Laurie Menviel

Last updated

Laurie Menviel
Nationality Australia
OccupationAssociate Professor
Known forClimate modelling & paleoclimate
Scientific career
Institutions University of New South Wales

Laurie Menviel or L. Menviel; Laurie Menviel is a palaeoclimatologist, and a Scientia fellow, [1] at the University of New South Wales, who was awarded a Dorothy Hill Medal in 2019.

Contents

Career and education

Menviel was awarded a Masters of Geochemistry at the University of Aix-Marseilee, France, in 2002, and then a PhD in Chemical Oceanography at the University of Hawaii, in 2008. [2] [3]

Menviel's research includes studies on ocean circulation, the carbon cycle and paleoceanography. She has published on ocean circulation, the variability of ocean circulation and the impact of this variability on planetary climate, as well as carbon cycles, as well as on the cryosphere. Menviel has published on earth science, including the role of ocean circulation on both the future and past climate changes, particularly abrupt changes. [4] [5] She has also worked on evaluating the impact of changes in the circulation of the ocean, and how this influences the carbon cycle, as well as the Antarctic ice sheet, and it's stability and variability. [6] [7]

Menviel is the editor and co-editor in chief of the journal Climate of the Past. She was awarded an Australian Research Council, DECRA award, and is a researcher at the Climate Change Research Centre, at the University of New South Wales. [8]

Publications

Select publications include the following.

Media

Menviel's work on climate and the ocean, including research published in Nature Communications, has been reported in various media sources [14] including describing what 'carbon pollution' is, in The Conversation. [15] [16] Her work has described the impact of climate change on westerly winds in the Southern Ocean. She commented,

"...it is vital to bring more observational networks into the Southern Ocean to monitor these changes. We need a clear warning if we are approaching a point in our climate system where we may see a spike in atmospheric carbon dioxide and the rapid temperature rise that inevitably follows." [17]

Recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Snowball Earth</span> Worldwide glaciation episodes during the Proterozoic eon

The Snowball Earth hypothesis proposes that, during one or more of Earth's icehouse climates, the planet's surface became entirely or nearly entirely frozen. It is believed that this occurred sometime before 650 M.Y.A. during the Cryogenian period. Proponents of the hypothesis argue that it best explains sedimentary deposits that are generally believed to be of glacial origin at tropical palaeolatitudes and other enigmatic features in the geological record. Opponents of the hypothesis contest the geological evidence for global glaciation and the geophysical feasibility of an ice- or slush-covered ocean, and they emphasize the difficulty of escaping an all-frozen condition. A number of unanswered questions remain, including whether Earth was a full snowball or a "slushball" with a thin equatorial band of open water. The snowball-Earth episodes are proposed to have occurred before the sudden radiation of multicellular bioforms known as the Cambrian explosion. The most recent snowball episode may have triggered the evolution of multicellularity.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carbon cycle</span> Natural processes of carbon exchange

The carbon cycle is the biogeochemical cycle by which carbon is exchanged among the biosphere, pedosphere, geosphere, hydrosphere, and atmosphere of the Earth. Carbon is the main component of biological compounds as well as a major component of many minerals such as limestone. Along with the nitrogen cycle and the water cycle, the carbon cycle comprises a sequence of events that are key to make Earth capable of sustaining life. It describes the movement of carbon as it is recycled and reused throughout the biosphere, as well as long-term processes of carbon sequestration to and release from carbon sinks. Carbon sinks in the land and the ocean each currently take up about one-quarter of anthropogenic carbon emissions each year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Climate variability and change</span> Change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns for an extended period

Climate variability includes all the variations in the climate that last longer than individual weather events, whereas the term climate change only refers to those variations that persist for a longer period of time, typically decades or more. Climate change may refer to any time in Earth's history, but the term is now commonly used to describe contemporary climate change. Since the Industrial Revolution, the climate has increasingly been affected by human activities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum</span> Global warming about 55 million years ago

The Paleocene–Eocene thermal maximum (PETM), alternatively "Eocene thermal maximum 1" (ETM1), and formerly known as the "Initial Eocene" or "Late Paleocene thermal maximum", was a time period with a more than 5–8 °C global average temperature rise across the event. This climate event occurred at the time boundary of the Paleocene and Eocene geological epochs. The exact age and duration of the event is uncertain but it is estimated to have occurred around 55.5 million years ago.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dansgaard–Oeschger event</span> Rapid climate fluctuation in the last glacial period.

