The elevation at each coring site is surveyed. The cores are taken to the lab, split, described, and sampled by coastal sedimentologists to determine the elevation of the lake at the time each ridge was formed. Radiocarbon dating of sediments from wetlands between ridges is used to establish the dates of ridge formation. These paleoecological data will be used to reconstruct the vegetational changes in these wetlands during periods of changing lake levels or known climatic shifts. This history can then be related to the lake levels at those times.
Paleoecological data can also provide more direct evidence of climate changes.
Each wetland receives pollen rain from the surrounding region as well as from the vegetation on the site itself. The upland vegetation is affected primarily by climate, while the wetland vegetation reflects both the direct effects of climate and the effects of changes in water level. Present-day ecological studies are carried out to identify patterns in vegetation within and among wetlands. The wetland responses observed in the paleoecological analyses can then be used to predict the responses of present-day wetlands should global warming occur. Water tables across the ridge and swale sequences are monitored to relate differences in vegetation with differential effects of ground-water supplies.