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Paleoclimatology, Paleoceanography, Geochemistry E-mail: rosentha@marine.rutgers.edu
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Overview
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The overarching motivation for my research is to understand mechanisms of climate change. As the ocean plays a key
role in climate dynamics, a full understanding of the complexity of climate change requires thorough knowledge of
variations in ocean hydrography (e.g., seawater temperature and salinity) and circulation in the past.
Throughout my career, I have endeavored to develop new geochemical proxies that offer quantitative information
of past ocean properties, which will allow for rigorous paleoceanographic reconstructions in a similar manner
to that conducted with modern data. I have been a leader in the development of Mg/Ca proxies for reconstructing
seawater temperature. The main advantage of this proxy is that paired δ18O and Mg/Ca measurements on the same
foraminiferal shells offer new prospects for reconstructing seawater temperature and δ18O composition and, given
certain assumptions, changes in sea level and/or salinity.
My research in the past few years increasingly has been concerned with several topics: In pursuit of these interests, my group has carried out several field programs comprised of six long coring cruises (Hawaii, 1998; Indonesia, 2003; Norwegian Sea, 2004; Cape Hatteras, 2004; New Zealand, 2005; Timor Sea 2006) that collected surface sediments and high-sedimentation rate cores from key ocean locations.
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