GISS Personnel Directory
Dr. Dorothy M. Peteet
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
2880 Broadway
New York, NY 10025 USA
E-mail: dorothy.m.peteet@nasa.gov
Phone: 212-678-5510
MS: 503
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Recent Publications
, R. Ibe, E. Stone, C. Zajac, and C. Chang, 2025: Paleoecological history of Maplecrest Fen, Catskill Mountains (NY, USA) from deglaciation to the Industrial Age. J. Biogeogr., 52, no. 4, e15052, doi:10.1111/jbi.15052.
Bierman, P., H. Mastro, L. Corbett, E. Steig, C. Halsted, M. Caffee, A. Hidy, G. Balco, , O. Bennike, and B. Rock, 2024: Plants, insects and fungi fossils under the center of Greenland's ice sheet are evidence of ice-free times. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 121, no. 33, e2407465121, doi:10.1073/pnas.2407465121.
Christ, A.J., T.M. Rittenour, P.R. Bierman, B.A. Keisling, P.C. Knutz, T.B. Thomsen, N. Keulen, J.C. Fosdick, S.R. Hemming, J.-L. Tison, P.-H. Blard, J.P. Steffensen, M.W. Caffee, L.B. Corbett, D. Dahl-Jensen, D.P. Dethier, A.J. Hidy, N. Perdrial, , E.J. Steig, and E.K. Thomas, 2023: Deglaciation of northwestern Greenland during Marine Isotope Stage 11. Science, 381, no. 6655, 330-335, doi:10.1126/science.ade4248.
, , D. Balk, C. Chang, B. Jones, and M. Tzortziou, 2023: Marsh archive reveals human population history and future implications for estuarine health in Long Island Sound. Sci. Total Environ., 895, 164885, doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164885.
Da Silva, K.A., R.A. Snyder, M.S. Packalen, J.W. McLaughlin, , and S.A. Finkelstein, 2022: Mineral inputs, paleoecological change, and Holocene carbon accumulation at a boreal peatland in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, Canada. Palaeogeogr. Palaeoclimatol. Palaeoecol., 596, 110996, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.110996.
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Research Interests
In the face of a rapidly changing climate today, we can turn to the landscapes around us as well as their historical archives to give us the best possible hints of the magnitude and rapidity of past climate shifts, and their relevance for our future. Our group utilizes field trips to wetlands (salt marshes, fresh marshes, bogs, fens, and swamps) to combine the study of modern plant ecology with retrieval of long sediment cores.
Our research includes travel to Siberia, Alaska, southeastern US, and Easter Island as well as the Hudson River marshes, Black Rock Forest, NY and upland nearby lakes. From these cores we analyze pollen, spores, and plant and animal macrofossils. We are particularly interested in abrupt climate change and patterns of droughts and floods as well as warm intervals and recent coolings such as the Little Ice Age.
Patterns and rates of plant migration are documented using our macrofossil studies in combination with pollen stratigraphy. We target disturbances such as land use change and fire at the local and regional level. Carbon sequestration in wetlands is a more recent focus, with changes in sequestration linked to climate change. Global climate modeling (GCM) at GISS is utilized to understand mechanisms and causes of climatic change.
