School of Earth and Environmental Sciences

Climate Change and Biogeochemical Cycles

From the abrupt flooding of the Black Sea to dramatic changes in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations, the climate , biology, and chemistry of earth's environment have changed significantly throughout geologic time and are expected to continue changing in the future. Some of the research in this area that faculty and students at SEES investigate include:

• geologic history of hurricanes (N. Coch)
• changes in ocean pH and its impact on atmospheric CO2 concentrations (N.G. Hemming)
• glacial-interglacial changes in the Mediterranean waterways (C. McHugh)
• history of sea level and ocean temperature changes from the Paleocene through the Miocene (S. Pekar)
• Holocene climatic variability in the Hudson Valley Region (C. McHugh)
• Variations in the Oxygen Minimum Zone off Baja California (Y. Zheng)
• Marine behavior of Redox Sensitive Oxyanions such as Uranium and Molybdenum (Y. Zheng)
• Soil and microbial community control over black C turnover ( J. Bird)
• The role of plankton in sequesting CO2 in the ocean (Stewart)
• Possible impact of lithogenic and biogenic minerals on carbon assimilation in marine food webs (Stewart)
• Antarctic climatic and cryospheric changes from the Eocene through Miocene (S. Pekar)
• Constraining paleodischarge in the Hudson River and precipitation rates from the Hudson river watershed for the past 7,000 years (S. Pekar)
• Paleoceanographic changes in the southern Ocean during the Miocene and the Tropical Indian and Atlantic Oceans during the Paleocene (S. Pekar)
  
• Up-scaling U.S. CO2 flux from tower to satellite scales (C. Yi)
• Measuring and modeling greenhouse-gases exchanges between vegetation and atmosphere over complex terrain (C. Yi)
• Theoretical and numerical study of turbulent transport processes within canopy layer (C. Yi)
• Modeling feedbacks between weather and air quality in New York City (C. Yi)
• Quantifying effects of increased atmospheric CO2 on plants and ecosystems (G. Hendrey)
• Role of mineral neogenesis on C cycling in soils (A. Rouff)