Lake Coring: Sediment cores store geochemical and biological information about ecological dynamics and human impacts over time.

Small Mammal Surveys: Surveys of the small mammal population establish local and regional diversity, abundance, and temporal fluctuations in diversity metrics.

Packrat midden excavation:  Packrat middens accumulate over hundred to thousands of years, archiving identifiable plant fragments and bones of small vertebrates. Using these deposits, we can reconstruct past vertebrate communities and link changes in those communities to environmental change, like climate.