View from McMurdo Ice Shelf and Minna Bluff to the Royal Society Range, Antarctica. Photo: Andrew Gorman
Our staff and postgraduate students carry out cutting-edge research into Earth's past climate and how it has changed through time. Our proximity to the Southern Ocean and Antarctica gives us front-row advantage in understanding how planetary climate has varied over timescales that range from decades to millions of years. Antarctica plays an important role in regulating Earth's climate – ice sheets interact with the ocean and are the powerhouse for global deep circulation which controls our weather and how heat is distributed around the world. Our research includes expeditions on research ships around New Zealand and the Pacific Ocean and to remote field areas in Antarctica.
Sediment cores allow us to evaluate past changes in Southern Hemisphere climate, carbon cycling, and marine biogeochemical cycling. We use the geologic record to identify how large-scale coupled climate models and key components of the global climate system have changed in the past and how the variability and magnitude of past change compares to modern observations. Our research uses paleomagnetism, stable isotope geochemistry, diatom micropaleontology and geophysical characterisations in lake and marine sediments to examine the evolution of Earth's climate.
Major research facilities
- Otago Paleomagnetic Research Facility
- Otago Repository for Core Analysis
- Centre for Trace Element Analysis
- Carbon sequestration in New Zealand's southern fiords
- Ocean-going vessels and equipment in association with the Department of Marine Science
- Otago large lake and fjord coring system
Climate research opportunities
More information
For more information about the climate change research we undertake, see the webpages of our staff.