The PAST Lab is active in developing paleoclimate records and data mining existing records to investigate past climate.
The PAST Lab is involved in investigations of paleoclimate, specifically the Gulf of Mexico, Caribbean, and tropical regions in conjugation with the anthropology program at Louisiana State University. The lab brings together faculty and students interested in understanding how proxy archives can inform us about past climate and environmental settings as well as the people who used those archives. The paleoclimate perspective allows the discussion of how climate and climate variability may have influenced the environment and the people who lived there. Proxy archives provide environmental histories that can be used to understand climatic conditions at key intervals of the past. Paleoclimate archives include tree-rings, shellfish, corals, cave deposits, marine and lake sediments. The PAST lab has the equipment and facilities for researchers to prepare and analyze these archives to discern and derive information on past climate and environments.