This focus area includes factors controlling water column dynamics in lakes, and on climate signals that these processes leave in the sediment record. Sophisticated equipment is available for sediment coring and analysis, environmental magnetism, seismic studies, and monitoring of plankton populations and UV-B radiation in the water column. This is a developing area with research opportunities in the Pocono Lakes, northern Great Plains, Yellowstone National Park, Bolivia and Peru, as well as other lakes throughout the northeast. Faculty involved: Hargreaves, Kodama, Meltzer, Moeller, Morris, Williamson, Yu.