Professor Nerilie Abram

Contacts

Contact email:nerilie.abram@anu.edu.au
Contact phone:+61 2 61251978
Location:J1, G22
Twitter
Professor of Climate Science
Associate Director (Research)

About me

ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate System Science

I am a paleoclimate scientist, with research expertise covering natural climate variability and human-caused climate change impacts from the tropical oceans to Antarctica. 

Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science

My research team is supported by ARC-funded projects through the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes, the Australian Centre for Excellence in Antarctic Science, and through an ARC Future Fellowship.

I'm actively involved in the international Iso2k and CoralHydro2k reconstruction teams for the Past Global Changes 2k projects, and was a Coordinating Lead Author for the IPCC special report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate released in 2019.

 

Research group news

February 2021: It's going to be a busy year in our reserach group. We have welcomed Hana Camelia and Anton Steketee who are doing masters research projects this year, as well as PhB students Jemma Jeffree and Dejun (Jack) Cai who are doing undergraduate research projects with us this semester.

January 2021: Our paper assessing the role of climate change and variability on bushfire disasters in southeast Australia is out now in Communications Earth and Environment. This was a fabulous collaboration across researchers from a wide range of climate and fire science.

July 2020: Together with Joelle Gergis, we have developed a new course on Climate Change: past, present and future. We are really excited with how the content has come together and look forward to lots of discussions with our students.

March 2020: Our coral-based reconstruction of the Indian Ocean Dipole during the last millennium has been published in Nature. This was a huge research effort across many, many years. We've also published an invited review paper that brings together what we know about the Indian Ocean Dipole from palaeoclimate data, and summarises what these palaeoclimate perspectives tell us about future changes in this climate system.

November 2019: I am very honoured to have been award the 2019 Priestly Medal from the Australian Oceanographic and Meteorological Society. Thank you.

October 2019: Thank you to the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research for supporting Sarah Jackson with a SCAR Fellowship. The fellowship will help Sarah to collaborate with researchers at the British Antarctic Survey, looking at 17Oexcess signals in coastal Antarctic ice cores.

September 2019: The IPCC Ocean and Cryosphere special report has been approved! See my publications page for links to overviews and interviews on the report.

June 2019: Thanks to the RSES Mervyn and Kaitalin Paterson fellowship, Jess Hargreaves will be spending the next 3 months working with researchers overseas. She will attend the Urbino summer school for paleoceanography, and spend time working with collaborators at the University of Bremen and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

April 2019: Welcome to Sarah Jackson who has joined our group. Sarah will be doing a PhD studying isotope records from east Antarctic coastal ice cores.

August 2018: Farewell to Jen Wurtzel, who is leaving our group to take up an amazing job with the NSW Department of Primary Industry working on drought. Great to she the skills she developed during her PhD with us being put towards such an important application!

March 2018: We are excited to welcome Jess Hargreaves, who is starting her PhD research in our group. Jess will be looking the role of sea surface temperature in modulating the width of the tropical rainfall belt.

February 2018: Welcome to Nicky Wright who has joined our research group as a paleoclimate modeller. Nicky is a postdoctoral research fellow with the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes and joins us from the University of Sydney.

November 2017 - February 2018: I will be working in Antarctica as part of the Mount Brown South ice core drilling project. We aim to collect a 350m ice core that will provide a high resolution record of past climate from the Indian Ocean sector of Antarctica spanning the last 1000 years.

November 2017: Congratulations to Jennifer Wurtzel on submitting her PhD thesis Reading the Rain in Rocks: A late deglacial-Holocene speleothem record from Sumatra, Indonesia.

October 2017: Work has begun on the preparation of the IPCC Special Report on Oceans and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate. The final report is due to be delivered in September 2019, and I have been selected to work as a coordinating lead author for chapter 1.

January 2017: Thanks to Michael White for inviting me to be part of his Forecast program. The podcast of our chat about climate science is available online.

January 2017: Congratulations to graduate student Bethany Ellis who has been awarded the DA Brown travel fellowship. Bethany will use the fellowship to present her research on coral reconstructions of the Indian Ocean Dipole at the 2017 EGU meeting in Vienna and the PAGES Open Science Meeting in Spain.

