Aaron Putnam
Research Associate, Climate Change Institute
Contact Information
Research interests
I am interested in the late-Quaternary history of glaciers and climate, specifically during and since the last ice age. I use 10Be surface-exposure dating and radiocarbon dating to determine the age of glacial landforms that mark the extents of former glaciers. From this information we can quantify regional changes in past atmospheric temperatures using snowline reconstructions and glaciological modeling. Field areas include: Southern Alps, New Zealand; Patagonian Andes; Rocky Mountains and Sierra Nevada, western USA; Tien Shan and Tarim Basin, Xinjiang, China; Scottish Highlands. Previous field projects have involved fieldwork in northern Maine, northern Alaska, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and the southern Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica.
Publications
In Press
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Birkel, S.D., Putnam, A.E., Denton, G.H., Koons, P.O., Fastook, J.L., Maasch, K.A., Putnam, D.E., 2012. Arctic, Antarctic, and Alpine Research 44 (3).
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Putnam, A.E., Schaefer, J.M., Denton, G.H., Barrell, D.J.A., Andersen, B.G., Schwartz, R., Chinn, T.J.H., Doughty, A.M., 2012. Regional climate control of glaciers in New Zealand and Europe during the pre-industrial Holocene. in press at Nature Geoscience.
Additional Publications
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Strelin, J.A., Denton, G.H., Vandergoes, M.J., Ninnemann, U.S., Putnam, A.E. Radiocarbon chronology of the late-glacial Puerto Bandera moraines, southern Patagonian Icefield, Argentina. Quaternary Science Reviews 30, 2551-2569.
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Ackert, R.P., Jr., Mukhopadhyay, S., Pollard, D., DeConto, R.M., Putnam, A.E., Borns, H.W., Jr., 2011. West Antarctic Ice Sheet elevations in the Ohio Range: Geological constraints and ice sheet modeling prior to the last highstand. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 307, 83-93.
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Kaplan, M.R., Strelin, J.A., Schaefer, J.M., Denton, G.H., Finkel, R.C., Schwartz, R., Putnam, A.E., Vandergoes, M.J., Goehring, B.M., Travis, S.G., 2011. In-situ cosmogenic 10Be production rate at Lago Argentino, Patagonia: Implications for late-glacial climate chronology. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 309, 21-32.
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Barker, S., Knorr, G., Edwards, R.L., Perrenin, F., Putnam, A.E., Skinner, L.C., Wolff, E., Ziegler, M., 2011. 800,000 Years of Abrupt Climate Variability. Science 334, 338-351.
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Putnam, A.E., Schaefer, J.M., Barrell, D.J.A., Vandergoes, M., Denton, G.H., Kaplan, M.R., Finkel, R.C., Schwartz, R., Goehring, B.M., Kelley, S.E., 2010. In situ cosmogenic 10Be production-rate calibration from the Southern Alps, New Zealand. Quaternary Geochronology 5, 392-409.
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Siddall, M., Kaplan, M.R., Schaefer, J.M., Putnam, A.E., Kelly, M.A., Goehring, B., 2010. Changing influence of Antarctic and Greenlandic temperature records on sea-level over the last glacial cycle. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 410-423.
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Broecker, W.S., Denton, G.H., Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Alley, R.B., Putnam, A.E., 2010. Putting the Younger Dryas cold event into context. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 1078-1081.
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Denton, G.H., Anderson, R.F., Toggweiler, J.R., Edwards, R.L., Schaefer, J.M., Putnam, A.E., 2010. The last glacial termination. Science 238, 1652-1656.
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Kaplan, M.R., Schaefer, J.M., Denton, G.H., Barrell, D.J.A., Chinn, T.J.H., Putnam, A.E., Andersen, B.G., Finkel, R.C., Schwartz, R., Doughty, A.M., 2010. Glacier retreat in New Zealand during the Younger Dryas stadial. Nature 467, 194-197.
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Putnam, A.E., Denton, G.H., Schaefer, J.M., Barrell, D.J.A., Andersen, B.G., Finkel, R.C., Schwartz, R., Doughty, A.M., Kaplan, M.R., 2010. Glacier advance in southern middle-latitudes during the Antarctic Cold Reversal. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/ngeo962
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Putnam, A.E., and Putnam, D.E., 2009. Inactive and relict rock glaciers of the Deboullie Lakes Ecological Reserve, northern Maine, USA. Journal of Quaternary Science 24, 773-784.
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Schaefer, J.M., Denton, G.H., Kaplan, M., Putnam, A., Finkel, R.C., Barrell, D.J.A., Andersen, B.G., Schwartz, R., Mackintosh, A., Chinn, T., Schlüchter, C., 2009. High-frequency Holocene glacier fluctuations in New Zealand differ from the northern signature. Science 324, 622-625.
Education
Ph.D. University of Maine; M.S. University of Maine, B.S. Bates College
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