Dr. Peter Wigand
Visiting Research Professor
Department of Geosciences
University of Bari Aldo Moro
Bari, Italy
Graduate Faculty, Department of Geography, University of Nevada, Reno
Research Faculty, Graduate Program of Hydrological Sciences, University of Nevada, Reno
Graduate Faculty, Department of Geology, California State University, Bakersfield
Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences, Desert Research Institute, Reno
Primary Investigator, Great Basin & Mojave Paleoenvironmental Research & Consulting, Reno
EDUCATION:
Ph.D., Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, 1985
M.A., Anthropology, Washington State University, Pullman, 1978
B.A., Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, 1970
PROFESSIONAL INTERESTS:
Dr. Wigand is a late Quaternary paleoecologist/paleobotanist with research interests focused on the reconstruction of past vegetation communities and the climates that affected them in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Using palynological (pollen) and plant macrofossil (primarily packrat midden analysis) expertises, he is has spent the last 27 years in reconstruction of late Pleistocene and Holocene vegetation history and environments of western North America, especially that of the Great Basin. Using pollen and plant macrofossil evidence he has reconstructed the dynamics of past plant communities. During the last 13 years he has been involved various aspects of applied paleoecology including paleoclimatic site characterization of the Yucca Mountain High-level Nuclear Waste Storage facility in southern Nevada. In this research the variability, magnitude of extremes, rates of change and seasonal distribution of past precipitation and associated temperatures in the Great Basin were reconstructed for input into geohydrological ground water recharge models. Extremes of past climates were derived through assessment of changes in past plant distribution and in physiological stress as evidenced in carbon 13 enrichment. Ongoing research in the central Great Basin and northeastern California have resulted in more detailed information regarding climates of the last 5,000 years an their spatial extent. New research in the Los Angeles and the Tulare Lake basins has resulted in new understandings regarding early and middle Holocene climates in the region.
Continuing with an interest in the eastern Mediterranean developed during fieldwork and paleoenvironmental research in Egypt's Western Desert and Fayum Depression 23 years ago his current interests involve examination of the correspondences between the past climates of the American Southwest and southwestern Asia as they reflect their similar placement in the global climatic system. He is especially interested in the possibility that these correspondences may provide understandings for prediction of future climates, water availability and vegetation response in both regions. Underlying all these studies is an ongoing interest, developed during graduate school, of the link between environmental and human cultural change. Currently, Dr. Wigand is private paleoenvironmental consultant. He is also on the graduate faculty of the Geography Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. He teaches once a year either in the Department of Geography of the University of Nevada, Reno or in the Department of Physics and Geology of California State University, Bakersfield. He also serves on graduate thesis and dissertation committees.
Currently he is conducting ongoing landscape reconstruction research in southern Italy, and investigating Glacial Maxima spruce forest in central Alaska. He is continuing research in the Tulare Lake basin begun ten years ago, as well as research of pluvial lakes in the Mojave Desert.
LINKS:
Visiting Research Professor Department of Earth and Geoenvironmental Sciences (Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra e Geoambientali)
University of Bari Aldo Moro (Università Degli Studi di Bari Aldo Moro)
Bari, Italy
http://www.geo.uniba.it
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Graduate Faculty, Department of Geography
https://www.unr.edu/geography/people
https://www.unr.edu/geography/people/peter-wigand
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Research Faculty, Graduate Program of Hydrological Sciences
University of Nevada, Reno
Reno, NV 89557-0154
http://www.hydro.unr.edu/people/research_details.aspx?f55kjhGf2H44gf=826&Njhu789Skjh54Elfjk=120
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Affiliate Associate Research Professor, Division of Earth and Ecosystem Sciences
Desert Research Institute
2215 Raggio Parkway, Reno, NV 89512
http://www.dri.edu/directory/earth-ecosystem-personnel
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Earth- & Eco- Systems Expertise for Environmental Modeling & Restoration (EESEEMR)
A Research, Consulting & Implementation Co. (Dublin, Ireland), Applied Ecological and Paleoecological Studies
27 Convent Road, Blackrock, Dublin, Ireland A94P6D8
https://climatechangeandlanduseandlandscape.com
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Great Basin & Mojave Paleoenvironmental Consulting & Research
Reno, NV 89506
http://web2.greatbasin.net/~wigand/petespaleo/Wigand.htm
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Graduate Faculty, Department of Geology
California State University, Bakersfield
Bakersfield, CA 93311-1022
http://www.csub.edu/~dbaron/Wigand_talk.pdf
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Associate Graduate Faculty,Department of Anthropology, University of Nevada, Las Vegas
4505 S. Maryland Parkway, Las Vegas, NV 89154-5003
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Peter_Wigand
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/peter-wigand/35/90/764
http://4d.proclim.ch/4dcgi/all/en/Detail_Person?wigandp.reno
http://www.worldcat.org/identities/lccn-no99090280/
https://www.facebook.com/ernest.wigand
https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=4XdKCSIAAAAJ&hl=en&cstart=40&pagesize=20
Teaching
Grab interest
TEACHING AND STUDENT COMMITTEE MEMBERSHIP:
GRADUATE FACULTY:
University of Nevada, Reno.
