Northern Great Plains
Cavernocypris wardi

Cyprois marginata
Elk Lake, Clearwater Co., Minnesota

Alison J. Smith
Research & Teaching
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AJSmith
                             Contact Information:

Dr. Alison J. Smith, Professor          also       Director, Master of Liberal  Studies Program
Department of Geology                                College of Arts & Sciences
Kent State University                                   Kent State University
Kent, OH 44242                                          Kent, OH 44242
(330) 672-3709 office                                  (330) 672-9878 office
((330) 672-7949 FAX                                  (330) 672-7949 FAX
alisonjs@kent.edu                                        LBRLSTU@kent.edu
                                                                   http://dept.kent.edu/LSM                                                               

Graduate Student Theses


Kay Amy (Ph.D. in progress) Dissertation:  Predictive model and hydrology of headwater streams and groundwater/surface water interactions supporting brook trout habitat in Northeast Ohio
 
Cordelia Dennison-Budak (M.S. in progress) Thesis:  Ostracode Paleoecology of Pliocene Lake Deposits, Hagerman National Monument, Idaho

Timothy N. Cosma, M.S., 2002. Thesis: Paleoenvironment of Plio-Pleistocene Lake Cahuilla, Anza-Borrego State Park, California

Colleen Jones, M.S., 2002. Thesis:  Ostracode Distribution and Hydrogeochemical Variability in a Fen Wetland

Bonnie Muller, M.S., 2001. Thesis:  Application of Spatial Analysis to Nonmarine Ostracode Distribution in the United States

Sonia Bacon, M.S., 1999.  Thesis:  Seasonal Study of Ostracodes and Environmental Isotopes in Page Pond, Cuyahoga Co., Ohio

Dana Oleskoweicz, M.S. 1998.  (in co-advisement with Robert Carlson, Biology Dept., KSU)  Thesis:  Seasonal Distributions of Ostracodes in East Twin Lake, Portage Co., Ohio

John Carney, M.S. 1997. Thesis:  The Use of Ostracodes and Environmental Isotopes as Indicators of Surface-Groundwater Interaction in Hays County, Central Texas

Joan C. Puller, M.S. 1995. Thesis: A Study of Fossil Ostracoda from Elkwater Lake, Alberta: Lake Response to Late Holocene Climate Changes.


Research Interests
My research is centered on the development of the modern and fossil non-marine ostracode record as a tool in determining changes in water quality and climate through Holocene time.  I focus on the role of ground water surface water interactions in mediating the terrestrial climate record, and in identifying paleohydrologic changes using the ostracode ecology and ostracode shell geochemistry.  This program involves independent research as well as collaborative efforts with researchers at other institutions.  The general areas of this research program include:

Paleohydrology and Drought History on the Great Plains:
Holocene climate records from lacustrine ostracodes
Great Lakes Holocene History & Paleolimnology
Calibration of Ostracode Shell Geochemistry (stable isotopes, trace elements)
against hydrogeochemistry
Development of "NANODe", North American Nonmarine Ostracode Database
with Co-authors R. Forester (USGS), D. Palmer (KSU) and B. Curry (Illinois G.S.)

 

 
Ostracodes as hydrologic indicators in springs, seeps and streams



Recent Publications

Smith, Alison J., 2007.  Century scale Holocene processes as a source of natural selection pressure in human evolution:  Holocene climate and the Human Genome Project, The Holocene, v.17, no. 5, pp.689-695.

P.F. Karrow, T.F. Morris, J.H. McAndrews, A.V. Morgan, A.J. Smith, and I.R. Walker, 2007.  A diverse late-glacial (Mackinaw Phase) biota from Leamington, Ontario.   Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, v. 44, p. 287-296.

 Forester, R.M., Smith, A.J., Palmer, D.F., and Curry, B.B., 2005.  North American Non-Marine Ostracode Database Version 1 "NANODe",
http://www.kent.edu/nanode  , December, 2005,  Kent State University.

Smith, A.J., J.W. Davis, D.F.Palmer, R.M. Forester, and B.B. Curry, 2003. Ostracodes as hydrologic indicators in springs, streams and wetlands:  a tool for environmental and paleoenvironmental assessment, In Park, Lisa E. and Smith, Alison J.(eds.) Bridging the Gap: Trends in the Ostracode Biological and Geological Sciences, The Paleontological Society Special Papers, v. 9.  New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 203-222.

Smith, A.J. and Horne, D., 2002.  Ecology of Marine, Marginal Marine, and Nonmarine Ostracods, in The Ostracoda: Applications in Quaternary Research, Geophysical Monograph Series, edited by A. R. Chivas and J. A. Holmes, Monograph Series, Volume 131, 313 pages, Chapter 2, pp. 37-64.  American             Geophysical  Union, Washington, D. C.

Smith, A.J., Donovan, J.J., Ito, E., Engstrom, D.R., and Panek, V., 2002.  Climate driven hydrologic transients in lake sediment records:  multiproxy record of                     mid-Holocene drought.  Quaternary Science Reviews 21/4-6 pp. 625-646.

Donovan, J.J., Smith, A.J., Ito, E., Engstrom, D.R., and Panek, V., 2002. Climate driven hydrologic transients in lake sediment records: calibration of groundwater             conditions to 20th century drought, Quaternary Science Reviews 21/4-6,  pp. 605-624.

Saros, J.E., Baker, R., Fritz, S. C., Goodfriend, G.A., and Smith, A.J., 2000.  Shifts in mid- to late-Holocene anion composition in Elk Lake (Grant County, Minnesota); comparison of diatom and ostracode inferences, Quaternary International, v. 67, p. 37-46.

Moore, T.C., Jr., Walker, J.C.G. , Rea, D.K. , Lewis, C.F.M., Shane, L.C.K., Smith, A.J., 2000.  Younger Dryas interval and outflow from the Laurentide ice sheet , Paleoceanography. 15 , No. 1 , p. 4-18. (R)

 

Teaching
Courses:  Graduate Level:  Paleolimnology, Cenozoic Climate Change, Micropaleontology, Introduction to Liberal Studies.  Undergraduate Level: Invertebrate Paleontology (A Writing-Intensive course), Oceanography, Water & Society (Honors College).