November 2016: I'm thrilled to have been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to study changes in Australia's rainfall belts over the last millennium. Through this funded project I am able to offer PhD student opportunities beginning mid to late 2017.

October 2016: All the best to graduate student Jen Wurtzel who is participating in the IODP 369 Western Pacific Warm Pool expedition over the next two months.

September 2016: It's official! A new Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes has been funded from July 2017 to 2023. The Centre brings together climate scientists from UNSW, Monash, ANU, Melbourne and Tasmania universities, as well as CSIRO and the BoM and numerous international partners. Stay tuned for postdoc opportunities to be advertised in early 2017.

August 2016: Our paper on the early onset of industrial-era warming is out in Nature. This is the culmination of many years of research, working with an amazing international team. Thanks to all of my co-authors for their efforts in bringing this huge piece of work together! To find out more you can check out this ANU video about the work.

July 2016: Congratulations to Dr Claire Krause who has graduated with a thesis titled Reconstructing the Indo-Australian Monsoon over the last glacial-interglacial cycle using speleothems and paleoclimate modeling. Claire has been accepted into the Graduate Program at Geoscience Australia. See us in our matching robes!

September 2015: I am very pleased to have joined the coordination team for the PAGES 2k Network. September and October are also jammed packed with scientific workshops for the various 2k regional working groups, so there is lots of important and exciting new science underway.

May 2015: Thank you to the Australian Academy of Science; I'm very honoured to have recieved the Dorothy Hill award. See the talk I gave at the award ceremony on Australia's changing climate from the perspective of the past millennium.

April 2015: I've recently accepted an invitation to become a co-chief editor for the open access journal Climate of the Past. After a number of years working as an editor for this journal I'm excited to step into this new role as part of the co-chief team.

March 2015: I'm looking forward to lots of exciting new science over the next 5 weeks with my collaborators at the British Antarctic Survey. Many thanks to the ARC for the International Collaboration Award that has made this research visit possible.

February 2015: The Ocean2k synthesis of tropical SST reconstructions over the past 400 years has been published in Paleoceanography, and is available as open access. The data compilations and reconstructions are also available for download here.

December 2014: Thank you to the Australian Academy of Science. I am very honoured to recieve the 2015 Dorothy Hill Award.

November 2014: The anthology of 2014 Best Australian Science Writing is now available. It is very exciting to have been included alongside so many great Australian science communicators in this book. Well worth a read!

May 2014: Our 1000-year reconstruction of the Southern Annular Mode has been published in Nature Climate Change. Thanks to the ANU media team for putting together this great video about the work and why it is important for understanding changing rainfall patterns in southern Australia.

December 2013/January 2014: I'm very excited to be heading to Antarctica as part of the Aurora Basin ice core drilling team. Learn more about the project in this video, and follow our progress via the Australian Antarctic Division.

Where I've studied and worked

  • 2011-present: Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University
  • 2004-2011: British Antarctic Survey, Natural Environment Research Council (Cambridge, UK)
  • 2000-2004: PhD, The Australian National University
  • 1996-1999: BSc Advanced with honours and university medal, University of Sydney

 

Images are from coral drilling of Krakatau tsunami blocks in Sunda Strait, 2012

Research interests

Research highlights

Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate

The ocean and cyrosphere (frozen parts of our planet) are essential for our life on Earth, but climate change is already impacting from the tops of our highest mountains to the deepest parts of the ocean. This assessment by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change involved more than 100 authors from 36 countries, who reviewed almost 7000 scientific studies and responded to more than 30,000 review comments. Our assessment shows how the ocean and cryosphere are changing, what our choices for the future will mean for how much and how quickly they continue to change, and what options are available to help people and ecosystems adapt to unavoidable future change.

IPCC (2019). Links:  report webpage  Public lecture    Radio interview    The Conversation

Early onset of industrial-era warming across the oceans and continents

Instrumental records of temperature provide unambiguous evidence for climate warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions during the 20th and 21st Centuries. But is this the full picture? Using palaeoclimate reconstructions and simulations spanning the last 500 years, this research finds that industrial-era warming first began in some parts of the world as early as the 1830s. The small but measureable response of Earth's climate to rising greenhouse gas levels during the 19th century needs to be considered to fully account for how much and how quickly humans have altered our climate. Read more in The Conversation.

