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Palaeoenvironments

The Palaeoenvironments Group specialise in environmental reconstruction on times scales that range from thousands to millions of years.

science Research area

About

The Palaeoenvironments Group is a collection of research scientists that specialise in environmental reconstruction on times scales that range from thousands to millions of years for both marine and terrestrial environments. These reconstructions extend the record of climate behaviour and variability beyond those observed in the modern, and provide insights on processes (e.g., the response of ice-sheets) that act on longer timescales.

We investigate cave precipitates, lake sediments, corals and reef sediments, marine sediments and ice cores to construct records of past environmental change. These records are invaluable for providing context for recent environmental change, as well as providing crucial data for ground-truthing climate models.

Currently projects include past changes in sea level, ocean temperature and carbonate chemistry, Antarctic climate, and Australian dust. We use a diverse range of proxies and have we have an array of (in house) cutting edge laboratories in which to make the measurements.

Facilities

State of the art micropaleontological laboratory and microfossil collection from The Australian region.

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The Black Mountain Palaeomagnetic laboratory is equipped with a 2G superconducting rock magnetometer, a Quantum Design MPMS for magnetic mineral identification, a Princeton Measurements Corporation Vibrating Sample Magnetometer, and a suite of other instruments for palaeo- and rock magnetic measurements.

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The Palaeoenvironment Stable Isotope Laboratory at RSES has a number of mass spectrometer facilities dedicated to particular types of analyses for δ13C and δ18O of carbonate samples, and δD, δ18O and δ17Oexcess of waters.

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The ANU Research School of Earth Sciences operates a cutting-edge X-ray Fluorescence (XRF) scanning facility, capable of non-destructive elemental analysis from magnesium to uranium on a variety of samples including sediment cores and rocks.

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Projects

Magnetic minerals are almost ubiquitous in nature, which means magnetic techniques can be used to understand Earth’s magnetic field and deep-Earth dynamo processes, and act as proxies for system processes in palaeoclimate, paleoceanography, pollution tracing, and archaeology.

Atmospheric dust plumes can affect global climate, but the impact of Australian dust on climate is poorly known even though it is a major dust source. This project will study the magnetism of dust deposits in marine sediments to understand how Australian dust influences climate in order to better predict the...

The project aims to reconstruct deep water carbonate ion and nutrient contents at millennial timescales using high sedimentation cores from the Atlantic Ocean.

Status

Current

People

This research is part of an ARC Linkage project. Read more about it in this news story.
 

Magnetotactic bacteria biomineralise magnetic nanoparticles. They are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, so their inorganic remains (magnetofossils) should give rise to sedimentary palaeomagnetic signals. Ancient magnetofossil identifications were sparse until new techniques recently demonstrated their extensive...

The magnetism of sediments provides information on the past behaviour of the Earth's magnetic field. This project will study sediments from the oceans around Australia to understand how the field was recorded and use this information to construct a new generation of computer models that will provide insights into...

Members

Researcher

Professor Nerilie Abram

Professor of Climate Science
FAA (Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science)

Emeritus Professor

Honorary Associate Professor

Emeritus Professor

Emeritus Professor

Professor of Marine Carbon Cycle

Dr Xiang Zhao @ anu

Postdoc Fellow

Collaborator

Research Fellow

Research support officer

Palaeomagnetism Laboratory Scientific Officer

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Research Assistant

Research Officer

Student

PhD Candidate

PhD Candidate

PhD Candidate

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PhD Candidate

PhD Candidate

PhD Candidate

Visitor and affiliate

Honorary Assoc. Prof. (The Australian National University)
Honorary Professor (University of Queensland)