Uncoupling past salinity and temperature signals in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool: implications for climate change in the Australian region. The tropical oceans and in particular the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, immediately to Australia's north, play a key role in modulating global and Australian climate through El-Niño and related phenomena. Using a new microanalysis approach to analyse individual foraminifera from deep-sea cores, we will reconstruct past salinity and temperature variability within the ....Uncoupling past salinity and temperature signals in the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool: implications for climate change in the Australian region. The tropical oceans and in particular the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool, immediately to Australia's north, play a key role in modulating global and Australian climate through El-Niño and related phenomena. Using a new microanalysis approach to analyse individual foraminifera from deep-sea cores, we will reconstruct past salinity and temperature variability within the Warm Pool, and determine changing rainfall patterns and, ENSO and monsoon behaviour under climate conditions that lie outside modern records. This information is vital for understanding past climate and predicting the future intensity and frequency of El-Niño related drought and wet cycles in Australia.Read moreRead less
The Impact of Changing Climatic Conditions inferred from the Isotope Abundances of Trace Metals in Global Ice Sheets and Glaciers. In this project Greenland and Antarctic ice-cores more than 3 km long will be used to investigate climatic variation extending back more that 4 complete glacial cycles. Some of these ice-cores include sections of refrozen water formed from sub-glacial Antarctic lake water. This project will use naturally occurring lead and strontium isotopic tracers to fingerprint ....The Impact of Changing Climatic Conditions inferred from the Isotope Abundances of Trace Metals in Global Ice Sheets and Glaciers. In this project Greenland and Antarctic ice-cores more than 3 km long will be used to investigate climatic variation extending back more that 4 complete glacial cycles. Some of these ice-cores include sections of refrozen water formed from sub-glacial Antarctic lake water. This project will use naturally occurring lead and strontium isotopic tracers to fingerprint impurities in the ice, because they have the potential to simultaneously signal the timing and location of past episodes of climate change. This will lead to an improvement in our understanding of the processes that cause these changes.Read moreRead less