Abram et al., and the PAGES 2k Consortium (2016) Nature, 536, 411-418. Links:  paper   data   press release   video  

Tropical sea-surface temperatures for the past four centuries reconstructed from coral archives

Reconstructions of natural and human-induced climate change over the last millennium are primarily derived from land-based records, making it difficult to assess how climate changes have evolved across the large areas of ocean that cover the Earth. In this study, an international team of researchers has synthesised annually resolved coral records to produce sea surface temperature histories over four tropical ocean regions. The work is part of the Ocean2k project, as part of the wider Past Global Changes 2k initiative (PAGES2k).

Tierney, Abram et al., (2015) Paleoceanography, doi: 10.1002/2014PA002717. Links:  paper   data  

Evolution of the Southern Annular Mode during the past millennium

The winds that circle around the Southern Ocean determine how much rainfall falls over southern parts of Australia. These winds also affect the temperature of the ocean and air around Antarctica. This study shows that increasing greenhouse gas levels are causing the Southern Ocean winds to get stronger and pull in tighter around Antarctica, meaning that Australia misses out on winter rain and making parts of the Antarctic ice sheets more susceptible to melting.

Abram et al., (2014) Nature Climate Change, 4, 564-569. Links:  paper   data   press release   video

Acceleration of snow melt in an Antarctic Peninsula ice core during the twentieth century

This unique record of past ice melt shows that the current levels of melting on the Antarctic Peninsula are higher than at any other time over at least the last 1000 years. Melting has been increasing dramatically since the mid 20th century and the record gives a clear example of the potential for rapid increases in melting to even small amounts of warming in places where summer temperatures are close to 0 degreesC. Read more in the News and Views and The Conversation commentary pieces on this study

Abram et al., (2013) Nature Geoscience, 6, 404-411.  Links:  paper   data   press release

Recent Antarctic Peninsula warming relative to Holocene climate and ice-shelf history

The Antarctic Peninsula is warming faster than any other place in the Southern Hemisphere. In this work we developed the first ice core record from the Antarctic Peninsula spanning the full Holocene, showing that the very rapid rate warming in this region over the past 50 years is very unusual in a geological context. Read more in the News and Views and Real Climate pieces written by Eric Steig.

Mulvaney, Abram et al., (2012) Nature, 498, 141-144.  Links:  paper   data   press release

Ice core evidence for a 20th century decline of sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica

Using the chemical fingerprints in an array of ice cores from around Antarctica this study was able to show the different regional patterns of sea ice retreat around Antarctica over the 20th Century. These long sea ice reconstructions contrast with the short satellite observations of Antarctic sea ice change, which have seen an overall increase in the extent of Antarctic sea ice since the 1980s.

Abram et al., (2010) Journal of Geophysical Research, 115, D23101, doi:10.1029/2010JD014644.  Links:  paper   BAS featured research. This 2013 invited review paper gives more details about how we can use ice cores to reconstruct Antarctic sea ice changes.

Oscillations in the southern extent of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool during the mid-Holocene

This study showed that accurate assessments of past ocean temperatures can be obtained by looking at the bulk geochemical signal of large groups of fossil corals. Applying this to corals from offshore of Sumatra and Papua New Guinea showed that the very warm waters that lie to the north of Australia (and are important for bringing rain to parts of the country) have moved closer and further way from Australia at different times during the last 7000 years

Abram et al., (2009) Quaternary Science Reviews, 28, 2794-2803. Links:  paper   data

Recent intensification of tropical climate variability in the Indian Ocean

This study used corals to extend the short instrumental record of the Indian Ocean Dipole (the Indian Ocean's equivalent to El Nino) back by more than 100 years. This long perspective shows how unusual the recent cluster of strong and frequent IOD events is; whereas these events typically only occurred every 20 years at the start of the 1900s, we are now seeing events roughly every 4 years.

Abram et al., (2008) Nature Geoscience, 1, 849-853.  Links:  paper   data

Seasonal characteristics of the Indian Ocean Dipole during the Holocene epoch

Detailed analysis of the chemistry of fossil coral skeletons showed how the temperature and rainfall changes during Indian Ocean Dipole events changed when the Asian monsoon was stronger than today. Understanding the potential for future changes in the duration and intensity of Indian Ocean Dipole droughts will be important for climate change adaption in the Indian Ocean region.

