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Department of Earth Sciences

 

False-colour view of the area surrounding the Jakobshavn Glacier on the western coast of Greenland.

The climate group uses a range of archives and proxies to document past climate change. The aim is to elucidate the processes governing climate change, providing empirical evidence to test theories and models, including those used to predict future climate change. Our evidence comes from archives including marine and lake sediments and ice cores. We have developed a range of chemical, isotopic and sedimentary proxies of the critical parameters needed to describe past climatic states and the processes that force change. Among other topics we use these tools to look at climate change, ocean circulation, biogeochemical cycles and ice sheet changes, with a strong emphasis on glacial cycles and rapid climate change within the last glacial cycle. However we also study earlier periods of Earth History, and more recent climate change and its impact on societies. We have increased the links between workers on marine, ice-core and terrestrial records and promoted collaboration with the climate modelling community. Our isotope-geochemistry laboratories, known collectively as the Godwin Laboratory (link), and facilities are state of the art.

Current research includes:

  • Understanding astronomical forcing of climate change records as recorded in oceanic sediments.
  • Multi-proxy studies of abrupt climate change in the oceans, and its impacts recorded in ice.
  • Sedimentological and geochemical tracers of past deep-sea circulation vigour and its role for changing atmospheric CO2:
  • Use of foraminiferal metal chemistry and the stable isotopic composition of biogenic sediments in palaeochemical studies of ocean temperature and nutrient variations.
  • The stability of the Greenland and West Antarctic ice sheets, particularly during past warm periods
  • Processes and geochemical fluxes associated with earth-atmosphere interaction in chemical weathering.
  • Interactions between geochemistry and microbiology and how these related to  biogeochemical cycling.
  • Biogeochemical cycling of stable isotopes and elements in marine and terrestrial systems, with particular focus on the carbon and sulphur cycle.
  • The co-evolution of alluvial systems and land plants during the Palaeozoic.
  • The sedimentary record of the terrestrialization process.
  • Applying geochemical methods for conducting societally relevant research, such as effects of climate change on ancient civilizations and carbon sequestration.

We are also interested in supervising research students in the general fields of seawater, ice core and sediment geochemistry, for example using isotope geochemistry to understand water and chemical budgets of the oceans, and in linking understanding of the chemistry of the modern rivers and oceans to weathering history and palaeoceanography. Studies of modern sedimentation also provide a link to understanding past ocean dynamics. 

We have well equipped laboratories with two multi-collector ICP mass-spectrometers, two solid-source and eight gas-source mass spectrometers, atomic-emission spectrometer, high-resolution ICP-MS, C-H-N analyzer, atomic absorption, Sedigraph, a coulter counter, magnetic susceptibility, X-radiography, cathodoluminescence. Our ice core studies are collaborative with the British Antarctic Survey, also in Cambridge. Thus, we offer topics which incorporate training in geochemical and sedimentological techniques, into research on major current problems in global change and global biogeochemical cycles.

 

Recent publications in this area.


