Becky McGanity-Smith

Investigating the evolution of the environment and biosphere in Eastern Australia over the last 20Ma

PhD project title:

Reconstructing and Modelling Climate Weathering Interactions in East Australia

Project description:

Becky McGanity-Smith PhD profile

Global climate is partly modulated by levels of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere, in particular CO2. These levels are modulated by chemical weathering processes that remove CO2 from the atmosphere over long periods of time.

I am studying the evolving environment and biosphere of eastern Australia through examination of a marine sediment core on the Marion Plateau. I am using a series of proxies spanning around 20 million years of time to constrain the changing weathering conditions as Australia moved northwards into more tropical conditions.

I will use geochemistry to look at chemical alteration and calculate chemical weathering fluxes while organic chemistry biomarker work will constrain the vegetation and hydrology of the region. The interactions between climate surface processes and the biosphere will be examined through climate modelling applied to the reconstructions derived from the field data.

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