Abram et al., (2007) Nature, 445, 299-302.  Links:  paper   data   news & views

Coral reef death during the 1997 Indian Ocean Dipole linked to Indonesian wildfires

Our team were Eureka Prize finalists for the unique finding that nutrients from wildfires can fertilise the ocean and lead to destructive algal blooms. The findings were based on the death of a 400km long section of reef off the coast of Sumatra following massive wildfires in 2007.

Abram et al., (2003) Science, 301, 952-955.  Links:  paper

Research funding

My research is supported by a number of grants awarded by the Australian Research Council, including an ARC Future Fellowship and the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.

Groups

Projects

Many of these publications require an academic library subscription to read the full content. Please email me if you would like me to send you a pdf copy of any of these papers. You can also access my publication history through Google Scholar.

Funding acknowledgements give details for papers where the Australian Research Council supported the work through project costs and/or salary.

 

2021

Abram, N.J., Henley, B.J., Sen Gupta, A. et al. (2021). Connections of climate change and variability to large and extreme forest fires in southeast Australia. Commun Earth Environ 2, 8, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-020-00065-8. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Crockart, C. K., Vance, T. R., Fraser, A. D., Abram, N. J., Criscitiello, A. S., Curran, M. A. J., Favier, V., Gallant, A. J. E., Kjær, H. A., Klekociuk, A. R., Jong, L. M., Moy, A. D., Plummer, C. T., Vallelonga, P. T., Wille, J., and Zhang, L. (in review). El Niño Southern Oscillation signal in a new East Antarctic ice core, Mount Brown South, Clim. Past. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2020-134

2020

Abram, N.J., Wright, N.M., Ellis, B., Dixon, B.C., Wurtzel, J.B., England, M.H. Ummenhofer, C.C., Philibosian, B., Cahyarini, S.Y., Yu, T.-L., Shen, C.-C., Cheng, H., Edwards, R,L. and Heslop, D. (2020). Coupling of Indo-Pacific climate variability over the last millennium. Nature 579, 385-392, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-020-2084-4. Funding support from DP110101161, DP140102059, FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Abram, N.J., Hargreaves, J.A., Wright, N.M., Thirumalai, K., Ummenhofer, C.C. and England, M.H. (2020). Palaeoclimate perspectives on the Indian Ocean Dipole. Quaternary Science Reviews 237, 106302, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106302 [invited contribution]. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Konecky, B. L., McKay, N. P., Churakova (Sidorova), O. V., Comas-Bru, L., Dassié, E. P., DeLong, K. L., Falster, G. M., Fischer, M. J., Jones, M. D., Jonkers, L., Kaufman, D. S., Leduc, G., Managave, S. R., Martrat, B., Opel, T., Orsi, A. J., Partin, J. W., Sayani, H. R., Thomas, E. K., Thompson, D. M., Tyler, J. J., Abram, N. J., Atwood, A. R., Cartapanis, O., Conroy, J. L., Curran, M. A., Dee, S. G., Deininger, M., Divine, D. V., Kern, Z., Porter, T. J., Stevenson, S. L., von Gunten, L., and Iso2k Project Members (2020). The Iso2k database: a global compilation of paleo-δ18O and δ2H records to aid understanding of Common Era climate, Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 12, 2261–2288, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-12-2261-2020

2019

Abram, N.J. (2019). Australia's Angry Summer: This is what climate change looks like. Scientific American. 31st December 2019.

IPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate (2019). Monaco, 25th September 2019. Contributions include:

  • • IPCC (2019), Summary for Policy Makers.
  • • Abram, Gattuso, Prakash et al., (2019), Chapter 1: Framing and Context.
  • • Abram et al., (2019), Cross-Chapter Box 1: Scenarios, Pathways and Reference Periods.
  • • Adler, Oppenheimer, Abram et al., (2019), Cross-Chapter Box 5: Confidence and Deep Uncertainty.
  • • See livestream video of public lecture, listen to ABC Radio National interview, read our Conversation article

Freund, M.B., Henley, B.J., Karoly, D.J., McGregor, H.V., Abram, N.J., and Dommenget, D. (2019). Higher frequency of Central Pacific El Niño events in recent decades. Nature Geoscience. doi: 10.1038/s41561-019-0353-3. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Datwyler, C., Abram, N.J., Grosjean, M., Wahl, E., Neukom, R. (2019). ENSO variability, teleconnection changes and response to large volcanic eruptions since AD 1000. International Journal of Climatology. doi: 10.1002/joc.5983. Funding support from FT160100029.

