Jessica L. Oster Research Group

Vanderbilt University

How did regional climate and wildfire regimes change over the last millennia as recorded in cave mineral chemistry? The Oster lab measures chemical signals preserved in cave minerals such as stalagmites to reconstruct past climates using geochemical proxies. The group uses precise radiometric dating and isotope analyses on stalagmite layers to build high-resolution chronologies and infer past precipitation and temperature variability. The lab leads an international NSF–SNSF project that combines radiocarbon and organic-molecule analyses to link cave records with wildfire history and ecosystem responses. Researchers deploy in‑cave monitoring instruments to capture rapid post-fire geochemical changes and provide preliminary data for larger comparative studies.