Interdisciplinary Seminar: Malcolm Barnard

An interdisciplinary seminar from UNC Marine Sciences graduate student, Malcolm Barnard. Presented by the UNC-CH Department of Marine Sciences and UNC’s Institute of Marine Sciences (IMS). This event will be held on Monday, October 28th, at 12:30 pm. The main location of this event will be in seminar room 222 at IMS in Morehead City, NC. The seminar will be streamed live to room G201 on the ground floor of Murray Hall on UNC-CH campus in Chapel Hill, NC and online via Zoom (Meeting ID: 252-726-6841).

Seminar Title: Using Paleoceanographic Proxies to Predict Effects of Climate Change on Ocean Dynamics

Abstract: Modern climate change is dominated by human influences. The main source of anthropogenic climate change is human-induced changes in atmospheric composition, primarily CO2 loading. Anthropogenic climate change includes increased atmospheric temperatures due to the greenhouse effect and enhanced pCO2 buffering in the oceans. Modern CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere are now over 415 ppm, as measured at Mauna Loa. The late Pliocene was the last time the Earth’s atmospheric CO2 was over 400 ppm. In order to validate models for future climate scenarios and to predict responses to modern elevated CO2 levels, we can use ocean geochemical proxies of temperature and alkalinity to examine late Pliocene ocean (3.3-3 MYA) dynamics (e.g., sea surface temperatures, and currents, and pH). Using oxygen isotopic ratios in foraminifera from the late Pliocene, we can predict future sea conditions, such as changes to the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC), which influences the heat flux in the oceans. These ancient sea proxy data demonstrate conditions on Earth and in the oceans that we may expect for the future.