Dey, R., Lewis, S., and Abram, N.J. (2019). Investigating observed northwest Australian rainfall trends in CMIP5 detection and attribution experiments. International Journal of Climatology, 39 (1), 112-127, doi: 10.1002/joc.5788. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE110001028.

Dey, R., Lewis, S., Arblaster, J., and Abram, N.J. (2019). A Review of Past and Projected Changes in Australia’s Precipitation: Trends, Means and Extremes. WIRES Climate Change, https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.577.  Funding support from FT160100029 and CE110001028.

Ellis, B., Grant, K., Mallela, J., Abram, N.J. (2019). Is XRF core scanning a viable method of coral palaeoclimate temperature reconstructions? Quaternary International. doi: 10.1016/j.quaint.2018.11.044. Funding support from FT160100029, DP140102059, and CE110001028.

Krause, C.E., Gagan, M.K., Dunbar, G.B., Helstrom, J.C., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Hantoro, W.S., Abram, N.J., and Rifai, H. (2019). Meridional and zonal drivers of Australasian monsoon hydroclimate over the last 40,000 years. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 513, 103-112, doi: 10.1016/j/epsl.2019.01.045. Funding support from DP110101161, FT160100029 and CE110001028.

Klein, F., Abram, N.J., Curran, M.A.J., Goosse, H., Goursaud, S., Masson-Delmotte, V., Moy, A., Neukom, R., Orsi, A., Sjolte, J., Steiger, N., Stenni, B., and Werner, M. (2019). Assessing the robustness of Antarctic temperature reconstructions over the past two millennia using pseudoproxy and data assimilation experiments. Climate of the Past. 15, 661-684, doi: 10.5194/cp-15-661-2019. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Turney, C.S.M, McGregor, H.V., Francus, P., Abram, N., Evans, M.N., Goosse, H., von Gunten, L., Kaufman, D., Linderholm, H., Loutre, M.F. and Neukom, R. (2019). Introduction to the Special Issue on Climate of the Past 2000 Years: Global and Regional Syntheses. Climate of the Past, 16, 611-615, doi: 10.5194/cp-15-611-2019

Wurtzel, J.B., Abram, N.J., Lewis, S.E., Bajo, P., Helstrom, J.C., Troitzsch, U. and Heslop, D. (2018). Tropical Indo-Pacific hydroclimate response to North Atlantic forcing during the last deglaciation as recorded by a speleothem from Sumatra, Indonesia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 492, 264-278, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2018.04.001Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

2018

Abram, N.J. (2018). Past warming events in the Arctic linked to shifting winds in the Antarctic. Nature, 563, 630-631 (News and Views).

Fischer, H., Meissner, K., Mix, A., et al., including Abram N.J. (2018), Palaeoclimate constraints on the impact of 2 oC anthropogenic warming and beyond. Nature Geoscience. doi: 10.1038/s41561-018-0146-0. Funding support from FT160100029 and CE170100023.

Kaufman, D. and PAGES 2k special-issue editorial team, including Abram, N.J. (2018), Technical Note: Open-paleo-data implementation pilot – The PAGES 2k special issue, Climate of the Past, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-593-2018. Funding support from FT160100029.

NEEM Aerosol Community, led by Fischer, H. and including Abram, N.J. (2018), Greenland records of aerosol source and atmospheric lifetime changes from the Eemian to the Holocene. Nature Communications, 9:1476, doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-03924-3

Sigl, M., Abram, N. J., Gabrieli, J., Jenk, T. M., Osmont, D., and Schwikowski, M. (2018), 19th century glacier retreat in the Alps preceded the emergence of industrial black carbon deposition on high-alpine glaciers, The Cryosphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3311-2018

    2017

    Abram, N.J. (2017). FactCheck Q&A: Was it four degrees hotter 110,000 years ago? The Conversation.

    Abram, N.J. (2017). FactCheck Q&A: Was it four degrees hotter 110,000 years ago? In: Watson, J. The Conversation Yearbook 2017: 50 articles that informed public debate. Melbourne University Press, ISBN: 9780522872668.

