UTM prof looks to tree rings for clues about environmental contamination in the Yukon - Dr. Trevor Porter

A U of T Mississauga geography professor is mining the past for information about the long-reaching impacts of atmospheric mercury contamination.

As a paleoclimatologist and biogeographer, Trevor Porter examines the stable isotopes found in leaf waxes, permafrost and tree rings for information about the climate of a particular time. Often, that means digging through layers of semi-frozen muck in Alaska, searching for clues about carbon dioxide levels during the Pleistocene era, but a new project has Porter examining events closer to our own time. <<read more>>