Coupling of Late Pliocene Indian Monsoon Variability and Global Climate - Environmental Science - NERC GW4+ DTP Studentship

This project is one of a number that are in competition for funding from the NERC Great Western Four+ Doctoral Training Partnership (GW4+ DTP). The GW4+ DTP consists of the Great Western Four alliance of the University of Bath, University of Bristol, Cardiff University and the University of Exeter plus six Research Organisation partners: British Antarctic Survey, British Geological Survey, Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, the Met Office, the Natural History Museum and Plymouth Marine Laboratory. The partnership aims to provide a broad training in earth and environmental sciences, designed to train tomorrow’s leaders in earth and environmental science. For further details about the programme please see http://nercgw4plus.ac.uk/

The studentships will provide funding for a stipend which is currently £14,553 per annum for 2017-2018, research costs and UK/EU tuition fees at Research Council UK rates for 42 months (3.5 years) for full-time students, pro rata for part-time students.


Location: Penryn Campus, Cornwall

Project description:

The Indian monsoon is one of the most powerful meteorological phenomena on the planet, affecting the lives of over a billion people. However, its behaviour in the near future under the influence of anthropogenic climate change is uncertain, particularly in terms of the intensity and amount of seasonal precipitation. The Pliocene (2.58–5.33 Ma) is the most recent period in Earth’s history with similar elevated global temperatures and CO2 levels to those predicted for the coming century, and may serve as a useful analogue for future climate and monsoon behaviour. The late Pliocene (~3.3–2.5 Ma) was a time of great global change, witnessing the descent into Northern Hemisphere glaciation concurrent with a significant drop in CO2. Understanding the response of the monsoon system during this time of changing boundary conditions will further enhance our mechanistic understanding.


Project Aims and Methods

This project will utilise new deep-sea sediments recovered during IODP Expedition 353 from the Bay of Bengal and Andaman Sea, to reconstruct the past behaviour of the Indian Monsoon during the Late Pliocene for the first time. We will generate coupled Mg/Ca and d18O records from surface and thermocline-dwelling planktic foraminifera to reconstruct temperature and d18O seawater (salinity) variability at orbital resolution. These records will be compared to pollen, charcoal, biomarker, and microfossil assemblage data from the same samples, generated by international research partners, which will allow a holistic picture of orbitally-paced climate change in the region to be constructed.

The student will be embedded within the Deep Time Global Change group at the UoE under the supervision of Drs Littler and Bailey, where facilities for foraminifera processing and trace element analysis are available. The student will benefit from significant involvement with the British Geological Survey, where the majority of the stable isotope data will be generated under the supervision of Prof. Leng. Close collaboration with Dr Anand at the Open University, and Dr Robinson at the United States Geological Survey, will ensure full integration of these new data with complementary data from other contemporaneous Exp. 353 sites.


Candidate

The ideal person to carry out this project would have a background in geology, earth science, or oceanography at MESci/MSc level, with a broad interest in paleoclimate reconstruction, and preferably research experience working with marine sediments and microfossil geochemistry.


Training

During the project the student would be fully trained in: IODP protocols, stratigraphic techniques, sediment processing, species-specific picking of planktic (and benthic) foraminifera, SEM examination of foraminiferal preservation, as well as the subsequent generation of trace element and stable isotope data based on these microfossils. Additionally, they would receive broader training on academic writing, conference presentation, and the integration of multi-proxy datasets in the context of late Cenozoic paleoclimate theory.