Admissions > PhD by research > Research Projects > Circulation History of the Tropical Atlantic: links to global climate

Circulation History of the Tropical Atlantic:

links to global climate

Supervisor: Dr Laura Robinson

The ocean is a key component of the climate system, storing and transporting heat, carbon and other nutrients from pole to pole. Changes in ocean chemistry and its physical circulation are likely to have played a critical part in major climate transitions. The overarching aims of this project are to examine the interplay between ocean circulation and the carbon cycle during the abrupt changes in climate during the last 30,000 years of Earth’s History. This project will combine cutting-edge field work on a major oceanographic cruise with geochemical analyses of sea-floor samples (including uranium-series geochronology and chemical tracers of the past) to acquire a unique view of the changes that have occurred in the equatorial Atlantic region.




During the early stages of the project the student will participate in a Research cruise using the Remotely Operated Vehicle Isis; other sampling techniques will include sediment coring, water sampling and geophysical analyses (for an example of a recent cruise see antarcticcorals.blogspot). The student will then use existing and novel geochemical analyses in the University of Bristol’s Isotope Group including clean lab chemistry, ICP- mass spectrometry and AMS. The analyses will be focussed on producing well-dated records of temperature, circulation and carbon cycling in this critical part of the ocean. These paleoclimate reconstructions will be interpreted in the context of existing records and used to test hypotheses linking the role of Atlantic overturning circulation to global climate.

Further Reading



Last updated: 3.11.11