Tim Patterson

Patterson is also an international lecturer and media commentator, primarily contributing to increasing public awareness of environmental issues. He co-founded and served as executive editor (1997–2000) of Palaeontologia Electronica (PE).{{cite news|url=http://palaeo-electronica.org/content/| title=Palaeontologia Electronica |publisher=Coquina Press|date=15 December 2016|accessdate=2017-01-01}} Palaeontologia Electronica covers all aspects of palaeontology, and is the world's longest-running open-access, peer-reviewed electronic journal. He also previously served as associate editor for the Journal of Foraminiferal Research (1995–2008),{{cite news|url=http://jfr.geoscienceworld.org/| title=Journal of Foraminiferal Research |publisher=Cushman Foundation|date=15 December 2016|accessdate=2017-01-01}} and the journal Micropaleontology (1990–1997).{{cite news|url=http://www.micropress.org/micro_journal.html| title=Micropaleontology |publisher=Micropaleontology Press|date=15 December 2016|accessdate=2017-01-01}}

Patterson works on a wide array of research subjects, most of which are based on analysis of marine and lake sediments to reconstruct past environments.{{cite news|url=https://carleton.ca/~tpatters/research/research.html| title=Research Interests |publisher=Carleton University|date=26 April 2015|accessdate=2017-01-01}} He uses many techniques to understand the history of marine and lake environments from the perspective of: 1) the influence of climate variability on aquatic ecosystem services (AES); 2) the impact of degradation resulting from human activities on AES, and 3) the degree to which remediation and mitigation efforts are successful in improving AES. {{Citation needed|date=November 2022}} He has developed technologies that permit extraction of very high-resolution paleoenvironmental records, and uses time series analysis techniques to recognize trends and cycles in the climate record. Other research focuses on assessing the impact of nutrient loading and road salt contamination on lake environments.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}

Patterson has publicly opposed the scientific consensus on climate change which says that burning fossil fuels causes global warming.Spears, T. (2007, Sep 16). [https://www.proquest.com/docview/241103721 The end is not near; Tim Patterson is one of few scientists who doesn't believe humans are warming the climate]. The Ottawa Citizen {{ProQuest|241103721}} He has promoted the view that changes in the Earth's climate are influenced less by carbon dioxide than by solar cycles, changes in the Earth's orbit around the Sun, and cosmic rays. Patterson is an advisor to Friends of Science, an organization that rejects the concept that climate change is caused by human activity. He is associated with the Heartland Institute, another climate denial organization.{{Cite web |title=Who We Are – R. Timothy Patterson {{!}} Heartland Institute |url=https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/r-timothy-patterson |access-date=2022-10-23 |website=www.heartland.org}} In a 2002 news conference sponsored by Imperial Oil and other companies, he argued against Canada ratifying the Kyoto Protocol.[https://www.proquest.com/docview/355781000 Anti-Kyoto scientists dispute greenhouse claims]: [final edition]. (2002, Nov 14). The Guelph Mercury, {{ProQuest|355781000}}

In June 2007 he authored an article in the Financial Post as part of its series on scientists who disagreed with the scientific consensus. The article predicted general climatic cooling as the Sun enters Solar cycle 25 about 2018,{{cite news|url=http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=597d0677-2a05-47b4-b34f-b84068db11f4&p=1|title=Read the sunspots|author=R. Timothy Patterson|publisher=Financial Post|date=20 June 2007|accessdate=2007-08-25|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20071029035531/http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/comment/story.html?id=597d0677-2a05-47b4-b34f-b84068db11f4&p=1|archivedate=29 October 2007}} which did not occur.

