My master's research focuses on reconstructing the glacial history (timing and extent of glaciers) of Cerro Chirripó in Costa Rica. I aim to create a detailed glacial geomorphic map for Valle de las Morrenas and Valle Talari (two prominent valleys in Cerro Chirripó), employing 10Be dating to provide chronological data for interpreting regional glacial fluctuations. I will unravel the climatic forcing that supported the cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and subsequent warming (Termination I) in Costa Rica compared to other tropical sites and the global LGM record. My research is focused on understanding the role of the tropics in global climate change.
Measurements with modern instruments (the instrumental record) have been available only for roughly the past century. This is insufficient to describe the climate system's full natural variability, making attribution of observed changes difficult, particulary in the Niger Delta region. Here, we want to know if the changes observed in the recent past are unusual compared to pre-industrial climate variability.
During my culminating undergraduate project, I applied microfossils in paleoclimate reconstruction, where I used the ecology of foraminifera and nannofossils to determine past climate conditions within the Niger Delta region of southern Nigeria. To further develop this project, I integrated gamma ray and resistivity logs to describe the stratigraphy sequence of the Niger Delta basin. During this project, I determined the lithology, established the depositional environment, bioevents, and biozones of the study area, and dated rock samples using microfossils. All these analyses were performed using planktic and benthic foraminifera picked from the sediment samples. This gave me the foundation for applying geochemical analysis techniques in paleoclimate reconstruction.