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1. The Possibility of Pacific Rim Origins for New World Ancestral Populations

   Des_Lauriers, Matthew R; Porcayo_Michelini, Antonio; Davis, Loren G (May 2025, Publishing Office, Research Institute for the Dynamics of Civilizations, Okayama University)
2. Modulation of late Pleistocene ENSO strength by the tropical Pacific thermocline

   https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-19161-6  

   Rustic, Gerald T.; Polissar, Pratigya J.; Ravelo, Ana Christina; White, Sarah M. (October 2020, Nature Communications)

   Abstract The El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is highly dependent on coupled atmosphere-ocean interactions and feedbacks, suggesting a tight relationship between ENSO strength and background climate conditions. However, the extent to which background climate state determines ENSO behavior remains in question. Here we present reconstructions of total variability and El Niño amplitude from individual foraminifera distributions at discrete time intervals over the past ~285,000 years across varying atmospheric CO₂levels, global ice volume and sea level, and orbital insolation forcing. Our results show a strong correlation between eastern tropical Pacific Ocean mixed-layer thickness and both El Niño amplitude and central Pacific variability. This ENSO-thermocline relationship implicates upwelling feedbacks as the major factor controlling ENSO strength on millennial time scales. The primacy of the upwelling feedback in shaping ENSO behavior across many different background states suggests accurate quantification and modeling of this feedback is essential for predicting ENSO’s behavior under future climate conditions. 

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3. The role of multiple Pleistocene refugia in promoting diversification in the Pacific Northwest

   https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.16595  

   Smith, Megan L.; Wallace, Jessica; Tank, David C.; Sullivan, Jack; Carstens, Bryan C. (July 2022, Molecular Ecology)

   Abstract Pleistocene glacial cycles drastically changed the distributions of taxa endemic to temperate rainforests in the Pacific Northwest, with many experiencing reduced habitat suitability during glacial periods. In this study, we investigate whether glacial cycles promoted intraspecific divergence and whether subsequent range changes led to secondary contact and gene flow. For seven invertebrate species endemic to the PNW, we estimated species distribution models (SDMs) and projected them onto current and historical climate conditions to assess how habitat suitability changed during glacial cycles. Using single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) data from these species, we assessed population genetic structure and used a machine‐learning approach to compare models with and without gene flow between populations upon secondary contact after the last glacial maximum (LGM). Finally, we estimated divergence times and rates of gene flow between populations. SDMs suggest that there was less suitable habitat in the North Cascades and Northern Rocky Mountains during glacial compared to interglacial periods, resulting in reduced habitat suitability and increased habitat fragmentation during the LGM. Our genomic data identify population structure in all taxa, and support gene flow upon secondary contact in five of the seven taxa. Parameter estimates suggest that population divergences date to the later Pleistocene for most populations. Our results support a role of refugial dynamics in driving intraspecific divergence in the Cascades Range. In these invertebrates, population structure often does not correspond to current biogeographic or environmental barriers. Rather, population structure may reflect refugial lineages that have since expanded their ranges, often leading to secondary contact between once isolated lineages. 

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4. Late Pleistocene Archaeological Discovery Models on the Pacific Coast of North America

   https://doi.org/10.1080/20555563.2019.1670512  

   McLaren, Duncan; Fedje, Daryl; Mackie, Quentin; Davis, Loren G; Erlandson, Jon; Gauvreau, Alisha; Vogelaar, Colton (January 2020, PaleoAmerica)
5. Insight into The Nature of Rim Bonds in Coronene

   https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.jpca.8b07937  

   Fedik, Nikita; Boldyrev, Alexander I. (October 2018, The Journal of Physical Chemistry A)