    Dasse, E., and 37 others including Abram, N.J. (2017). Saving our marine archives. Eos, 98, https://doi.org/10.1029/2017EO068159.

    Datwyler, C., Neukom, R., Abram, N.J., Gallant, A., Grosjean, M., Jacques-Coper, M., Karoly, D., and Villalba, R. (2017). Teleconnection stationarity, variability and trends of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) during the last millennium. Climate Dynamics, doi:10.1007/s00382-017-4015-0.

    Henley, B, and Abram, N.J. (2017). The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a sting in the tail. The Conversation (including YouTube video).

    Hessl, A., Allen, K., Vance, T., Abram, N.J. and Saunders, K. (2017). Reconstructions of the Southern Annular Mode (SAM) during the Last Millennium. Progress in Physical Geography. doi:10.1177/0309133317743165. Funding support from DP140102059.

    PAGES 2k Consortium, led by Emile-Geay, J. and including Abram, N.J. (2017). A global multiproxy database for temperature reconstructions of the Common Era. Nature Scientific Data, doi: 10.1038/sdata.2017.88

    Stenni, B., Curran, M., Abram, N.J., Orsi, A., and 14 others from the Antarctica 2k working group (2017). Antarctic climate variability at regional and continental scales over the last 2,000 years, Climate of the Past, doi:10.5194/cp-13-1609-2017. Funding support from DP140102059 and CE110001028.

    Turner, J., Comiso, J., and 20 co-signatories including Abram, N.J. (2017). Solve Antarctica's sea-ice puzzle. Nature, 547, 275–277, doi:10.1038/547275a

    2016

    Abram, N.J., McGregor, H.V., Tierney, J.E., Evans, M.N., McKay, N.P., Kaufman, D.S. and the PAGES 2k Consortium (2016). Early onset of industrial-era warming across the oceans and continents. Nature, 536, 411-418, doi:10.1038/nature19082. Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

    Jones, J.M., Gille, S.T., Goosse, H., Abram, N.J., and 21 other co-authors (2016). Assessing recent trends in high-latitude Southern Hemisphere surface climate. Nature Climate Change, 6, 917-926, doi:10.1038/nclimate3103. Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

    Abram, N.J. (2016). Climate's Playground. Nature Geoscience, doi:10.1038/ngeo2856.

    Abram, N.J. (2016). Climate shenanigans at the ends of the Earth: why has sea ice gone haywire? The Conversation.

    Hobbs, W., Curran, M.A.J., Abram, N.J. and Thomas, E.R. (2016). Century-scale perspectives on observed and simulated Southern Ocean sea ice trends. Journal of Geophysical Research, 121, 7804-7818, doi: 10.1002/2016JC012111. Funding support from DP110101161.

    Thomas, E.R. and  Abram, N.J. (2016). Ice core reconstruction of sea ice change in the Amundsen-Ross Seas since 1702AD. Geophysical Research Letters, 43, 5309-5317, doi: 10.1002/2016GL068130. Funding support from DP110101161.

    Vance, T., Roberts, J., Moy, A., Curran, M., Tozer, C., Gallant, A., Abram, N.J., van Ommen, T., Young, D., Blankenship, D., Siegert, M., and Grima, C. (2016). Optimal site selection for a high resolution ice core record in East Antarctica. Climate of the Past, 12, 595-610, doi:10.5194/cp-12-595-2016. Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

    2015

    Tierney, J.E., Abram, N.J., Anchukaitis, K.J., Evans, M.N., Giry, C., Kilbourne, K.H., Saenger, C.P., Wu, H.C., Zinke, J. (2015). Tropical sea-surface temperatures for the past four centuries reconstructed from coral archives. Paleoceanography, 30, 226-252, doi: 10.1002/2014PA002717. Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

    Abram, N.J., Dixon, B.C., Rosevear, M.G., Plunkett, B., Gagan, M.K., Hantoro, W.S. and Phipps, S.J. (2015). Optimised coral records of the Indian Ocean Dipole: an assessment of location and length considerations. Paleoceanography, 30, 1391-1405, doi: 10.1002/2015PA002810. Funding support from DP110101161 and DP140102059.

