Skip to main content Skip to secondary navigation
Clouds at sunrise

Terrestrial Paleoclimate Group

Understanding interactions between the biosphere, atmosphere and lithosphere of the Cenozoic

Main content start

Our research is focused on the terrestrial paleoclimate of Earth.  Our efforts are to understand the links and feedbacks between the ancient biosphere, atmosphere, and lithosphere with specific emphasis on the Cenozoic time period.  We use a combination of stable isotope measurements, coupled with field studies, and numerical models in order to build an understanding of the Earth’s past climate. We are particularly focused on studying past climates to understand how the Earth’s climate may behave in the future as greenhouse gases increase in our atmosphere. Field sites include western North America, north-central Asia, and Europe. Our laboratory work is currently directed toward developing triple oxygen isotopes as a paleoclimate proxy as well as other applications (e.g. pharmaceuticals).