Finding your flow: using sedimentology, geochemistry and micropalaeontology to understand South Atlantic Ocean circulation

海洋环流对全球气候、海洋生态系统中营养物质的利用以及水和热量在地球上的传输方式起着重要的控制作用，也是地球运行的基本组成部分。开发工具来观察海洋环流的地质历史是国际科学的一个关键挑战，使用这些工具来创建海洋环流变化的记录是绘制过去全球变化地图的一个重要部分。世界上研究最深入的海洋盆地是北大西洋，这个地区被认为是全球海洋环流变化最重要的驱动力，这也许不是巧合。该项目将使用从乌拉圭边缘回收的独特岩心材料，开发新的工具和方法来了解南大西洋的海洋环流。岩心来自于一个大的沉积物漂移，该漂移被北大西洋向南流动的水和南大洋向北流动的水所占据。该学生将利用这个优秀的自然实验室开发基于钕同位素的新工具，以及使用经典古海洋学方法（有孔虫微量元素和同位素）的新方法。然后，这些新工具将用于加强我们对南大西洋环流的了解，为将其提高到北大西洋所达到的水平作出重大贡献。

Ocean circulation is a major control on global climate, the use of nutrients in ocean ecosystems and the way water and heat are transported around the Earth and a fundamental part of how our planet works. Developing the tools to look at ocean circulation into the geological past is a key challenge for international science, and using these tools to create records of change in ocean circulation is an important part of mapping past global change. The most intensively studied ocean basin in the world is the North Atlantic, and perhaps it is not a coincidence that this region is considered the most important driver of changes in ocean circulation worldwide. This project will use unique core material recovered from the Uruguay margin to develop new tools and approaches to understanding ocean circulation in the South Atlantic. The cores are from a large sediment drift, which is occupied by southward flowing water from the North Atlantic and northward flowing water from the Southern Ocean. This student will exploit this outstanding natural laboratory to develop new tools based on neodymium isotopes and also new ways is using classic palaeoceanographic approaches (foraminifera trace elements and isotopes). These new tools will then be used to enhance our understanding of the South Atlantic circulation, making a major contribution to bringing it up to the level achieved for the North Atlantic.