We have 2-fully funded PhD projects available this year. Please click on the links below for more details. See GSNOCS (our graduate school) for details on how to apply. The deadline is 04 January 2021. Please contact Gordon through his website (here) or email: gordon.inglis@soton.ac.uk if you want to chat about them.
Project 1: Atmospheric CO2 variability and climate sensitivity during past warm climates – a lesson for the future? (Gordon Inglis, Gavin Foster, Jessica Whiteside, Jess Tierney (Arizona))
Past climates are very different to modern, but they provide us with key evidence of how climate processes operate across the range of CO2 concentrations associated with future emission scenarios.
Fig. 1. Paleoclimate context for future climate scenarios (Tierney et al., 2020; Science)
The mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO; ~14 to 17 million years ago) was characterised by warmer temperatures (> 7°C higher than today) and may be an appropriate analogue for high emission/low mitigation emission scenarios. However, CO2 estimates from the mid-Miocene are much lower than expected (< 450‒550 parts per million; i.e. near-modern). This implies that: i) our CO2 estimates for the Miocene are too low, or ii) the climate system is more sensitive to CO2 change.
In this project, the student will generate new high-fidelity, high-resolution CO2 records during the mid-Miocene Climatic Optimum (~14 to 17 million years ago) by analysing the boron isotopic composition (δ11B) of marine carbonate and the carbon isotopic composition (δ13C) of marine phytoplankton lipids (e.g. alkenones, chlorophyll-derivatives). These estimates will be combined using Bayesian statistics to characterise the sensitivity of the Miocene earth system to warming.
For more details click here. The project is funded by our INSPIRE DTP. The student will be able to visit the IODP Bremen Core Repository (https://tinyurl.com/y5gm95e9) and obtain hands-on organic and inorganic geochemical expertise (e.g. multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry).
Project 2: Testing the links between Holocene climate forcing and summer temperatures in Europe using temperature proxies from annually laminated lakes (Pete Langdon, Gordon Inglis, Celia Martin-Puertas (RHUL), Simon Blockley (RHUL)
The Holocene represents the last 11 thousand years of the Earth's history — the time since the end of the last major glacial epoch, or "ice age.”. The climate of the Holocene was relatively stable (unlike today). However, high-resolution climate records from the Holocene can improve our understanding of natural climate oscillations and how they might modulate future anthropogenic warming.
Sadly, very few studies have been able to produce detailed, high-resolution (sub-decadal) quantitative temperature records required to answer this question. In this project, the student will address this knowledge gap by using annually laminated lake sediments to reconstruct sub-decadal temperatures. The project will employ two independent approaches. The first approach is based upon chironomids, informally known as nonbiting midges or lake flies. The distribution and abundance of chironomid in lake sediments is closely related to temperature and allow us to reconstruct temperatures within 1°C accuracy. The second approach is based upon the distribution of molecular fossils. These are organic compounds which have a known biological source and are preserved in the sedimentary record for thousands (or millions!) of years. We will analyse a range of temperature-sensitive molecular fossils within lake sediments to reconstruct temperatures during the Holocene. These two independent methods will provide ultrahigh resolution temperature reconstructions during the Holocene and will improve our understanding of natural climate oscillations and future anthropogenic warming.
Figure 2: a non-biting midge!
For more details click here. The project is funded by our INSPIRE DTP. The student will obtain hands-on expertise in both organic geochemistry and paleoecology. They will also receive an introduction to high resolution paleoclimate time series data via links to project collaborators at Royal Holloway University of London.