CGS theme : Paleoclimates

I am a stable isotope geochemist with a focus on the development  and application of the boron isotope proxy to paleoclimate and carbon  cycling in novel settings. A significant portion of my career to date  has been devoted to the development of novel analytical methods which I  have then applied to environmental perturbations on a range of  timescales from glacial-interglacial cycles to mass extinction events in  deep time. I am currently employed by the IPSL investigating the role  of the Southern Ocean in driving glacial-interglacial cycles.

In  my current work I am collecting the first reconstructions of CO₂  outgassing from the polar Southern Ocean across the last deglaciation.  Reduced glacial atmospheric CO₂ is widely thought to be driven by  increased carbon storage in the deep ocean wtih two main mechanisms  proposed to drive this: the biological and disequilibrium pumps, both  centred around the polar Southern Ocean. In spite of this until now  sample size limitations have prevented measuring boron isotopes, which  allow us to reconstruct the CO₂ system, in this key region. Using novel  sample preparation techniques, for the first time we will be able to  quantitatively look at polar CO₂ outgassing across the last deglaciation  and determine the relative roles these two pumps play in drivng the  changes we observe.