Climate: Past, Present & Future

Forams, the sea thermometers of the past!

Mercè Cisneros Bermejo and Cacho Isabel from GRC Geociències Marines, Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Facultat de Ciències de la Terra, Universitat de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain November 24, 2017

Figure 1: Planktonic foraminifera Globigerina bulloides specimen (scanning electron microscope picture of Isabel Cacho).

Name of proxy Mg/Ca-SST on planktonic foraminifera shell Type of record Sea Surface Temperature (SST) Paleoenvironment Marine environments Period of time investigated 55 Million years ago to recent times How does it work ? Foraminifera (or Forams) are single-celled organisms varying from less than 1 mm to several cm in size. They are very abundant in the ocean floor (benthic species) or floating a ...[Read More]

Decomposing algae have not said their last word yet!

Caitlyn Witkowski, Royal Netherlands Institute of Sea Research (NIOZ) October 17, 2017

Name of proxy Phytane, a compound resulting from the degradation of Chlorophyll-a (Chl a), a green pigment in plants and algae that is involved in photosynthesis Type of record Atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations Paleoenvironment Marine sediments and oils Period of time investigated Phanerozoic (last 540 million years) How it works Before we can start predicting the potential impact of human ...[Read More]

What speleothems can tell about the past climates !

Carole Nehme (University of Rouen) and Michael Deininger (University College Dublin) September 5, 2017

Speleothem laminas used to reproduce past precipitation patterns, soil productivity and its carbon dioxide content. Modified from Tan et al. (2006) and Johnson et al. (2006).

Name of the proxy: Stable isotope ratios of carbonates in speleothems Type of proxy: Precipitation, atmospheric circulation, CO2 availability in soil, soil productivity Paleoenvironment: Continental environments Period of time investigated: Present day to 10 million years How does it work? Speleothems are inorganic carbonate deposits growing in caves that form from super-saturated cave waters (wit ...[Read More]

Of butterflies and climate: how mathematics helps us to better understand the atmosphere

Gabriele Messori and Davide Faranda August 1, 2017

Applied mathematics is often seen as an obscure field, which the general public has no hope of ever understanding. In the context of climate science, this is far from the truth. In fact, many mathematical concepts and ideas applied to the study of the climate system stem from intuitive arguments. While their implementation can be very complex, understanding the basic ideas behind them does not req ...[Read More]