I am a paleoclimatologist and geochemist, working on isotopic (bulk and clumped stable isotope) and elemental (Mg, Ca, Sr, Nd, Os...) proxy to reconstruct the climatic evolution of key geological periods. I use these methods to document the ocean, atmosphere, lithosphere and cryosphere interactions over the Cenosozoic and especially the Mid-Pleistocene Transition.
Below are some small articles explaining the main topics I work on and methods I use for my research. Good reading !
One of the first quantitative geochemical paleothermometers is based on the oxygen-18 composition (δ18O) of oxygen-bearing minerals such as carbonates. In a landmark study, Urey (1947) calculated the temperature sensitivity of 18O/16O equilibrium fractionation between calcium carbonate and water, and described how the isotopic composition of marine...
The reconstruction of oceanic temperatures is critical to understand the processes driving climate variations. This may in theory be achieved using several existing methods, but they can present substantial limitations. Carbonate clumped-isotope thermometry, based on precise ∆47 measurements, is a promising method for paleo-thermometry, presenting...
Foraminifera are marine micro-organisms, widely used to decipher past oceanographic and climatic changes. Foraminifera are planktonic (living in the first hundred meters in the column water) or benthic organisms (living at the interface between water and sediment or in the first centimetres in the sediment), found in all kinds of marine...
The Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT) is also sometimes called "Early Middle Pleistocene Transition" or "Revolution" (Maasch, 1998; Berger and Jansen, 1994; Head and Gibbard, 2005). This period is characterized by a progressive increase of the climatic cycle amplitude, a shift from 41 ka to 100 ka of the climate response to orbital forcing and the...