    King, P.L., Edwards, A., and Abram, N.J. (2015) Recognising biases that affect women geoscientists in the workplace. Elements Magazine, 11 (April), 88-89.

    2014

    Abram, N.J. (2014). Antarctic ice: going, going, ... In: The Best Australian Science Writing 2014 (ed. A. Hay).

    Murphy, E.J., Clarke, A., Abram, N.J. and Turner, J. (2014). Variability of sea-ice in the northern Weddell Sea during the 20th century. Journal of Geophysical Research. doi:10.1002/2013JC009511. Funding support from DP110101161.

    Abram, N.J., Mulvaney, R., Vimeux, F., Phipps, S.J. Turner, J. and England, M.E. (2014). Evolution of the Southern Annular Mode during the past millennium. Nature Climate Change, 4, 564-569. doi:10.1038/nclimate2235. Funding support from DP140102059 and DP110101161.

    2013

    Abram, N.J. (2013). Antarctic ice...going, going,gone? In: The Curious Country (ed. L. Dayton). pp. 14-19. From the Office of the Chief Scientist and available as a free e-book through ANU Press

    Abram, N.J., Mulvaney, R., Wolff, E.W., Triest, J., Kipfstuhl, S., Trusel, L.D., Vimeux, F., Fleet, L. and Arrowsmith, C. (2013). Acceleration of snow melt in an Antarctic Peninsula ice core during the twentieth century. Nature Geoscience, 6, 404-411, doi:10.1038/ngeo1787. Funding support from DP110101161.

    Abram, N.J., Wolff, E.W. and Curran, M.A.J (2013). A review of sea ice proxy information from polar ice cores.Quaternary Science Reviews, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.01.011. Funding support from DP110101161.

    2012

    Mulvaney R.*, Abram, N.J.*, Hindmarsh, R.C.A., Arrowsmith C., Fleet L., Triest J., Sime, L.C., Alemany O. and Foord, S. Recent Antarctic Peninsula warming relative to Holocene climate and ice shelf history (2012),Nature, 489, 141-144, doi:10.1038/nature11391. *equal contributions.   Funding support from DP110101161.

    Wheatley, J.J., Blackwell, P.G., Abram, N.J., McConnell, J.R., Thomas, E.R. and Wolff, E.W. (2012). Automated ice-core layer-counting with strong univariate signals. Climate of the Past 8, 1869-1879, doi:10.5194/cp-8-1869-2012

    2011

    Abram, N.J., Mulvaney, R. and Arrowsmith, C (2011). Environmental signals in a highly resolved ice core from James Ross Island, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research. 116, D20116, doi:10.1029/2011JD016147

    D’Arrigo R., Abram N.J., Ummenhoffer C., Palmer J. and Mudelsee M. (2011). Reconstructed streamflow for Citarum River, Java, Indonesia: linkages to tropical climate dynamics. Climate Dynamics 36, 451-462, doi:10.1007/s00382-009-0717-2.

    Gagan, M.K. and Abram, N.J. (2011). Stable isotopes and trace elements. In Hopley, D. (ed) Encyclopedia of modern coral reefs: structure, form and process. Encyclopedia of Earth Science Series, Springer-Verlag.

    2010

    Abram, N.J., Thomas, E.R, McConnell, J.R., Mulvaney, R., Bracegirdle, T.J., Sime, L.C., and Aristarain, A.J. (2010). Ice core evidence for a 20th century decline of sea ice in the Bellingshausen Sea, Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research 115, D23101, doi:10.1029/2010JD014644.

    Rothlisberger R., Crosta X., Abram N.J., Armand L. and Wolff E.W. (2010). Potential and limitations of marine and ice core proxies: An example from the Indian Ocean sector. Quaternary Science Reviews 29, 296-302, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.10.005.

    2009

    Abram N.J., McGregor H.V., Gagan M.K. Hantoro W.S. and Suwargadi B.W. (2009). Oscillations in the southern extent of the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool during the mid-Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 2794-2803, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2009.07.006. Funding support from DP0663227.

    Ault T.R., Cole J.E., Evans M.N., Barnett H., Abram N.J., Tudhope A.W. and Linsley B.K. (2009). Intensified decadal variability in tropical climate during the late 19th century, Geophysical Research Letters 36, L08602, doi:10.1029/2008GL036924.

