In August 2018, the research team went to the Cordillera Vilcanota, Peru (-13.8, -71.0, 4850 m asl.) to obtain lake sediment cores. These lake cores are extremely valuable for us to learn about past changes in the area due to natural forcings and human activities. The team and I revisited this site in May 2019 to collect modern plant, soil, and water samples as well as perform bathymetric survey of Lake Sibinacocha.

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My Ph.D. dissertation has four main goals:

(1) To reconstruct local air and lake temperatures in the Cordillera Vilcanota during the Common Era based on GDGTs in lake sediments and climate modeling. I will also use a lake energy balance model with climate model outputs to predict future lake property changes in this region.

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(2) To reconstruct a leaf wax-based hydroclimate record from Lake Chacacocha, Peru and compare this record to other published isotope-based hydroclimate records. This will help us better understand the dynamics of the South American Summer Monsoon as well as its relationship with local landscape wetness.

(3) To understand local climate and environment of the Cordillera Vilcanota and how this site compares to the tropical Andean highlands through multiproxies and existing records

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(4)  To learn about signal integration and biases in different proxy systems, particularly leaf wax and ice core.