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 influence of humans on future climate.

Project Publications

• Heslop, D. & A. P. Roberts (2012). Estimating best-fit binary mixing lines in the Day plot. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, B01101, doi:10.1029/2011JB008787.
• Heslop, D. & A. P. Roberts (2012). A method for unmixing magnetic hysteresis loops. Journal of Geophysical Research, 117, B03103, doi:10.1029/2011JB008859.
• Heslop, D. & A. P. Roberts (2012). Estimation of significance levels and confidence intervals for first-order reversal curve distributions. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 13, Q12Z40, doi:10.1029/2012GC004115.
• Heslop, D. & A. P. Roberts (2013). Calculating uncertainties on predictions of palaeoprecipitation from the magnetic properties of soils. Global and Planetary Change, 10, 379-385, doi:10.1016/j.gloplacha.2012.11.013.
• Heslop, D., A. P. Roberts, L. Chang, M. Davies, A. Abrajevitch & P. De Deckker (2013). Quantifying magnetite magnetofossil contributions to sedimentary magnetizations. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 382, 58-65, doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2013.09.011.
• Stuut, J. -B, F. Temmesfeld & P. de Deckker (2014). A 550 ka record of aeolian activity near North West Cape, Australia: inferences from grain-size distributions and bulk chemistry of SE Indian Ocean deep-sea sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews, 83, 83-94, doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2013.11.003.

Collaborative Publications

• Liu, Q.S., A. P. Roberts, J. C. Larrasoaña, S. K. Banerjee, Y. Guyodo, L. Tauxe & F. Oldfield (2012). Environmental magnetism: principles and applications, Reviews of Geophysics, 50, RG4002, doi:10.1029/2012RG000393.
• Collins, J. A., A. Govin, S. Mulitza, D. Heslop, M. Zabel, J. Hartmann, U. Rohl & G. Wefer (2013). Abrupt shifts of the Sahara-Sahel boundary during Heinrich stadials, Climate of the Past, 9, 1181-1191, doi:10.5194/cp-9-1181-2013.
• Necula, C., C. Panaiotu, D. Heslop & D. Dimofte (2013). Climatic control of magnetic granulometry in the Mircea Voda loess/paleosol sequence (Dobrogea, Romania). Quaternary International, 293, 5-14, doi:10.1016/j.quaint.2012.03.043.
• Proske, U., D. Heslop & S. Haberle (2014). A Holocene record of coastal landscape dynamics in the eastern Kimberley region, Australia. Journal of Quaternary Science, 29, 163-174, doi:10.1002/jqs.2691.
• Govin, A., C. Chiessi, M. Zabel, A.O. Sawakuchi, D. Heslop, T. Hörner, Y. Zhang & S. Mulitza (2014). Terrigenous input off northern South America driven by changes in Amazonian climate and the North Brazil Current retroflection during the last 250 ka, Climate of the Past, 10, 843-862.
• Nie, J., R. Zhang, C. Necula, D. Heslop, Q. Liu, L. Gong & S. Banerjee (2014). Late Miocene-early Pleistocene paleoclimate history of the Chinese Loess Plateau revealed by remanence unmixing. Geophysical Research Letters, 41, 2163-2168.