Dansgaard–Oeschger events, named after palaeoclimatologists Willi Dansgaard and Hans Oeschger, are rapid climate fluctuations that occurred 25 times during the last glacial period. Some scientists say that the events occur quasi-periodically with a recurrence time being a multiple of 1,470 years, but this is debated. The comparable climate cyclicity during the Holocene is referred to as Bond events.

The geologic temperature record are changes in Earth's environment as determined from geologic evidence on multi-million to billion (109) year time scales. The study of past temperatures provides an important paleoenvironmental insight because it is a component of the climate and oceanography of the time.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Abrupt climate change</span>

An abrupt climate change occurs when the climate system is forced to transition at a rate that is determined by the climate system energy-balance, and which is more rapid than the rate of change of the external forcing, though it may include sudden forcing events such as meteorite impacts. Abrupt climate change therefore is a variation beyond the variability of a climate. Past events include the end of the Carboniferous Rainforest Collapse, Younger Dryas, Dansgaard-Oeschger events, Heinrich events and possibly also the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. The term is also used within the context of climate change to describe sudden climate change that is detectable over the time-scale of a human lifetime, possibly as the result of feedback loops within the climate system or tipping points.

Paleoceanography is the study of the history of the oceans in the geologic past with regard to circulation, chemistry, biology, geology and patterns of sedimentation and biological productivity. Paleoceanographic studies using environment models and different proxies enable the scientific community to assess the role of the oceanic processes in the global climate by the re-construction of past climate at various intervals. Paleoceanographic research is also intimately tied to paleoclimatology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clathrate gun hypothesis</span>

The clathrate gun hypothesis is a proposed explanation for the periods of rapid warming during the Quaternary. The idea is that changes in fluxes in upper intermediate waters in the ocean caused temperature fluctuations that alternately accumulated and occasionally released methane clathrate on upper continental slopes. This would have had an immediate impact on the global temperature, as methane is a much more powerful greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide. Despite its atmospheric lifetime of around 12 years, methane's global warming potential is 72 times greater than that of carbon dioxide over 20 years, and 25 times over 100 years .These warming events would have caused the Bond Cycles and individual interstadial events, such as the Dansgaard–Oeschger interstadials.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Atlantic meridional overturning circulation</span> System of currents in the Atlantic Ocean

The Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) is part of a global thermohaline circulation in the oceans and is the zonally integrated component of surface and deep currents in the Atlantic Ocean. It is characterized by a northward flow of warm, salty water in the upper layers of the Atlantic, and a southward flow of colder, deep waters. These "limbs" are linked by regions of overturning in the Nordic and Labrador Seas and the Southern Ocean, although the extent of overturning in the Labrador Sea is disputed. The AMOC is an important component of the Earth's climate system, and is a result of both atmospheric and thermohaline drivers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ocean heat content</span> Thermal energy stored in ocean water

In oceanography and climatology, ocean heat content (OHC) is a term for the energy absorbed by the ocean, where it is stored for indefinite time periods as internal energy or enthalpy. The rise in OHC accounts for over 90% of Earth’s excess thermal energy from global heating between 1971 and 2018. It is extremely likely that anthropogenic forcing via rising greenhouse gas emissions was the main driver of this OHC increase. About one third of the added energy has propagated to depths below 700 meters as of 2020. As the vast majority (>90%) of the extra heat from increasing greenhouse gases is absorbed by the oceans, “global warming” is, in fact, mostly “ocean warming,” which makes ocean heat content and sea level rise the most vital indicators of climate change.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Polar amplification</span>

