Ancient Climates and Ecosystems Research Group

The Ancient Climates and Ecosystems research group in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences focuses on understanding the patterns and mechanisms behind changes in past climate and ecosystems. Our collective work spans timescales from a few thousand to several billions of years, settings from terrestrial to aquatic to marine, and illustrates how the Earth system works over the range of extremes in Earth surface evolution. Insights contribute to an improved understanding of processes relevant to current rates of global environmental and biospheric change.
Our faculty and graduate students hold a regular weekly seminar, known as ‘PaleoX’, where we discuss ongoing research by group members and guests, and newly published papers, across the range of paleoclimatology, -ecology, -limnology, -oceanography, -biology... Discussions, like our group, are highly interdisciplinary, wide-ranging in scope, and bring together many different perspectives. We meet regularly on Thursdays at 11 AM in rm 333C, and interested participants are welcome to join us.
Group Principal Investigators

Tripti Bhattacharya
Thonis Family Professor: Paleoclimate Dynamics. Associate Professor.
trbhatta@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.7075

Melissa Chipman
Assistant Professor: Arctic Paleoecology & Paleoclimate
mlchipma@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.2489

Gregory Hoke
Jessie Page Heroy Professor and Department Chair: Earth Surface & Tectonics
gdhoke@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.1903

Linda Ivany
Professor: Evolutionary Paleoecology and Paleoclimate
lcivany@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.3626

Christopher Junium
Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies: Geobiology, Astrobiology, Paleoclimate, Paleoceanography
ckjunium@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.8969

Zunli Lu
Thonis Family Professor: Low-Temperature Geochemistry and Earth System Evolution
zunlilu@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.0281

Cathryn R. Newton
Professor; Dean Emerita, College of Arts and Sciences; Senior Advisor to Chancellor and Provost for Faculty Engagement : Marine Paleoecology; Modern and Ancient Extinctions
crnewton@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.3487

Christopher A. Scholz
Professor: Paleolimnology and Rift Basin Evolution
cascholz@syr.eduPhone: 315.443.4673