Southern Ocean nutrients and their links to climate change: insights from the isotope and elemental signature of diatoms and sponges

This research will reconstruct the historical distribution of silicate concentration in the Southern Ocean using the isotope and trace element signatures contained within the skeletons of siliceous organisms. Silicate is a critical nutrient for diatoms, which play a key role in controlling the uptake of carbon dioxide by the ocean. Knowledge of past distributions of silicate in the surface and deep ocean, is essential to understand the mechanisms by which diatoms influenced past changes in carbon dioxide. Understanding the links between nutrients, productivity and carbon dioxide is critical to responding to future climate change connected to increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide associated with fossil fuel burning.