Research

Climate History

Cryosphere Research

Donald Blankenship
Research Scientist; Director, Support Office for Aerogeophysical Research
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/blank

Research Interests: Dr. Blankenship is involved in the WAISCORES Project to select a site for an ice core to be drilled from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet starting in 2002. This ice core will provide a detailed, high-resolution record of the WAIS's role in global climate change and in the Earth's climate history over a period of several thousand years.

Charles Jackson
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/charles/index.htm

Research Interests: Jackson's research interests have the goal of distilling lessons from the history of climate for the purpose of advancing our understanding of the physics of the atmosphere, ocean, and cryosphere and their coupling.

David Morse
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/morse

Research Interests: Dr. Morse is involved in the WAISCORES Project to select a site for an ice core to be drilled from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet starting in 2002. This ice core will provide a detailed, high-resolution record of the WAIS's role in global climate change and in the Earth's climate history over a period of several thousand years.

Marine Research

Climate history studies look at physical evidence for information about past climate. ESI members are looking for evidence of historical climate in a diverse array of physical phenomena including chemical isotopes in coral reefs and cave formations, changes in fossil communities and sedimentary formations in ancient deserts.

Image: These divers are drilling a coral reef to obtain core samples andanalyze the isotopic and trace element record that preserves signaturesof Pleistocene and Holocene oceans. These isotopic signatures are used to assess ocean-atmosphere interactions during these time periods as a means to evaluate future changes in climatic phenomena such as the El Nino - Southern Oscillation. See research of Dr. Fred Taylor for more information.

Jamie Austin
Senior Research Scientist
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/jamie

Research Interests: Dr. Austin studies marine cores collected by the ODP and data from seismic surveys to decipher the record of sea-level fluctuations on time scales greater than 100,000 years.

Craig Fulthorpe
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/craig

Research Interests: Dr. Fulthorpe studies marine cores collected by the ODP and data from seismic surveys to decipher the record of sea-level fluctuations on time scales greater than 100,000 years.

Charles Jackson
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/charles/index.htm

Hilary Olson
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/olson

Research Interests: Dr. Olson studies marine cores collected by the ODP and data from seismic surveys to decipher the record of sea-level fluctuations on time scales greater than 100,000 years.

Fred Taylor
Senior Research Scientist
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/fred/index.htm

Research Interests: Dr. Taylor collects live corals and drill cores of coral limestones from various sites in the South Pacific. One research focus is to evaluate frequency and intensity of past El Nino events, determined by evaluating annual growth bands, often in collaboration with geochemists who evaluate sea-surface temperature and other environmental parameters using isotopic methods.

Terrrestrial Research

Jay L. Banner
Professor; Director, ESI
http://www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/banner/

Research Interests: Dr. Banner's research investigates how the interactions that occur between the atmosphere-land-ocean systems are preserved in the geologic record. This is explored using field, microscopic, geochemical, and dating studies of 1) cave deposits as records of links between climate change and hydrology, 2) limestones as records of the chemistry of ancient oceans, and 3) modern urbanized aquifers.

Christopher Bell
Assistant Professor
http://www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/bell.htm

Research Interests: Dr. Bell's research centers on understanding the complex dynamics of vertebrate faunal communities during the Quaternary Period. Dr. Bell's research program concentrates on two terrestrial vertebrate groups, squamate reptiles and small mammals, and focuses in part on the differences and similarities in the responses of these groups to climate change.

Charles Jackson
Research Associate
http://www.ig.utexas.edu/people/staff/charles/index.htm

Gary Kocurek
Professor; Chairman, Department of Geological Sciences
http://www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/kocurek.htm

Research Interests: Dr. Kocurek studies desert landforms and their representation in the ancient rock record. He is particularly interested in how sand seas respond to changes in climate, sea level and tectonism. His teaching centers on the basic principles that govern processes that operate on the land surfaces of the Earth.

Tim Rowe
Professor and Director, Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory - VPL
http://www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/rowe.htm

Research Interests: The VPL collections include 250,000 cataloged specimens. About 60% are vertebrate fossils that include among the most sensitive biological indicators of climate and environment. These collections offer our most detailed look at how terrestrial environments, particularly those of the Edwards Plateau, have changed over the last 100,000 years.

Libby Stern
Assistant Professor
http://www.geo.utexas.edu/faculty/stern/

Research Interests: Stable isotope geochemistry applied to : 1) terrestrial climate and vegetation change in the geologic past; 2) vertebrate paleodiet; 3) soils in the global carbon cycle; 4) soil water dynamics and utilization by plants; and 5) soil mineral formation.