Wind-blown dust alters the radiation budget of the atmosphere, provides essential micronutrients (like iron) to open ocean ecosystems, and can be used to investigate the strength and position of paleo-wind. We are interested in characterizing and understanding the natural variability of continental dust emissions and their impact on marine biogeochemical cycles and global climate.
We use constant flux proxies (like extraterrestrial helium-3 and excess thorium-230) and novel dust proxies (like terrigenous helium-4 and thorium-232) in marine sediments to reconstruct past changes in the magnitude and provenance (source) of dust inputs to low and high latitude regions of the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. In addition, we use lithogenic isotopes to characterize the provenance (source) of dust inputs to the Antarctic ice sheet. Recent work has examined the role of Patagonian glaciation in regulating the iron speciation and bioavailability of dust inputs to the Southern Ocean over Pleistocene glacial cycles.