Polar amplification is the phenomenon that any change in the net radiation balance tends to produce a larger change in temperature near the poles than in the planetary average. This is commonly referred to as the ratio of polar warming to tropical warming. On a planet with an atmosphere that can restrict emission of longwave radiation to space, surface temperatures will be warmer than a simple planetary equilibrium temperature calculation would predict. Where the atmosphere or an extensive ocean is able to transport heat polewards, the poles will be warmer and equatorial regions cooler than their local net radiation balances would predict. The poles will experience the most cooling when the global-mean temperature is lower relative to a reference climate; alternatively, the poles will experience the greatest warming when the global-mean temperature is higher.

Deglaciation is the transition from full glacial conditions during ice ages, to warm interglacials, characterized by global warming and sea level rise due to change in continental ice volume. Thus, it refers to the retreat of a glacier, an ice sheet or frozen surface layer, and the resulting exposure of the Earth's surface. The decline of the cryosphere due to ablation can occur on any scale from global to localized to a particular glacier. After the Last Glacial Maximum, the last deglaciation begun, which lasted until the early Holocene. Around much of Earth, deglaciation during the last 100 years has been accelerating as a result of climate change, partly brought on by anthropogenic changes to greenhouse gases.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Oceanic carbon cycle</span> Ocean/atmosphere carbon exchange process

The oceanic carbon cycle is composed of processes that exchange carbon between various pools within the ocean as well as between the atmosphere, Earth interior, and the seafloor. The carbon cycle is a result of many interacting forces across multiple time and space scales that circulates carbon around the planet, ensuring that carbon is available globally. The Oceanic carbon cycle is a central process to the global carbon cycle and contains both inorganic carbon and organic carbon. Part of the marine carbon cycle transforms carbon between non-living and living matter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Axel Timmermann</span> German climate physicist and oceanographer

Axel Timmermann is a German climate physicist and oceanographer with an interest in climate dynamics, human migration, dynamical systems' analysis, ice-sheet modeling and sea level. He served a co-author of the IPCC Third Assessment Report and a lead author of IPCC Fifth Assessment Report. His research has been cited over 18,000 times and has an h-index of 70 and i10-index of 161. In 2017, he became a Distinguished Professor at Pusan National University and the founding Director of the Institute for Basic Science Center for Climate Physics. In December 2018, the Center began to utilize a 1.43-petaflop Cray XC50 supercomputer, named Aleph, for climate physics research.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joellen Louise Russell</span> American oceanographer and climate scientist

Joellen Louise Russell is an American oceanographer and climate scientist.

Bette Otto-Bliesner is an earth scientist known for her modeling of Earth's past climate and its changes over different geological eras.

Jean Lynch-Stieglitz is a paleoceanographer known for her research on reconstructing changes in ocean circulation over the last 100,000 years.

Delia Wanda Oppo is an American scientist who works on paleoceanography where she focuses on past variations in water circulation and the subsequent impact on Earth's climate system. She was elected a fellow of the American Geophysical Union in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southern Ocean overturning circulation</span> Ocean circulation

The Southern Ocean overturning circulation is a two-cell system in the Southern Ocean that connects different water basins within the global circulation. It is driven by upwelling and downwelling, which are a result of the physical ocean processes that are influenced by freshwater fluxes and wind stress. The global ocean circulation is an essential mechanism in our global climate system due to its influence on the global heat, fresh water and carbon budgets. The upwelling in the upper cell is associated with mid-deep water that is brought to the surface, whereas the upwelling in the lower cell is linked to the fresh and abyssal waters around Antarctica. Around 27 ± 7 Sverdrup (Sv) of deep water wells up to the surface in the Southern Ocean. This upwelled water is partly transformed to lighter water and denser water, respectively 22 ± 4 Sv and 5 ± 5 Sv. The densities of these waters change due to heat and buoyancy fluxes which result in upwelling in the upper cell and downwelling in the lower cell.

