Brittany Hupp
George Mason University, VA·Earth & Environmental Science
About 56 million years ago, Earth warmed rapidly as large amounts of methane and carbon dioxide entered the atmosphere. This event, the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), is a natural test case for how the climate system responds to fast greenhouse-gas increases.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
paleoclimate
foraminifera
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jul 2028
What they work on
- Build records of single-shell foraminifera chemistry and shape across the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) at IODP Site U1580, where shells were not dissolved by ocean acidification.
- Image individual foraminifera shells with scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and micro-computed tomography (MicroCT), a 3D X-ray method, to check preservation and measure shell shape.
- Estimate ocean temperatures from single-shell magnesium-to-calcium ratios, measured with laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry, for surface and deep waters across the PETM onset.
- Use carbon and oxygen isotopes from single shells, measured with a new CryoFocusing method, to separate pre-PETM from PETM shells mixed by burrowing and to test lead-lag links between carbon cycle and climate.
More about the research
Scientists study it using foraminifera, tiny single-celled organisms whose calcium carbonate shells record the ocean conditions they lived in. These shells are preserved as microfossils in deep-sea sediment. However, PETM records have two problems. Ocean acidification at the start of the event dissolved many shells. Burrowing animals also mixed the sediment (bioturbation), so shells from different times end up side by side.
Why it matters
Present-day carbon emissions are raising atmospheric carbon dioxide quickly, and the PETM is one of the best past examples of a similar rapid release. Better estimates of how much and how fast the oceans warmed then could improve understanding of how today's climate and carbon cycle may respond. The planned open educational resource will connect this record to contemporary climate change for students and the public.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yair Rosenthal
Rutgers University-New Brunswick, NJ·Earth & Environmental Science
Reconstruct movements of the Southern Westerly Winds during the Holocene and five earlier interglacials (MIS 5e, 9e, 11c, 13, 19) using Chilean Margin sediments from site J1001.
Catherine Davis
North Carolina State University, NC·Earth & Environmental Science
Measure which particle types planktic foraminifera collected off U.S. coasts gather, how quickly they clump them, and how this changes the sinking and carbon export of marine snow, using laboratory cultures.
Jordan Abell
Lehigh University, PA·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether North Pacific deep-water formation and an active Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation existed during the warm Pliocene, using multi-proxy records from four IODP sediment cores.
The school
George Mason University: 15 labs on PI Pages, $282M a year on research, 297 research doctorates a year.
Reach out
A start for your email. Fill in the brackets.