Elisabeth Sikes
Faculty
Chemical, Geological
Distinguished Professor
DMCS
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Full CV

Research Interests

The unifying theme in my work is carbon cycling. As a paleoceanographer, I am investigating circulation in the Southern Ocean to determine how this traps and releases CO2 from the deep ocean on glacial time scales. I also investigate past sea surface temperature changes in the oceans around New Zealand and Australia. On shorter timescales, I am investigating sources, pathways, and sinks of both terrestrial and marine carbon in modern environments with an eye to their interaction with coastal ocean acidification. To do this, I employ isotopic (δ13C, δ18O, and 14C) and organic (biomarker, Uk37) geochemical techniques to answer these questions of sea surface temperature and global circulation change.

Teaching Efforts

Chemical Oceanography
Dynamics of Marine Ecosystems
Oceanography seminar
Earth System Science Coloquium: Global Warming course # 11:015:401:01