Biography

PhD student – University of Cambridge, Department of Earth Sciences / British Antarctic Survey

Research interests

I am interested in the role that winds have played in shaping the climate of the Antarctic Peninsula and the Amundsen-Bellingshausen Seas region over the last centuries. To determine how changes in wind strength and atmospheric circulation have impacted the regional climate, it is necessary to study how winds have evolved in the past.

Ice cores yield valuable climatic information through the use of proxy records. As part of my PhD, I am developing a novel proxy for localized wind conditions based on the abundance and diversity of marine diatoms entrained in ice cores from the Antarctic Peninsula, West Antarctica, and sub-Antarctic islands. This proxy, combined with already proven long-range wind strength and circulation proxies (dust concentration and continental ions), sea salts, water stable isotopes and marine organic compounds (Methansulphonic acid (MSA)), will allow developing an ice core multi-proxy reconstruction of regional wind strength and atmospheric circulation over centennial timescales.