Golden State Today

Isabel Montañez, a distinguished professor at UC Davis, is working to understand the Earth's historical climate cycles and what they might reveal about future climate conditions. Her research involves using proxies of atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations and prehistoric land and sea conditions with climate modeling to reconstruct past climates, particularly during warming periods.

Montañez joined UC Davis in 1998 and has gained recognition for her interdisciplinary research approaches. In 2021, she was inducted into the National Academy of Sciences for her contributions to understanding Earth's past climates through a two-year study titled “Understanding Earth’s Deep Past: Lessons for our Climate Future.” She describes how ancient rocks and sediments can inform predictions about Earth's response to climate change.

Her work includes analyzing "fossil drip water" in cave deposits to forecast regional climate patterns under future warming scenarios. Montañez explains that this process allows researchers to extract valuable data from stalagmites, similar to extracting dinosaur DNA from a fossilized mosquito as depicted in Jurassic Park.

In addition to her research, Montañez became the director of the John Muir Institute of the Environment at UC Davis in 2021. Under her leadership, the institute supports innovative solutions for environmental challenges. She established the California Collaborative for Natural Climate Change Solutions (C4NS), which conducts field trials using finely ground volcanic rock as soil amendments to capture atmospheric carbon dioxide through silicate weathering. This initiative is supported by a nearly $24 million grant from the Department of Energy’s Negative Carbon Energy Earthshot program.

Montañez acknowledges the challenges posed by climate change but finds solace in educating students about potential solutions. She teaches a climate change class annually, aiming to inspire freshmen with discussions on combating climate change's causes and impacts.

She also notes increased public awareness of changing seasonal patterns compared to childhood experiences, driven by initiatives like the Inflation Reduction Act and private investment in alternative energy research.