Ocean and Climate (OC)

The aim of Research Area “Ocean and Climate” is to disentangle the role of the oceans in climate change by studying relevant events and processes in past climate evolution. The research activities are guided by the following objectives:

• What is the role of the ocean in generating and amplifying climate changes?
• What is the impact of ocean-circulation changes on terrestrial environments, specifically on the hydrological cycle at low latitudes?
• What is the role of the ocean in linking climate variability between low and high latitudes?

Paleoclimatic records offer a unique archive for quantifying natural variations of the oceanic environment and its interaction with the other components of the climate system beyond the range of the instrumental record. The effects of global and regional environmental change will be studied during the Holocene and Late Pleistocene (last 60,000 years) as well as during the Late Miocene. Proxy reconstructions and observational data will be combined with Earth-system modeling to achieve the research goals.

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