Abstract:
The Eocene is our most recent greenhouse to icehouse transition, and thus it provides a unique opportunity to constrain the mechanisms driving large scale carbon cycle dynamics and global cooling, and the evolution of climate sensitivity in warm climate states of the Earth. For this purpose, I generated a new atmospheric CO2 record using the boron isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifera from multiple sites from the IODP and its predecessors. After calculating Eocene global mean temperatures, I was able to demonstrate that climate sensitivity is dependent on how warm climate is, being higher in warmer periods of the Eocene, most likely exceeding the canonical IPCC range. I will present this new atmospheric CO2 and climate sensitivity record, and further discuss ways it could be used to provide insight into the mechanisms underlying climate variations of the Eocene, especially when compared to other available proxy data.
Short biography:
I am a biogeochemist and paleoclimatologist. My background is in Chemical Engineering (NTUA, Greece), continued by an MSc in Environmental Sci at Rutgers University (USA), and a PhD in Chemical Oceanography at the DMCS, Rutgers University (USA). Since then I worked as a post doc at the University of Southampton (UK) and Northeastern University (USA), followed by a year at ETH Zurich before coming to GEOMAR. My research focus is on quantifying carbon cycle dynamics at different time scales and periods in the Earth's history, and the interaction between carbon, climate and ice sheets.
Arranged date for the seminar talk: Dec 18, 2020 at 12:00