Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Marine Ecosystem Response To Late Pleistocene Rapid Climate Change In The Salish Sea, Alex Victor Hernandez

WWU Graduate School Collection

The ecologic response of marine invertebrates during collapse of the Cordilleran Ice-sheet through the Late Pleistocene has been insufficiently studied across the lowlands of northwestern Washington State and southern Fraser Valley, British Columbia. Assessment of the response of these nearshore marine assemblages to climatic shifts will improve our understanding of closely related modern taxa in analogous climate-stressed conditions. If we understand the former vulnerability of related genera, meaningful predictions may thus be provided for extant taxa in current and future time. In this thesis, I establish a compilation dataset of all relevant specimens collected within the Salish Sea and Puget …