    Hodgson, D.A., Abram, N.J., Anderson, J., Bargelloni L., Barrett P., Bentley M.J., Bertler N.A.N., Chown S., Clarke A., Convey P., Crame A., Crosta X., Curran M., di Prisco G., Francis J.E., Goodwin I., Gutt J., Masse G., Masson-Delmotte V., Mayewski P.A., Mulvaney R., Peck L., Portner H.-O., Rothlisberger R., Stevens M.I., Summerhayes C.P., van Ommen T., Verde C., Verleyen E., Vyverman W., Wiencke C. and Zane L. (2009)Antarctic climate and environmental history in the pre-instrumental period. In: Turner, J. Convey P., di Prisco G., Mayewski P.A., Hodgson D.A., Fahrbach E, Bindschadler R. and Gutt J. (eds) Antarctic Climate Change and the Environment. Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, Cambridge.

    2008

    Abram N.J., Gagan M.K., Cole J.E., Hantoro W.S., and Mudelsee M. (2008). Recent intensification of tropical climate variability in the Indian Ocean, Nature Geoscience 1 (12), 849-853, doi:10.1038/ngeo357. Funding support from DP0342017 and DP0663227.

    McGregor H.V. and Abram N.J. (2008). Images of diagenetic textures in Porites corals from Papua New Guinea and Indonesia, Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 9 (10), Q10013, doi:10.1029/2008GC002093.

    Reda T., Plugge C.M., Abram N.J. and Hirst J. (2008). Reversible interconversion of carbon dioxide and formate by an electroactive enzyme. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 105 (31), 10654-10658, doi:10.1073/pnas.0801290105.

    Abram N.J., Curran M.A.J., Mulvaney R. and Vance T. (2008). The preservation of methanesulphonic acid in frozen ice-core samples. Journal of Glaciology 54 (187), 680-684.

    2007

    Abram N.J., Mulvaney R. Wolff E.W. and Mudelsee M. (2007). Ice core records as sea ice proxies: An evaluation from the Weddell Sea region of Antarctica. Journal of Geophysical Research 112, D15101, doi:10.1029/2006JD008139.

    Abram N.J., Gagan M.K., Liu, Z., Hantoro W.S., McCulloch M.T. and Suwargadi B.W. (2007). Seasonal characteristics of the Indian Ocean Dipole during the Holocene epoch, Nature 445, 299-302, doi:10.1038/nature05477. Funding support from DP0342017 and DP0663227.

    2004

    Abram N.J., Gagan M.K., Mcculloch M.T., Chappell J., and Hantoro W.S. (2004) Sudden death of a coral reef. Science 303, 1293-1294, doi:10.1126/science.303.5662.1293b

    Grumet N.S., Abram N.J., Beck J.W., Dunbar R.B., Gagan M.K. Guilderson T.P., Hantoro W.S. and Suwargadi B.W. (2004). Coral radiocarbon records of Indian Ocean water mass mixing and wind-induced upwelling along the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, Journal of Geophysical Research 109, C05003, doi:10.1029/2003JC002087

    2003

    Abram N.J., Gagan M.K., McCulloch M.T., Chappell J. and Hantoro W.S. (2003). Coral reef death during the 1997 Indian Ocean Dipole linked to Indonesian wildfires, Science 301, 952-955, doi:10.1126/science.1083841. Funding support from DP0342017.

    2001

    Abram N.J., Webster J.M., Davies P.J. and Dullo W-C. (2001). Biological response of coral reefs to sea surface temperature variation: Evidence from the raised Holocene reefs at Kikai-jima (Ryukyu Islands, Japan),Coral Reefs, 20, 221-234, doi:10.1007/s003380100163

    Image from ice core drilling on James Ross Island, Antarctica, 2008

    • In semester 1 of 2022 we will again be running Climate change: past, present and future (ENVS3013/6303) between the Fenner and Earth Sciences schools.
    • I teach ANU's Coral Reef Field Studies course (EMSC3019) on the southern Great Barrier Reef, and we plan to resume this course once COVID travel restrictions lift.
    • I am also able to offer research supervision for undergraduate students wishing to complete third year Special Topics (EMSC3050) or Honours year (EMSC4005) research projects.
    • All of these undergraduate courses can be taken as part of the ANU Climate Science major that launched in 2021

    Supervised students