of the Andes (35-55°S), inferred from a transect of pollen and charco...
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Volunteer Experience
2025 - 2027
Member
Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology Fellows Committee
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