Research Interests

• Reconstruction of late - Quaternary climate change in California and Mexico by fossil pollen and charcoal analysis.
• The Agricultural Origins "Problem" with special emphasis on developments in Mexico.
• Ecological Aspects of prehistoric and Traditional Agriculture - environmental impacts, sustainability, etc.
• Late prehistoric and post-contact environmental change in California.

As Curator in the UC Museum of Paleontology, Roger Byrne has developed a Pollen lab with a wide range of field and analytical equipment.  The lab has a reference collection of over 4,000 herbarium based pollen specimens, plus a small seed collection.  Routine analyses run in the lab, in addition to pollen and charcoal, include: x-radiography, basic sediment analyses - loss on ignition, etc.  In addition, through arrangement with the Geology Department and the USGS, cores are analyzed for magnetic susceptibility, density (gamma ray) and major and minor elemental composition.  The lab is well equipped with 6 research quality microscopes and 3 computers (a DEC 3100, a Mac IIsi, and a PC Compatible).  The DEC is connected to the CALPALYN, a versatile graphics program that was developed in the lab.  The Mac is connected to a scanner and TV camera for image analysis (NIH Image).  The PC is dedicated to an automated charcoal scanning program also developed in the lab.

Last modified 1 February 2000.