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Research Interests

Paleo-ecology, arctic and alpine environments, and global change, with emphasis on pollen analysis (palynology) as a method of reconstructing past vegetation and climate to understand the present environment and to act as background for current environmental concerns. The program has involved over twenty expeditions into the arctic to study past movements of the arctic tree-line driven by climatic change, which now provides an important perspective and test for the Greenhouse Hypothesis. An agreement has been reached with the Central Siberian Botanical Institute to exchange American and Russian students to explore the Siberian and North American arctic tree-line for signs of atmospheric warming in a long-term research project.

Selected Publications

H, Nichols , 2000: Circumpolar warming effects on tree-line reproduction in Canada and Siberia, in Conard,S.G.(ed.) "Disturbance in Boreal Forest Ecosystems: Human Impacts and Natural Processes." International Boreal Forest Research Association 1997 Meetings Proceedings, US Dept. of Agriculture, Forest Service, St. Paul, Minn., pp. 279-287.

Nichols , H. 1993. Stability of the boreal forest - tundra ecotone: a test for the Greenhouse Effect. World Resource Review 5(3):360-371.