Climate Change Institute
University of Maine
316 Bryand Global
Sciences Center
Orono, ME 04469-5790
vandergoes@maine.edu
My research interests are in Quaternary climate change and paleoecology (particularly in the Southern Hemisphere), geomorphology and Antarctic glaciology.
The main theme of my current research is to investigate the timing, structure and synchroneity of climate change in the Southern Hemisphere and between Hemispheres through the use of detailed paleoecological data including pollen and sub-fossil insect remains (chironomids: non-biting midges). Associated with this is the development of micropalaeontological techniques-particularly the methods and application of AMS dating microfossils from late Quaternary deposits. My current research position is a 3-year Comer Foundation post-doctoral research fellowship to develop the technique of using the environmental tolerances of New Zealand chironomids to quantify paleotemperature and ecological change from Quaternary lake and peat deposits.
Graduate and post-doctoral research includes the investigation of peat and lake sediments from southern New Zealand to develop detailed records of vegetation and climate change during the last Glacial-Interglacial cycle, and the investigation of ice marginal depositional and erosion processes and glacial morphology of cold based alpine glaciers, Dry Valleys, Antarctica.
Previous Post-Doctoral Positions
Department of Geography, University of Plymouth, Plymouth U.K. NERC funded Postdoctoral Research Fellow, November 2000 - November 2002
Vandergoes M. J., & Prior C.A. 2003 AMS dating of pollen concentrates-a methodological study of late Quaternary sediments from south Westland, New Zealand. Radiocarbon 45;(3) (in press).
Vandergoes M. J., & Fitzsimons S. J. 2003 The Last Glacial-Interglacial Transition (LGIT) in south Westland. New Zealand: paleoecological insight into mid-latitude Southern Hemisphere climate change. Quaternary Science Reviews 22; 1461-1476.
Fitzsimons S. J., Lorrain R. D., Vandergoes M. J.: 2000. Behaviour of subglacial sediments and basal ice in a cold glacier. Deformation of glacial materials. Geological Society of London, Special publication 176, 181-190.
Lorrain R. D., Fitzsimons S. J., Vandergoes M. J., Stievenard M. 1999: Ice composition evidence for the formation of basal ice from lake water beneath a cold-based Antarctic glacier. Annals of Glaciology 28; 277-281.
Vandergoes M. J., Fitzsimons S. J., Newnham R. M., 1997: Late glacial to Holocene vegetation and climate change in eastern Takitimu Mountains, Western Southland, New Zealand. Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand 27; 53-66.