References

  1. "Member #7264 | PAGES". pastglobalchanges.org. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  2. "Laurie Menviel". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  3. "International Pacific Research Center | People | Laurie Menviel". iprc.soest.hawaii.edu. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  4. McLeod, Elizabeth; Moffitt, Russell; Timmermann, Axel; Salm, Rodney; Menviel, Laurie; Palmer, Michael J.; Selig, Elizabeth R.; Casey, Kenneth S.; Bruno, John F. (15 September 2010). "Warming Seas in the Coral Triangle: Coral Reef Vulnerability and Management Implications". Coastal Management. 38 (5): 518–539. doi:10.1080/08920753.2010.509466. ISSN   0892-0753. S2CID   154825282.
  5. Menviel, Laurie; Timmermann, Axel; Mouchet, A; Timm, Oliver (1 December 2008). "Climate and marine carbon cycle response to changes in the strength of the Southern Hemispheric Westerlies". Paleoceanography. 23 (4). Bibcode:2008PalOc..23.4201M. doi:10.1029/2008PA001604.
  6. "2019 awardees | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  7. "Laurie Menviel". STEM Women. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  8. "Dr Laurie Menviel". Research Data Australia. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  9. Yu, J.; Menviel, L.; Jin, Z. D.; Anderson, R. F.; Jian, Z.; Piotrowski, A. M.; Ma, X.; Rohling, E. J.; Zhang, F.; Marino, G.; McManus, J. F. (2020). "Last glacial atmospheric CO2 decline due to widespread Pacific deep-water expansion". Nature Geoscience. 13 (9): 628–633. Bibcode:2020NatGe..13..628Y. doi:10.1038/s41561-020-0610-5. ISSN   1752-0908. S2CID   220656993.
  10. Menviel, Laurie C.; Skinner, Luke C.; Tarasov, Lev; Tzedakis, Polychronis C. (2020). "An ice–climate oscillatory framework for Dansgaard–Oeschger cycles". Nature Reviews Earth & Environment. 1 (12): 677–693. Bibcode:2020NRvEE...1..677M. doi:10.1038/s43017-020-00106-y. ISSN   2662-138X. S2CID   226231686.
  11. Yu, J.; Menviel, L.; Jin, Z. D.; Thornalley, D. J. R.; Foster, G. L.; Rohling, E. J.; McCave, I. N.; McManus, J. F.; Dai, Y.; Ren, H.; He, F. (15 May 2019). "More efficient North Atlantic carbon pump during the Last Glacial Maximum". Nature Communications. 10 (1): 2170. Bibcode:2019NatCo..10.2170Y. doi:10.1038/s41467-019-10028-z. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   6520411 . PMID   31092826.
  12. Menviel, Laurie (8 March 2019). "The southern amplifier". Science. 363 (6431): 1040–1041. Bibcode:2019Sci...363.1040M. doi:10.1126/science.aaw7196. ISSN   0036-8075. PMID   30846585. S2CID   72336087.
  13. Menviel, L.; Spence, P.; Yu, J.; Chamberlain, M. A.; Matear, R. J.; Meissner, K. J.; England, M. H. (27 June 2018). "Southern Hemisphere westerlies as a driver of the early deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise". Nature Communications. 9 (1): 2503. Bibcode:2018NatCo...9.2503M. doi:10.1038/s41467-018-04876-4. ISSN   2041-1723. PMC   6021399 . PMID   29950652.
  14. Wales, University of New South. "Stronger west winds blow ill wind for climate change". phys.org. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  15. "Laurie Menviel". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  16. Menviel, Laurie; Sherwood, Steven. "What is 'carbon pollution' and why are we trying to stop it?". The Conversation. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  17. Wales, University of New South. "Stronger west winds blow ill wind for climate change". phys.org. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  18. "2019 awardees | Australian Academy of Science". www.science.org.au. Retrieved 3 June 2022.
  19. "Appointment, achievements" . Retrieved 3 June 2022.