Geomorphological development of coral reefs, southern Great Barrier Reef: an integrated record of Holocene palaeoecology and palaeoclimate from cores. Very little is known about how the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) has responded or may respond to predicted environmental change and/or degradation. The project will reconstruct the recent biological and physical history of reefs in the southern GBR in order to better understand how they may react to future environmental changes.
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100042
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$350,000.00
Summary
Long-term variability of the Australian monsoon. This project aims to address large uncertainties in Australia’s hydroclimate projections, by reconstructing Australian monsoon variability over the past three million years. The project expects to generate new knowledge to quantify the frequency and amplitudes of extreme rainfall and drought in Northwest Australia. By providing essential new information about the timing, frequency, and intensity of past drought and extreme rainfall, the project is ....Long-term variability of the Australian monsoon. This project aims to address large uncertainties in Australia’s hydroclimate projections, by reconstructing Australian monsoon variability over the past three million years. The project expects to generate new knowledge to quantify the frequency and amplitudes of extreme rainfall and drought in Northwest Australia. By providing essential new information about the timing, frequency, and intensity of past drought and extreme rainfall, the project is expected to enable more accurate climate projections required for effective adaptation and mitigation. This project will also benefit the Australian archaeology community, by providing a much-needed environmental context for mapping Australian pre-history.Read moreRead less
Annual temperature variability and abrupt climate change over the Holocene. This project intends to generate a near-continuous annual temperature reconstruction for the past 10 000 years using low-elevation Huon pine from south-western Tasmania. The unprecedented length and temporal resolution of the reconstruction would offer new insights into temperature variability at decadal, centennial, and millennial time scales and establish a unique record describing the nature, timing, and intensity of ....Annual temperature variability and abrupt climate change over the Holocene. This project intends to generate a near-continuous annual temperature reconstruction for the past 10 000 years using low-elevation Huon pine from south-western Tasmania. The unprecedented length and temporal resolution of the reconstruction would offer new insights into temperature variability at decadal, centennial, and millennial time scales and establish a unique record describing the nature, timing, and intensity of abrupt temperature changes associated with known events in the palaeoclimate record. The detailed understanding of historical temperature variability and past abrupt climate change provided by the tree-ring record would provide a historical context for recent and future climate variability.Read moreRead less
Pre-industrial sea-surface temperatures in the Australian region. Humanity faces an enormous challenge as there is much debate on whether the world is warming up and when this started. This project will document sea-surface temperature records over the last millennium for the Australian region and provide data of critical importance to global climatology and oceanography that precede the instrumental record.
Deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric carbon dioxide changes. This project aims to fill in a critical knowledge gap in global carbon cycle research, by generating the first high-resolution deep Atlantic carbonate ion and nutrient records for the last 150,000 years. The project will derive air-sea carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange signals, which permit straightforward evaluation of the deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric CO2 changes under various climate conditions. The intended o ....Deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric carbon dioxide changes. This project aims to fill in a critical knowledge gap in global carbon cycle research, by generating the first high-resolution deep Atlantic carbonate ion and nutrient records for the last 150,000 years. The project will derive air-sea carbon dioxide (CO2) exchange signals, which permit straightforward evaluation of the deep Atlantic’s role in millennial atmospheric CO2 changes under various climate conditions. The intended outcome of this project is to substantially improve our understanding of the mechanisms that govern the global carbon cycle. This should provide significant benefits including the assessment of models used to predict future global warming due to anthropogenic CO2.Read moreRead less
Mid-depth Atlantic circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation. The history of ocean circulation at the intermediate water depth remains controversial, limiting our understanding of the interplay of ocean circulation, climate changes, and the global carbon cycle. This project aims to generate trace elemental and isotopic records for 10 key locations in the Atlantic Ocean, which constrain physicochemical properties of water masses at unprecedented temporal resolution during the l ....Mid-depth Atlantic circulation during the Last Glacial Maximum and deglaciation. The history of ocean circulation at the intermediate water depth remains controversial, limiting our understanding of the interplay of ocean circulation, climate changes, and the global carbon cycle. This project aims to generate trace elemental and isotopic records for 10 key locations in the Atlantic Ocean, which constrain physicochemical properties of water masses at unprecedented temporal resolution during the last glacial maximum and the subsequent deglaciation. This multi-proxy approach will reconcile controversy and pin down the evolution of mid-depth Atlantic circulation in the past, and thereby substantially improve our understanding of the climate system.Read moreRead less
Deep-sea carbonate cycles and their role in glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 changes. The causes for past atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) changes and their mechanistic links to the histories of climate and ocean carbonate chemistry remain elusive, but may hold future-relevant information. This project aims to use novel methods to quantify deep ocean carbonate ion concentrations, a critical but poorly constrained parameter of the global carbon cycle, at 10 key locations spanning the global o ....Deep-sea carbonate cycles and their role in glacial-interglacial atmospheric CO2 changes. The causes for past atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) changes and their mechanistic links to the histories of climate and ocean carbonate chemistry remain elusive, but may hold future-relevant information. This project aims to use novel methods to quantify deep ocean carbonate ion concentrations, a critical but poorly constrained parameter of the global carbon cycle, at 10 key locations spanning the global ocean during the last 350 000 years. By feeding new data into a model, this project aims to gain critical insights into mechanisms controlling past deep-sea carbonate cycles and atmospheric CO2 changes, thereby leading to improved understandings of the climate system.Read moreRead less
The divergence phenomenon in tree-ring-reconstructed temperatures: global problem or Northern Hemisphere anomaly? Concerns about recent global warming derive from comparisons of current temperatures and past temperatures reconstructed mainly from tree-rings. There is some evidence that tree-rings are becoming less sensitive to temperature at some high-latitude sites. The project will determine the scale and extent of this problem across the Southern Hemisphere.
New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently und ....New insights into abrupt climate change using isotope model-data fusion. There have been several episodes in the past 60,000 years during which carbon dioxide was released into the atmosphere causing significant and rapid warming. This project aims to determine the source of the carbon responsible for these warming events. This project is significant because it will increase our understanding of the processes underlying abrupt past, and potential future changes. These processes are currently underestimated or missing in climate models. The expected outcomes include a better understanding of the non-linear responses in the climate system. This should provide significant benefits, such as an assessment of whether the smooth climate changes currently projected through to year 2100 are misleading.Read moreRead less
High resolution warm ocean records from laminated sediment. This project will produce environmental records during ocean warming events in the geologic past to reveal processes associated with warm oceans similar to those anticipated in the coming century. New Australian technology allows investigation of sediment records at unprecedented time resolution providing insight into processes operating on societally relevant time scales of decades to centuries. This work will open an archive of climat ....High resolution warm ocean records from laminated sediment. This project will produce environmental records during ocean warming events in the geologic past to reveal processes associated with warm oceans similar to those anticipated in the coming century. New Australian technology allows investigation of sediment records at unprecedented time resolution providing insight into processes operating on societally relevant time scales of decades to centuries. This work will open an archive of climate information revealing feedback, thresholds and tipping points from past events previously inaccessible because of technical and conceptual limitations. It will provide critical inputs into models predicting future climate and to illuminate the risks and compensating feedbacks occurring with warming.
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