People specializing in this area

Academic Staff
Name Office phone Email address
Dr Oscar Branson +44 (0) 1223 333427 ob266@cam.ac.uk
Professor Neil Davies +44 (0) 1223 333453 nsd27@cam.ac.uk
Professor David A. Hodell +44 (0) 1223 330270 dah73@cam.ac.uk
Dr Ali Mashayek mashayek@esc.cam.ac.uk
Professor Jerome A Neufeld +44 (0) 1223 765709 jn271@cam.ac.uk
Professor Alexander Piotrowski +44 (0) 1223 333473 amp58@cam.ac.uk
Dr Rachael H. Rhodes (+44) 01233 333380 rhr34@cam.ac.uk
Professor Luke Skinner +44 (0) 1223 333 406 luke00@esc.cam.ac.uk
Professor Edward Tipper +44 (0) 1223 333451 ett20@cam.ac.uk
Professor Alexandra Turchyn +44 (0) 1223 333479 atur07@esc.cam.ac.uk
Professor Eric Wolff +44 (0) 1223 333486 ew428@cam.ac.uk
Research Staff
Name Office phone Email address
Dr Thomas Keith Bauska +44 (0) 1223 221731 thausk@bas.ac.uk
Dr Stacy Carolin +44 (0) 1223 333474 sac219@cam.ac.uk
Dr Claudio Garbelli cg772@cam.ac.uk
Dr Emma Kast ek543@cam.ac.uk
Dr Maryline Mleneck-Vautravers mv217@cam.ac.uk
Dr Helena Pryer hp484@cam.ac.uk
Svetlana Radionovskaya +44 (0) 1223 364912 sr632@cam.ac.uk
Isobel Rowell +44 (0) 1223 364917 ifr21@cam.ac.uk
Duygu Sevilgen dss58@cam.ac.uk
Dr Emily Stevenson eis22@cam.ac.uk
Research Students
Name Office phone Email address
Kit Baker cb909@cam.ac.uk
Nicholas Barrett njb202@cam.ac.uk
Matthew Patrick Brady +44 (0)1223 764912 mpb68@cam.ac.uk
James Craig jac293@cam.ac.uk
Madison East mste2@cam.ac.uk
Wei-Ning Fang wnf21@cam.ac.uk
Linshu Feng +44 (0) 1223 333455 lf373@cam.ac.uk
Seán Herron sth30@cam.ac.uk
Dan James +44 (0) 1223 768339 dj331@cam.ac.uk
Gabrielle Kleber +44 (0) 1223 368341 gek26@cam.ac.uk
Thomas Idris Marquand tim24@cam.ac.uk
D. E. Moser dem50@cam.ac.uk
Ivo Strawson is499@cam.ac.uk
Nicola Thomas +44 (0) 1223 333493 nct30@cam.ac.uk
Professional Services Staff
Name Office phone Email address
Dr Maryline Mleneck-Vautravers mv217@cam.ac.uk
Emeritus and College Teaching Staff
Name Office phone Email address
Professor Michael James Bickle FRS +44 (0) 1223 333484 mb72@esc.cam.ac.uk
Dr Judith Bunbury +44 (0) 1223 765260 jmb21@esc.cam.ac.uk
Dr Tony Dickson +44 (0) 1223 333412 jadd1@esc.cam.ac.uk
Emeritus Woodwardian Professor of Geology I. Nicholas McCave +44 (0) 1223 333422 mccave@esc.cam.ac.uk
All members of the Department
Name Office phone Email address
Kit Baker cb909@cam.ac.uk
Nicholas Barrett njb202@cam.ac.uk
Professor Michael James Bickle FRS +44 (0) 1223 333484 mb72@esc.cam.ac.uk
Matthew Patrick Brady +44 (0)1223 764912 mpb68@cam.ac.uk
Dr Oscar Branson +44 (0) 1223 333427 ob266@cam.ac.uk
Dr Judith Bunbury +44 (0) 1223 765260 jmb21@esc.cam.ac.uk
Dr Stacy Carolin +44 (0) 1223 333474 sac219@cam.ac.uk
James Craig jac293@cam.ac.uk
Professor Neil Davies +44 (0) 1223 333453 nsd27@cam.ac.uk
Dr Tony Dickson +44 (0) 1223 333412 jadd1@esc.cam.ac.uk
Madison East mste2@cam.ac.uk
Linshu Feng +44 (0) 1223 333455 lf373@cam.ac.uk
Dr Claudio Garbelli cg772@cam.ac.uk
Seán Herron sth30@cam.ac.uk
Professor David A. Hodell +44 (0) 1223 330270 dah73@cam.ac.uk
Dan James +44 (0) 1223 768339 dj331@cam.ac.uk
Dr Emma Kast ek543@cam.ac.uk
Gabrielle Kleber +44 (0) 1223 368341 gek26@cam.ac.uk
Thomas Idris Marquand tim24@cam.ac.uk
Dr Ali Mashayek mashayek@esc.cam.ac.uk
Emeritus Woodwardian Professor of Geology I. Nicholas McCave +44 (0) 1223 333422 mccave@esc.cam.ac.uk
Dr Maryline Mleneck-Vautravers mv217@cam.ac.uk
D. E. Moser dem50@cam.ac.uk
Professor Alexander Piotrowski +44 (0) 1223 333473 amp58@cam.ac.uk
Dr Helena Pryer hp484@cam.ac.uk
Svetlana Radionovskaya +44 (0) 1223 364912 sr632@cam.ac.uk
Dr Rachael H. Rhodes (+44) 01233 333380 rhr34@cam.ac.uk
Isobel Rowell +44 (0) 1223 364917 ifr21@cam.ac.uk
Duygu Sevilgen dss58@cam.ac.uk
Professor Luke Skinner +44 (0) 1223 333 406 luke00@esc.cam.ac.uk
Dr Emily Stevenson eis22@cam.ac.uk
Ivo Strawson is499@cam.ac.uk
Nicola Thomas +44 (0) 1223 333493 nct30@cam.ac.uk
Professor Edward Tipper +44 (0) 1223 333451 ett20@cam.ac.uk
Professor Alexandra Turchyn +44 (0) 1223 333479 atur07@esc.cam.ac.uk
Professor Eric Wolff +44 (0) 1223 333486 ew428@cam.ac.uk