More recently{{when|date=December 2024}} he led a research team that investigated the long term viability under a changing climate of the Tibbitt to Contwoyto Winter Road (TCWR), the world's longest heavy haul ice road, that extends 588 km north from the start point in Yellowknife Northwest Territories (NT). Statistical downscale climate model projections produced by the team suggest that under a projected future warming scenario that there is a trend towards thinner lake ice and a reduced time window when lake ice is at sufficient thickness to support trucks on the ice road.{{cite journal| title=Climate change and the long-term viability of the World's busiest heavy haul ice road |publisher=Springer|date=25 May 2016| doi=10.1007/s00704-016-1830-x | last1=Mullan | first1=Donal | last2=Swindles | first2=Graeme | last3=Patterson | first3=Tim | last4=Galloway | first4=Jennifer | last5=MacUmber | first5=Andrew | last6=Falck | first6=Hendrik | last7=Crossley | first7=Laura | last8=Chen | first8=Jie | last9=Pisaric | first9=Michael | journal=Theoretical and Applied Climatology | volume=129 | issue=3–4 | pages=1089–1108 | s2cid=52250074 | doi-access=free }} It was also recognized during this work that further complications are presented by the cyclic influences of climate teleconnections such as El Niño, Pacific Decadal Oscillation, as well as variability in solar forcing.{{cite journal| title=Reconstruction of Holocene hydroclimatic variability in subarctic treeline lakes using lake sediment grain-size end-members|publisher=Sage|date=13 January 2018| doi=10.1177/0959683617752836| last1=MacUmber| first1=Andrew L.| last2=Patterson| first2=R Timothy| last3=Galloway| first3=Jennifer M.| last4=Falck| first4=Hendrik| last5=Swindles| first5=Graeme T.| journal=The Holocene| volume=28| issue=6| pages=845–857| s2cid=52240991| doi-access=free| bibcode=2018Holoc..28..845M}}{{cite journal| title=Late Holocene climatic variability in Subarctic Canada: Insights from a high-resolution lake record from the central Northwest Territories |journal=PLOS ONE|date=28 June 2018| doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0199872 | doi-access=free | last1=Dalton | first1=April S. | last2=Patterson | first2=R. Timothy | last3=Roe | first3=Helen M. | last4=MacUmber | first4=Andrew L. | last5=Swindles | first5=Graeme T. | last6=Galloway | first6=Jennifer M. | last7=Vermaire | first7=Jesse C. | last8=Crann | first8=Carley A. | last9=Falck | first9=Hendrik | volume=13 | issue=6 | pages=e0199872 |pmid=29953559 |pmc=6023164 |bibcode=2018PLoSO..1399872D }}{{cite journal | doi= 10.1016/j.palaeo.2020.110189| title= The impact of cyclical, multi-decadal to centennial climate variability on arsenic sequestration in lacustrine sediments| year= 2021| last1= Gregory| first1= B.R.B.| last2= Patterson| first2= R.T.| last3= Galloway| first3= J.M.| last4= Reinhardt| first4= E.G.| journal= Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology| volume= 565| page= 110189| bibcode= 2021PPP...56510189G| s2cid= 233850746}} Considering the importance of this ice road to the economy of the NT the work highlighted the need for planners and policy makers to consider future changes in climate when planning annual haulage along the TCWR. The work is of practical application to industry, which under the Mine Site Reclamation Policy for the Northwest Territories requires that mine operators plan for closure and cleanup of mine sites before operations even begin. The realization that limnological conditions in lakes adjacent to new mine sites may naturally vary considerably through the life cycle of a mine contributed valuable information for the environmental assessment process.{{cite news|url= https://www.miningmagazine.com/sustainability/news/1368947/nrcan-funds-sustainable-mining-research-at-carleton/| title=NRCan funds sustainable mining research at Carleton=Mining Magazine|date=2019-08-06|accessdate=2022-10-22}}{{cite news|url= https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/new-mining-technology-ottawa-researcher-1.5236148/| title=How pulling frozen mud 'Popsicles' from N.W.T. lakes can help make mining cleaner|date=2019-08-06|accessdate=2022-10-22}}{{cite news|url= https://www.ontarioconstructionnews.com/carleton-university-gets-influx-of-funding-for-green-technologies/| title=Carleton University gets influx of funding for green technologies|date=2019-08-07|accessdate=2022-10-22}}{{cite news|url= https://eos.org/articles/indigenous-knowledge-puts-industrial-pollution-in-perspective/| title=Indigenous Knowledge Puts Industrial Pollution in Perspective|date=26 September 2019|accessdate=2022-10-22}} Tim Patterson is presently co-team lead, together with professors Francine McCarthy and Martin Head of Brock University, in the effort to have Crawford Lake within the Crawford Lake Conservation Area, Milton, Ontario, designated as the Global Boundary Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the proposed Anthropocene Epoch, with a start point in the mid-20th century. The annually deposited varves recovered with freeze corers from the lake provide a perfectly preserved record of the post WWII Great Acceleration and nuclear testing, which are key requirements for the Anthropocene GSSP.{{cite news|url= https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02381-2/| title=Humans versus Earth: the quest to define the Anthropocene|date=2019-06-26|accessdate=2022-10-22}}{{cite news|url= https://www.anthropocene-curriculum.org/the-geological-anthropocene/site/crawford-lake/| title=The Geological Anthropocene – Crawford Lake Canada – Anthropocene Working Group|date=2022-05-11|accessdate=2022-10-22}}

