About

Nick is a paleoclimatologist and his research examines how recent climate changes due to global warming compare to past centuries and millennia by interpreting clues in geologic archives. He primarily works in the Arctic and reconstructs past environmental conditions by analyzing physical and geochemical properties of sedimentary records. Nick holds a Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, an M.S. from Northern Arizona University, and a B.S. from Union College. He was a Lamont Postdoctoral Fellow at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University and most recently was a faculty member in the Geology Department at William & Mary prior to arriving at Bates College in 2024.

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Current Projects

• Investigating the climate context for prehistoric human habitation of northern Greenland (WandelDal.org) 
• Resolving past fire-climate relationships to understand future fire potential in the eastern United States
• Reconstructing patterns of past sea-level change in former ice sheet margin environments 

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Recent Publications

*denotes undergraduate author

Vachula, R.S., Balascio, N.L., Karmalkar, A., *Stockton, J., *Landolt, B. (2024) Central Appalachian paleofire reconstruction reveals fire-vegetation dynamics across the last glacial-interglacial transition. Quaternary Science Reviews 338: 108805.

Balascio, N.L., D’Andrea, W.J., Creel, R.C., *Marshall, L., *Dia, M., Wickler, S., Anderson, R.S., Austermann, J., Vasskog, K., Nielson, P.R., Dahl, S.O. (2024) Refining Holocene sea-level dynamics for the Lofoten and Vesterålen archipelagos, northern Norway: Implications for prehistoric human-environment interactions. Journal of Quaternary Science: 39: 566-584.

*Topness, R., Vachula, R.S, Balascio, N.L., D’Andrea, W.J., *Puglsey, G., *Dia, M., Curtin, L., Wickler, S., Anderson, R.S. (2023) Northern Norway paleofire records reveal two distinct phases of early human impacts on fire activity. The Holocene 33: 1304-1316.

*Frank-DePue, L., Vachula, R.S., Balascio, N.L., *Cahoon, K., Kaste, J.M., (2023) Trends in sedimentary charcoal shapes correspond with broad-scale land use changes: insights gained from a 300-year lake sediment record from eastern Virginia, USA. Journal of Paleolimnology 69: 21-36.

 Vachula, R.S., Karp, A.T., Denis, E.H, Balascio, N.L., Canuel, E.A., Huang, Y. (2022) Spatially calibrating polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) as proxies of area burned by vegetation fires: insights from comparisons of historical data and sedimentary PAH fluxes. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 596: 110995.

Creel, R.C., Austermann, J., Khan, N.S., D’Andrea, W.J., Balascio, N.L., Dyer, B., Ashe, E., Menke, W. (2022) Postglacial relative sea level change in Norway. Quaternary Science Reviews 282:107422.

Curtin, L., D’Andrea, W.J., Balascio, N.L., Shirazi, S., Shapiro, B., de Wet, G.A., Bradley, R.S., Bakke, J. (2021) Sedimentary DNA and molecular evidence for early human occupation of the Faroe Islands. Communications Earth and Environment 2:253.

Lapointe, F., Bradley, R.S., Francus, P.,  Balascio, N.L., Abbot, M., Stoner, J., St-Onge, G., de Coninck, A., Labarre, T. (2020) Annually resolved Atlantic sea-surface temperature variability over the past 2900 years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: 202014166.

Balascio, N.L., Anderson, R.S., D’Andrea, W.J., Wickler, S., D’Andrea, R., Bakke, J. (2020) Vegetation changes and plant wax biomarkers from an ombrotrophic bog define hydroclimate trends and human-environment interactions during the Holocene in northern Norway. The Holocene 30: 1849-1865.

Curtin, L., D’Andrea, W.J., Balascio, N.L., *Pugsley, G., de Wet, G., Bradley, R.S. (2019) Holocene and Last Interglacial climate of the Faroe Islands from sedimentary plant wax hydrogen and carbon isotopes. Quaternary Science Reviews 223: 105930.

Lapointe, F., Francus, P., Stoner, J., Abbott, M., Balascio, N.L., Cook, T.L., Bradley, R.S., Forman, S., Besonen, M., St-Onge, G. (2019) Chronology and sedimentology of a new 2.9 ka annually laminated record from South Sawtooth Lake, Ellesmere Island. Quaternary Science Reviews 222: 105875

Muschitiello, F., D’Andrea, W.J., Schmittner, A., Heaton, T.J., Balascio, N.L., deRoberts, N., Caffee, M.W., Woodruff, T.E., Welten, K.C., Skinner, L., Simon, M., Dokken, T.M. (2019) Deep-water circulation changes lead North Atlantic climate during deglaciation. Nature Communications 10: 1272.

Balascio, N.L., Kaste, J.M., *Meyer, M.G., *Renshaw, M., *Smith, K., Chambers, R.M. (2019) A high-resolution mill pond record from eastern Virginia reveals the impact of past landscape changes and regional pollution history. The Anthropocene 25: 1-14.