Xu Zhang
Contact
About
Research Area
I study dynamics and mechanisms of past abrupt/nonlinear climate changes (e.g. Dansgaard-Oeschger events, glacial cycles, etc.), aiming to provide valuable knowledge to improve model performance on climate stability for more reliable future projections. Involving extensive interdisciplinary collaborations, my research leverages proxy records, numerical models, mathematical statistics and Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning to gain a more comprehensive understanding of governing dynamics of these changes and their impacts and feedback in the climate system. I have published more than 70 peer-reviewed papers in this field, of which 20 in Nature, Science and their portfolio journals. My current research interests include:
- Global core climate tipping elements and cascade effects
- Quaternary millennial-to-orbital time scale climate variability
- Antarctic forcings and feedbacks in past and current climate changes
- Tropical hydroclimate variability
- Paleoclimate Data Assimilation
- Marine carbon cycle
I am currently also leading a modelling protocol in PAGES Quaternary Interglacial working group to explore mechanisms accounting for the sea level-CO2 evolutions during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11c and Termination V (T-V).
Please also see https://www.bas.ac.uk/profile/xuang/
Project Interests
I welcome multidisciplinary studentship projects that advance our mechanism understanding of climate stability, exploring the nature and origin of North Atlantic abrupt climate variability during the Pleistocene. Other ongoing projects may be of interest, too. For instance, leveraging observation, proxy records, statistics and climate models to study past and current cross-scale interactions in the Earth system; using water isotope-enabled climate models to better understand climatic significance of changes in oxygen isotopic composition in foraminiferal shells and speleothems; explore causality of changes in ice volume, ocean circulation and atmospheric CO2 and associated dynamics in the Pleistocene Epoch; etc.