Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/K001663/1
Ocean circulation and carbon cycling during Eocene 'greenhouse' warmth
Grant Award
- Principal Investigator:
- Dr PF Sexton, The Open University, Environment, Earth & Ecosystems
- Grant held at:
- The Open University, Environment, Earth & Ecosystems
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Marine
- Overall Classification:
- Marine
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Climate & Climate Change
- Palaeoenvironments
- Biogeochemical Cycles
- Ocean Circulation
- Abstract:
- Ocean circulation strongly influences climate by poleward transport of heat and salt. The Pleistocene deep-sea sediment record shows that ocean circulation can drive global climate via switches in the hemisphere dominating ocean overturning (the 'bipolar seesaw' of millennial-scale Dansgaard-Oeschger climate cycles) and via its role in storage and release of carbon dioxide (e.g. across glacial-interglacial cycles). However, what is not known is how sensitive ocean circulation is to radically different levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide. Man-made CO2 emissions are projected to elevate atmospheric concentrations of this greenhouse gas to levels that, by the end of this century, will be higher than at any time since the Eocene epoch. Yet there are virtually no appropriate data from the Eocene with which to test the nature and stability of ocean circulation during such 'greenhouse' climate regimes characterized by high CO2 levels, minimal continental ice volume and contrasting modes of carbon cycling. This work aims to reconstruct the global configuration and relative strength of ocean circulation through key intervals of the early and middle Eocene. I will use deep sea sediment sequences recovered by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program from the Newfoundland margin, in addition to a series of locations worldwide. Stable oxygen and carbon isotope analyses of benthic foraminiferal calcite will provide robust correlations between sediment sequences worldwide and a proxy for reconstructing ocean circulation patterns. Neodymium isotope analyses of planktic foraminiferal diagenetic coatings and of the fluorapatite of fish teeth will provide independent tools for reconstructing changes in ocean circulation.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/K001663/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Directed (Research Programmes)
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- UK IODP
This grant award has a total value of £6,862
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| DI - Staff |
|---|
| £6,862 |
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