Nancy Grumet Prouty, 2005-2006 Postdoctoral Scholar

I completed my Ph.D. at Stanford University in June of 2004. In September I began my post doctoral scholarship working with Dr. Konrad Hughen in the Department of Marine Chemistry and Geochemistry. My research at WHOI specifically aims to understand and reconstruct environmental conditions in the subtropical and tropical oceans through the development of coral chemical records. High resolution proxy records available from coral reefs demonstrate that chemical tracers within coral aragonite can accurately record seasonal and annual changes in environmental parameters, such as precipitation, river input, salinity, and sea surface temperature, as well as changes in ocean circulation. The extreme sensitivity of corals to changes in precipitation and thermal conditions as well as the geochemical properties coral aragonite has greatly enhanced our understanding of climate variability on time scales relevant to human activity, such as the El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO). The combination of coral radiocarbon, stable isotope, and trace element measurements provides an invaluable tool to reconstruct ocean temperature and circulation, and to further refine ocean circulation models.

Last updated: May 21, 2009