Modern climate change is a major challenge of our time. However, it is not easy to predict how the climate will develop. However, there are epochs in the Earth's history that can answer burning questions that we need to ask ourselves for the future: How warm will it get if greenhouse gas concentrations continue to rise? How will ocean currents change in a warmer world? What happens to marine ecosystems when the oceans warm? How will the Earth's climate and ecosystems stabilize once a climate crisis has been overcome and how long will it take?
What challenge are you currently facing? What makes your methodology special? How do you research this fundamental question?
My team and I are currently researching the effects of a tipping point in the Earth's climate in sediments from the Indian Ocean that are millions of years old. In them, we are isolating chemical signatures and fossil remains that reconstruct how marine plankton react to nutrient changes caused by climate change.
The samples come from the archives of the International Ocean Discovery Program (IODP), one of the most successful international research programs in the world. As the Austrian Center for Paleoclimate Research, my team and I have also been involved in IODP expeditions on the world's oceans.
