Department
Eastern Geology Paleoclimate Science Center
Organization
U.S. Geological Survey
Email
lgemery@usgs.gov

Location

Reston , Virginia 20191
United States

Interests

Sea Ice

Science Specialties

The USGS Arctic paleoceanography project uses evidence from marine sediments to reconstruct past environmental conditions in the Arctic Ocean and adjacent seas. We utilize biological and geochemical proxy records in sediment cores to reconstruct Arctic sea ice, ocean circulation and climate variability during the Quaternary. For example, faunal changes of ostracode and foraminifera assemblages from dated, downcore sediment cores can be compared to modern ostracode distribution data contained in a 1340 surface sample database (Gemery et al., 2015) to infer benthic habitat changes caused by any number of changes in oceanography.

Current Research

Current project:
To reconstruct late Quaternary (last 70ky) Eurasian Basin paleoceanography from meiofauna assemblages from several mid-depth cores on the Lomonosov Ridge obtained on the SWERUS-L2 and AOS94 expeditions. Our methods include physical stratigraphy (magnetic susceptibility, bulk density/sediment compaction and p-wave velocity) ostracode and foraminifera paleoecology and AMS 14C geochronology.