CCU-Paleoenvironment Lab

Welcome to the CCU Paleoenvironment Lab

We reconstruct past environmental and climate changes using sedimentary archives from lakes, wetlands, and marine systems. Our research integrates palynology, stable isotopes, sediment geochemistry, microfossil analysis, and pyrogenic organic matter approaches — including black carbon (BC) analysis — to understand long-term environmental dynamics across East Asia. In lake and marine sediments, we apply BC analysis to trace the history of biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion, reconstructing fire regimes and human impacts on regional landscapes over millennial timescales. By combining BC records with pollen, charcoal, and geochemical proxies, we disentangle the relative roles of climate variability, vegetation change, and anthropogenic disturbance in shaping past environments. Compound-specific isotope analysis and lipid biomarkers further allow us to reconstruct past hydrological conditions, organic matter sources, and ecosystem productivity preserved in lacustrine and marine archives. We also investigate the river–ocean continuum as a critical pathway linking terrestrial and marine carbon cycles. By tracking the composition, quantity, and isotopic signatures of BC and other organic matter fractions along river systems and into continental shelf sediments, we explore how changes in precipitation, land use, and vegetation cover influence the export and burial of carbon from land to sea. This integrated, multi-proxy framework enables us to place modern environmental changes in a long-term context and assess the sensitivity of East Asian ecosystems to both natural climate forcing and human activities.

Lab News

1. 📢 New Publication Alert! We are happy to share that our new paper has been accepted in Quaternary International! 🎉 Congratulations to all authors and collaborators. 👏🌍

2. We warmly welcome Dr. Deepak Kumar Rai, a paleoceanographer, to our lab! Excited for his contributions and collaborations. 🎉🔬

3. We welcome our new interns — Czarina Mei, Christine, and Eunice — and look forward to an exciting journey of research and collaboration together 🌱🌏