Derek Gibson | SIU

Summary of Current Research

My research as a hydrologist and paleoclimatologist primarily focuses on the sedimentary record of lacustrine environments. Specifically, I use sediments and their stratigraphic relationships in lake basins to reconstruct how and why Earth’s hydroclimate has changed in the past, how those changes impact local-scale hydrology and the availability of freshwater resources, and how society can better plan for and mitigate near-future climate and hydroclimate extremes. To investigate these topics, I develop paleoclimatic and hydrological records by combining sedimentological, geochemical, and isotopic proxies from sediment cores collected from various environmental settings around the world. An overview of my current research is detailed below.

Central American precipitation sensitivity to Late Holocene climate change

Predictable variability of seasonal precipitation is critical to the food security and economic stability of Central America, where more than 2 million smallholder farmers depend upon rainfed agriculture for crop production. Recent changes in the timing and amount of rainfall across Central America has contributed to crop failure, hunger, and livelihood loss in a region that is already plagued by substantial economic vulnerability. This trend is expected to worsen over the next few decades, as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has projected significant reductions in Central American precipitation by the end of the century. However, the spatial resolution of current Central American climate models is too low and inter-model heterogeneity too high to confidently resolve near future precipitation changes across the region. Improving these models so that appropriate climate-adapted mitigation strategies can be implemented is a critical task. To do so, additional paleoclimate records that reflect hydroclimate changes during periods of global-scale climate change are necessary. In 2022, I received the NSF postdoctoral fellowship to develop paleoclimate records from lake sediment cores spanning a north-to-south transect across western Central America. I have since organized and led field campaigns to collect new cores, and have developed new proxy records from sediment cores that had already been collected. I am currently using sedimentological and isotopic proxies from these sediment cores to develop new paleoclimate records across western Central America that span the Medieval Climate Anomaly and Little Ice Age.

Climate-flood relationships in the Midwestern United States

The frequency of hydrologic extremes in the Midwestern United States – particularly floods – has increased over the past few decades. However, it is difficult to determine the extent to which these changes are due to human landscape modifications and/or modern climate change because records of Midwestern fluvial discharge rarely span longer than the past 100 years, and modern gauge data reflect discharge dynamics occurring within the context of a highly altered landscape. Long records that link synoptic atmospheric circulation, precipitation, and flooding across changes in global climatic boundary conditions during the pre-industrial past can provide insight into the sensitivity of Midwestern fluvial systems to climate change. Methodologically, I investigate this topic by recovering sediment cores from small floodplain lakes adjacent to major fluvial systems. By combining sedimentological proxies of flood recurrence preserved in the floodplain lake sediments (e.g., accumulation rates, grain size, magnetic susceptibility) with records of synoptic hydroclimate (δ18O, δ13C), I reconstruct changes in flood frequency through time and across climatic boundaries.

Publications:

2024

• Accepted - Gibson, D. K., Obrist-Farner, J., Correa-Metrio, A. Geochemical evidence of drying during the 4.2 ka event in sediment cores from the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico. (Accepted in: Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology).
• Bird, B.W., Steinman, B.A., Escobar, J., Correa‐Metrio, A., Holper, K., Gibson, D.K., Mark, S. and Fonseca, H., 2024. Synchronous tropical Andean hydroclimate variability during the last millennium. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 129(13), p.e2023JD040255.
• Gibson, D.K., Bird, B.W., Finney, B.P. and Steinman, B.A., 2024. Holocene insolation and sea surface temperature influences on the polar front jet stream and precipitation in the midcontinental United States. Quaternary Science Reviews, 340, p.108865.
• Gibson, D.K., Obrist-Farner, J., Birkett, B.A., Curtis, J.H., Berke, M.A., Douglas, P.M., Rice, P.M. and Maurer, J., 2024. The influence of tropical Atlantic sea-surface temperatures and the North Atlantic Subtropical High during the Maya Droughts. The Holocene
  , 34(2), pp.212-223.

2023

• Wright, M. N., Bird, B.W., Gibson, D.K., Pollard, H.J., Escobar, J., Barr, R.C. (2023). Fluvial responses to late Holocene hydroclimate variability in the midcontinental United States. Quaternary Science Reviews, 301, 107939.
• Obrist-Farner, J., Eckert, A., Douglas, P., Perez, L., Correa-Metrio, A., Konecky, B., Brenner, M., Zimmerman, S., Kutterolf, S., Maurer, J., Noren, A., Myrbo, A., Harms, U., Berke, M., Lachniet, M., Steinman, B., Gibson, D., and the LIBRE scientific team. (2023). Workshop report for the Lake Izabal Basin Research Endeavor (LIBRE) continental scientific drilling project. Scientific Drilling, 32.

2022

• Gibson, D. K., Bird, B. W., Pollard, H. J., Nealy, C. A., Barr, R. C., Escobar, J. (2022). Using sediment accumulation rates in floodplain paleochannel lakes to reconstruct climate-flood relationships on the lower Ohio River. Quaternary Science Reviews, 298, 107852.

2019

• Gibson, D. K., Bird, B.W., Wattrus, N.J., Escobar, J., Ahmed, M., Fonseca, H., Velasco, F., Polissar, P.J. (2019). Characterizing late Quaternary lake-level variability in Lago de Tota, Colombian Andes, with CHIRP seismic stratigraphy. Journal of Paleolimnology. Vol. 62, Number 4.