Dakota Larrick

I'm interested in applying dendrochronological methods to studying human and environmental problems from the deep past to present. My PhD work is set in northwest Mexico, where I'm working on building a chronology to date dozens of historic and archaeological sites in the region, focusing on cliff dwellings in the Sierra Madre Occidental between Chihuahua and Sonora. The dates acquired will allow for a clearer understanding of how the emergence and abandonment of cliff dwellings fit into larger regional cultural patterns. With the achieved chronology I further hope to reconstruct the climate and achieve a millennium of data on monsoon activity, with emphasis on periods of either drought or excess rains. Finally, I'll compare this long-term paleoclimate data with changes in community movement, population density, and cultural adaptations through time. This will allow exploration of the role of climate in northwest Mexican history over the last millennium, including how historical trajectories and colonization have influenced modern climate vulnerabilities.