Transfer-function approach to temperature and salinity reconstructions in the Red Sea: Constraining sea-level estimates and monitoring ITCZ variability during the last four glacial cycles

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It seems beyond doubt that the surface of our planet is rapidly heating up. Policy-makers need to know how will climate systems and global sea level react to this global warming. In this project, we will study sediment cores from the Red Sea to investigate the oceanographic history of the region during the last four glacial cycles including past warm intervals that may represent natural analogs to future climate. We will develop new methods for reconstructing temperature and salinity from abundances of species of planktonic foraminifera, their shell size and ultrastructure and produce the first long record of temperature history of the Red Sea. Such record is essential for improving the accuracy of global sea-level reconstructions developed in collaboration by our colleagues in Southampton. We will then determine past salinity and temperature gradients in the region and monitor their dynamics at high resolution across past warm intervals. Such gradients reflect the interplay between the Indian and African Monsoon systems, and our results will allow us to determine how the Monsoon system and the position of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) varied during warm climates in the past. Our research will thus contribute to the understanding of climate dynamics and stability of continental ice sheets during warm intervals and to the evaluation of potential response of ITZC and Monsoonal systems to global warming.