Carbon cycle dynamics and climate change from ice core gases.
Research Area
I study tiny bubbles. Just beneath the surface in Antarctica and Greenland is a near perfect record of changes in the atmosphere composition over hundreds of thousands of years trapped in these tiny bubbles. At the British Antarctic Survey, where I run the Ice Core Gas Analysis Lab alongside colleagues from the University of Cambridge (Dr. Rachael Rhodes), we measure the greenhouse gases trapped in ice core samples. We currently have capabilities to measure the concentration of CO2, CH4 and CO and are developing techniques to measure the isotopes of CO2 and the concentration of N2O. We also specialize in measuring the total amount of air trapped in polar ice which can tell you about past changes in ice sheet elevation. Additionally, I develop simple computer models of the carbon cycle and atmospheric chemistry that we use to quantitively interpret our ice core gas records.
Project Interests
I am interested in recruiting a student to study millennial-scale changes in CO2. I am keen for the student to use a holistic approach involving ice core data, ocean sediment data (with Professor Luke Skinner) and earth system modelling (with Dr. Xu Zhang). But other ongoing projects may be of interest, too. Beyond EPICA: where we will contribute to the measurement and interpretation of greenhouse gas records back to the mid-Pleistocene Transition. Fate, Emissions, and Transport of CH4 (FETCH4): which aims to better understand anthropogenic emissions of CH4. REWIND: a new Holocene record of climate and carbon cycle changes from the Antarctic Peninsula. Fieldwork in Greenland and Antarctica is possible but not guaranteed.
