The Palaeoenvironment Group uses geochemical proxies to reconstruct past environmental changes across the surface of the planet.  While much of our work is marine based, palaeoenvironmental reconstructions include geochemical and palaeontological proxies from cave deposits and lake sediments. The backbone of our work is based on our stabile isotope laboratories, but substantial work is also done on magnetometers, ICP-AES, ICPMS and XRF instruments.

Our team has a large group working on highly detailed global sea level records for the late Pleistocene, but also looking further back in time.  Times when global temperatures were substantially warmer than the past million years. We also have a number of scientists using boron contents in foraminfers to reconstruct changes in the pH of the ocean during the late Pleistocene.  Reconstructing ocean temperatures going back in time using organic molecules as well as Mg/Ca contents of carbonates are powerful tools that are being employed by the Group to reconstruct past climates.

Members of the group spent significant time at sea this past year, with long voyages to the Bay of Bengal and the Western Pacific Warm Pool (with the IODP) and the Antarctic margin (on the RV Investigator) playing prominent roles.

Workshops/conferences attended

• Antarctic Variability meeting, Hobart, July (invited speaker), Rohling
• Palaeoclimate modelling intercomparison project (PMIP) meeting, Stockholm, September (keynote), Rohling
• AGU Fall Meeting, New Orleans, December, Rohling (editor functions), Hibbert
• Attended the PALSEA2 conference, Mexico, November, Hibbert
• Invited speaker at 2 workshops in Hobart (‘Antarctic Frontiers’ in September & ‘Future sea levels & coastal impacts’ in November), Hibbert, Grant, Rohling
• Invited speaker at the ‘XRF Taiwan’ conference, March, Grant
• Attended PAGES open science meeting, Zaragoza (Spain), May, Grant
• IODP planning workshop, Sydney, June, Opdyke
• Presented a paper at the CBEP (Climatic and Biotic Events of the Paleogene 2017), Snowbird (Utah), September, Opdyke
• Bipolar seesaw, ocean circulation, and Antarctic ice-sheet melting at the end of an ice age. The Antarctic frontier symposium. Hobart, September, Marino

Outreach, meetings/interviews

• Taught at the Urbino Summerschool in Palaeoclimatology, July-August 2017, Rohling
• Sailed of the RV Investigator January – March 2017.Voyage 01 to the Sabrina Shelf of the Antarctic margin. Opdyke
• Public lecture (invited) at Music for a Warmer World festival with Climate Tasmania, Hobart, February 2017. Rohling
• Invited lecture and panel membership, Hobart high-schools event with Climate Tasmania, Hobart August 2017. Rohling
• Sky News Live TV interview on Conversation article, 24 April 2017. (http://www.highstand.org/erohling/Rohling-papers/Sky%20News%20Interview%2024-04-2017.mov). Rohling
• ABC Radio Live interview on fast CO₂ rise, June 2017. (http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/drive/story-2/8655512) Rohling

Outreach-related publications

• Authored article: https://theconversation.com/we-need-to-get-rid-of-carbon-in-the-atmosphere-not-just-reduce-emissions-72573) Rohling
• Public-science book: Rohling, E.J., The oceans: a deep history. Princeton University Press, 2017. ISBN 9780691168913.
• Henley, B, (2017). The three-minute story of 800,000 years of climate change with a sting in the tail. The Conversation.