Research topics: Plant ecology and paleoecology; long-term history and dynamics of vegetation and climate in the Western Hemisphere
Research program: My scientific focus involves past and present patterns in vegetation, and particularly the nature of climatic and ecological changes that have shaped modern landscapes. This research has two broad themes: patterns of modern vegetation, and changes in vegetation through time. Recent projects involving modern vegetation have dealt with forests, peatlands, and saltmarshes of Maine. These studies, which seek to describe and explain the distribution of plants in these ecosystems, have included analysis of local and regional patterns in vegetation with special emphasis on how spatial and temporal variations in climate, geology, disturbance, and other factors have affected the plant assemblages. Current paleoecological studies involve sites in Maine, as well as in northern New England, Florida, Sweden, and Chile. This research is designed to provide understanding of long-term ecosystem processes, many of which are not evident on modern landscapes or within human life-spans. The projects usually involve analysis of plant fossils that have accumulated in lakes and bogs over thousands of years, and have as a primary focus the responses of vegetation to abrupt climate changes of the past.
See also Institute for Quaternary Studies.
Selected Publications
Schauffler, M. and G.L. Jacobson Jr. 2002. Persistence of coastal spruce refugia during the Holocene in northern New England, USA, detected by stand-scale pollen stratigraphies. Journal of Ecology 90:235-250.
Moreno, P.I., G.L. Jacobson Jr., T.V. Lowell, and G.H. Denton. 2001. Late-glacial cooling revealed by pollen records from the Chilean Lake District (41°S). Nature 409:804-808.
Dieffenbacher-Krall A.C. and G.L. Jacobson Jr. 2001. Post-glacial changes in the geographic ranges of certain aquatic vascular plants in North America. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 101B:79-84.
DeHayes, D.H., G.L. Jacobson Jr., P.G. Schaberg, B. Bongarten. L. Iverson, and A.C. Dieffenbacher-Krall. 2000. Forest responses to changing climate: Lessons from the past and uncertainty for the future. pp. 495-540 In: Mickler, R.A, R.A. Birdsey, and J. Hom, (Eds.) Responses of Northern U.S. Forests to Environmental Change. Springer.
Moreno, P.I., T.V. Lowell, G.H. Denton, G.L. Jacobson, Jr., and B.G. Andersen: 1999. Abrupt changes in vegetation and climate during the last glacial maximum and last termination in the Chilean lake district: A case study from Canal de la Puntilla (41°S). Geografiska Annaler 81: 285-312.
Schauffler, M., G.L. Jacobson Jr., A.L. Pugh IV, and S.A. Norton: 1996. Influence of vegetational structure on capture of salt and nutrient aerosols in a Maine peatland. Ecological Applications, 6:263-268.
Jacobson, G.L. Jr. and A. Dieffenbacher-Krall: 1995. White pine and climate change: Insights from the past. Journal of Forestry 93:39-42.
Other publications from this laboratory