Jordan Abell
Lehigh University, PA·Earth & Environmental Science
The ocean absorbs much of the carbon dioxide and heat produced by human activity. Climate forecasts predict that warming will make the ocean more stratified (layered) and slow its circulation.
- Fields
Earth & Environmental Science
Chemistry
- Topics
paleoceanography
paleoclimate
Pliocene
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Dec 2026
What they work on
- 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.
- Trace the regional distribution of ocean ventilation across the North Pacific using redox and water-mixing proxies in bulk sediments and benthic foraminifera, interpreted with coupled climate model simulations.
- Refine the use of redox, temperature and productivity proxies in bulk sediments and foraminifera for reconstructing Pliocene ventilation, nutrient availability and water mixing.
More about the research
Some studies, however, suggest circulation was stronger during warm periods in Earth's past. The Pliocene Epoch, 5.33 to 2.58 million years ago, had carbon dioxide levels similar to today and temperatures several degrees warmer. That makes it a natural test case for how a warmer ocean behaves.
Why it matters
Whether warming weakens or strengthens ocean circulation matters for regional and global climate. By testing how the North Pacific behaved in a past world with similar carbon dioxide levels, this work could help check and improve forecasts of 21st-century ocean circulation and climate change.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Pincelli Hull
Yale University, CT·Earth & Environmental Science
Quantify how changes in ocean circulation alone alter marine carbon storage in a warm Pliocene ocean, using targeted Community Earth System Model (CESM) experiments.
Lowell Stott
University of Southern California, CA·Earth & Environmental Science
Collect sediment cores from high-sedimentation-rate sites in the deep western North Pacific during a research cruise to fill a major data gap.
Patrick Rafter
University of South Florida, FL·Earth & Environmental Science
Test whether Indian Ocean bottom water was unusually old during the last ice age by comparing the radiocarbon ages of fossil shells with sediment ages in four new cores from across the basin.
The school
Lehigh University: 13 labs on PI Pages, $62M a year on research, 99 research doctorates a year.
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