"The Packrat Man," as John D.W. Fielding is known to his fellow NDSU geology classmates, will present research results from his NASA McNair Scholar project at the National Meeting of the Geological Society of America on Oct. 18-21 in Portland, Ore. Fielding has developed a somewhat unusual research interest in waste piles produced by packrats, known as middens.
Middens include excrement and items collected from the packrat's local environment and because they are used by numerous generations of packrats, they can record environmental changes in the areas where they are found.
Fielding located packrat middens in the Little Missouri National Grasslands of western North Dakota and has been working to determine their geological ages. He has used two age-dating techniques for this purpose including optical dating in the Department of Geosciences at NDSU and radiocarbon dating in the Accelerator Mass Spectroscopy lab at the University of Arizona.
Fielding, an NDSU senior, will present "Occurrence and Age of Packrat Middens from Western North Dakota," as an oral paper in a session featuring research conducted in National Grasslands and National Forests from around the U.S.
"An oral paper at a National Meeting is a very challenging format for an undergraduate, but John has the background knowledge and passion for the subject to make his talk a success," says Ken Lepper, Fielding’s research mentor. "As one might expect, not too many students pick this topic area for research. John has a genuine and driving curiosity for midden research, to that he can now add field and laboratory research experience. The door to graduate school should open easily for John, if that's the direction he wants to go."