About

The terrestrial paleoclimate group works to reconstruct changes in climate and the hydrologic cycle over the past 100 million years.  We are interested in long-term controls and feedback that govern the climate and in understanding fundamental differences in hydrologic cycling between the high-CO₂ world 50 million years ago and our current, relatively low-CO₂ world.  With atmospheric CO₂ concentrations approaching levels that have not been seen in at least 5, and perhaps 20, million years, we are motivated to look at the paleoclimate record to constrain how human activities may alter the hydrologic cycle and terrestrial climate.  Our group uses a combination of field studies and stable isotopes, global and regional climate models, one-dimensional models, and novel statistical methods to improve our knowledge of the evolution of Earth's climate.

The terrestrial paleoclimate group is directed by Professor C. Page Chamberlain. Currently, we consist of two Ph.D. students, one postdoc, and a laboratory manager of the Stable Isotope Biogeochemistry Laboratory.  We have long-term international collaborations with Professor Andreas Mulch the Director of the Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre, Frankfurt Germany, and Associate Professor Yuan Gao at the China University of Geosciences Beijing China. At Stanford University our research group collaborates with Professor Kate Maher, Professor Kevin Boyce, and Professor Stephan Graham, and is a part of the Sedimentary Research Group.