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- Brocas, William Martin
Dr. William Martin Brocas
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Doctoral Research
Monthly resolved coral records of the last interglacial climate variability from southern Caribbean corals
This project was funded by the DFG under the special priority projects of INTERDYNAMIK. Its primary focus was to resolve ultra-high resolution proxy records for the last interglacial period (130-118kaBP). This period is the focus of study due to the availability of well-preserved fossil coral material, and provides a test bed period that can be studied as partially analogous to climatic condition likely to be experienced in the future. Proxy records for sea surface temperature (Sr/Ca) and hydrography (δ18O) were generated from fossil coral material (D. strigosa) collected from reef terraces uplifted and exposed above sea level from the south Caribbean island of Bonaire. The coral materials collected here are extremely rare and yield unique proxy records from a tropical climate perspective. These proxy data spanned various time windows across the last interglacial period revealing the sud-seasonal, interannual and decadal variability of influential climatic systems in the region.
The behaviour of such systems as the inter-tropical convergence zone (rain belt) and the El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) are poorly understood during previous climate states, especially at the high resolution intended achieved this project.
The data obtained from this project compliments modelling analysis and is directly comparable with similar work conducted for the present interglacial. In this way contribute to the climate change debate which has focused on climate variability at latitudes much higher than the Caribbean.
Publications
Brocas W.M., Felis, T., Gierz, P., Lohmann, G., Werner, M., Obert, J. C., Scheffers, S. R. (2018).Last interglacial hydroclimate seasonality reconstructed from tropical Atlantic corals.
Brocas, W.M., Felis, T., Obert, J. C., Gierz, P., Lohmann, G., Scholz, D., Kölling, M. and Scheffers S.R., (2016), Last interglacial temperature seasonality reconstructed from tropical Atlantic corals.
Obert, J. C., D. Scholz, T. Felis, W. M. Brocas, K. P. Jochum, and M. O. Andreae (2016).
230Th/U dating of Last Interglacial brain corals from Bonaire (southern Caribbean) using bulk and theca wall material.
W.M. Brocas, D.J. Reynolds, P.G. Butlera, C.A. Richardson, J.D. Scourse, I.D. Ridgway, K. Ramsay. (2013). The dog cockle, Glycymeris glycymeris (L.), a new annually-resolved sclerochronological archive for the Irish Sea.