California State University, Bakersfield
COURSES TAUGHT, UNIVERSITY OF NEVADA, RENO:
Anthropology/Geology 720 - Principles of Palynology - fall 1991, spring 1996
Anthropology/Geology 722 - Principles of Plant Macrofossil Analysis - spring 1997
Anthropology/Geology 708/750 - Great Basin Paleoenvironments - spring1992, spring 1994
Anthropology 499/699 - Modern and Past Environments of the Great Basin - spring 1999
Geology 702x - Paleohydrology - spring 1997
Geography 437/637 - Geography of Past Environments - Fall 2008
Geography 440/640 - Mountain Geography - Fall 2002, Fall 2006, Fall 2011
Geography 472/672 - Arid Lands Geogarphy - Spring 2004
Geography 314 - Geography Field Methods - Fall 2007, Spring 2010
Geography Department: Paleoecology Laboratory
COURSES TAUGHT, YARMOUK UNIVERSITY, IRBID, JORDAN:
Environmental Sciences 653 - Applied Paleoecology - fall 1999
Biology 623 - Quaternary Palynology - spring 2000
COURSES TAUGHT, CALIFORNIA STATE UNIVERSITY, BAKERSFIELD :
Geology 477 - Quaternary Paleoecology: theory and method - winter quarter 2001.
Geology 577 - Paleoclimatology - fall quarter 2005.
Research Experience Vitalizing Science - University Program (REVS-UP)
- Summer 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 201
- Posters created by the high school students I worked with:
COMMITTEES CHAIRED:
Cheryl Nowak - M.S. (Range, Wildlife & Forestry/Environmental & Resource Sciences)(Completed Spring 1991)
Jennifer Hallet - M.S. (Range, Wildlife & Forestry/Environmental & Resource Sciences)(Completed Spring 1994)
Behnaz Balmaki, - Ph.D. (Geology- Micro Paleontology, Palaeoseismology) (Identification and timing of seismic events along the Newport-Inglewood-Rose Canyon Fault in Southern California) (University of Nevada, Reno) (2014 – Present)
Sepideh Bahrami – Ph.D. (Hydrology) (Modeling spring recharge in southern Italy since the Neolithic) (University of Nevada, Reno) (2017 – Present)
MEMBERSHIP ON OTHER COMMITTEES:
Cliff Krieger - M.A.-Anthopology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1990)
Ulla Yandell - M.S. Biology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Fall 1992)
Brian Hockett - Ph.D. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1993)
Sue Ann Monteleone ‑ M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Summer 1994)
Ron King ‑ Ph.D. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (deceased)
Travis Mickelson - M.S. Biology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1995)
Peggy McGuckian ‑ M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Fall 1995)
Diana Pritchard ‑ M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1996)
Dan Erbes - M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield) (Completed Summer 1996)
Linda Reynolds ‑ Ph.D. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Summer 1996)
C. C. Hoffman - M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Summer 1996)
Julie Tipps - M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Summer 1997)
Kurt Cupp - M.S. Geology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Fall 1997)
Saxon Sharpe - Ph.D. Geology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1998)
Kirk Halford - M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 1998)
Amy Patrick - M.A. English (Environmental Writing) (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 2001)
Marie Allen - M.A. Geography (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Winter 2002)
Barbi Malinky - M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 2005)
Cari Meyer - M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield)(Completed Spring 2005)
Kelly Burkle - M.A. Geography (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Spring 2007)
David Walker - M.S. Geography (University of Nevada, Reno) (Completed Summer 2007)
Scotty Strachen – M.S. Geography (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Summer 2011)
Anthony Taylor – M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Spring 2012)
Tara Hamilton – M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Spring 2012)
Anna Yoder - M.S. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno) (dropped out)
Verla Jackson - M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Fall 2012)
Randall Stephenson - M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield)(Completed Fall 2013)
Nathaniel Pepe – M.S. Geology (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Spring 2014)
Ian Springer – M.A. Anthropology (University of Nevada, Reno)(Completed Spring 2015)
Eric Heaton – M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield)(Completed Spring 2016)
Kilpatrick Mackenzie – Ph.D. Geography (University of Nevada, Reno)
Elizabeth Powers – M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield)
Tracie Miller – M.S. Geology (California State University, Bakersfield)(To complete Spring 2018)
Sahar Maleki – Ph.D. – Geography (Paleoecology) (Tehran University, Tehran, Iran)
Homma Rostami – Ph.D. – Geography (Paleoecology) (Tehran University, Tehran, Iran)
Antonella Dimotta – Ph.D. – Geology (Geomorphology) (University of Basilicata, Potenza, Italy) (Completes February 2019.