• Patterson, R.T., Swindles, G.T., 2015. Influence of ocean-atmostpheric oscillations on lake ice phenology in eastern North America. Climate Dynamics. v. 45, p. 293–2308.
• Patterson, R.T., Chang, A.S., Prokoph, A., Roe, H.M., Swindles, G.T. 2013. Influence of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, El Niño-Southern Oscillation and solar forcing on climate and primary productivity changes in the northeast Pacific. Quaternary International. v. 310 p. 124–139.
• Patterson, R.T., Prokoph, A., Reinhardt, E., and Roe, H., 2007. "Climate cyclicity in anoxic marine sediments from the Seymour-Belize Inlet Complex, British Columbia". Marine Geology. v. 242, 123–140.
• Patterson, R.T., Dalby, A.P., Roe, H.M., Guilbault, J.-P., Hutchinson, I., and Clague, J.J. 2005. "Relative utility of foraminifera, diatoms and macrophytes as high resolution indicators of paleo-sea level". Quaternary Science Reviews, v. 24, p. 2002–2014.
• Chang, A.S., and Patterson, R.T. 2005. "Climate shift at 4400 years BP: Evidence from high-resolution diatom stratigraphy, Effingham Inlet, British Columbia, Canada". Palaeogeography, Palaeclimatology, Palaeoecology. v. 226, 72–92.
• Patterson, R.T., Prokoph, A., and Chang, A.S. 2004. "Late Holocene sedimentary response to solar and cosmic ray activity influenced climate variability in the NE Pacific". Sedimentary Geology. 172, p. 67–84.
• Prokoph, A., and Patterson, R.T. 2004. "Application of wavelet and discontinuity analysis to trace temperature changes: Eastern Ontario as a case study. Atmosphere Ocean". v. 42, p. 201–212.
• Patterson, R.T., Fowler, A.D., and Huber, B., 2004. "Evidence of Hierarchical Organization in the Planktic Foraminiferal Evolutionary Record". Journal of Foraminiferal Research, v. 34 (2), p. 85–95.
• Patterson, R.T., Prokoph A., Wright, C., Chang, A.S., Thomson, R.E., and Ware, D.M., 2004. "Holocene Solar Variability and Pelagic Fish Productivity in the NE Pacific". Palaeontologia Electronica, v. 6 (1). 17 pp.
• Gehrels, W.R., Milne, G.A., Jason R. Kirby, J.R., Patterson, R.T., and Belknap, D.F., 2004. "Late Holocene sea-level changes and isostatic crustal movements in Atlantic Canada. Quaternary International". v. 120, p. 79–89.

• Director, Coquina Press, publisher of Palaeontologia Electronica
• Geological Society of America (GSA)
• Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM)
• North American Micropaleontological Society (NAMS)

{{Reflist}}

• [https://carleton.ca/timpatterson/ Personal academic page at Carleton University]
• [https://scholar.google.ca/citations?user=wLWpgMsAAAAJ&hl=en/ Tim Patterson's peer-reviewed publications as listed on Google Scholar]
• [https://www.researchgate.net/profile/R_Patterson/ Tim Patterson's peer-reviewed publications as listed on Researchgate]
• [https://carleton.ca/timpatterson/publications/ Tim Patterson's peer-reviewed publications as listed on Carleton University web site]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Patterson, Tim}}

Category:Living people

Category:Canadian geologists

Category:Dalhousie University alumni

Category:University of California, Los Angeles alumni

Category:Academic staff of Carleton University

Category:Academics of Queen's University Belfast

Category:Year of birth missing (living people)