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Andy Mair

Andy Mair

  • Email: ee11a2mm@leeds.ac.uk
  • Thesis title: Palaeoclimate and biotic records from the Uruguayan Margin
  • Supervisor: Dr Tracy Aze, Dr Jason Harvey, Dr Ruza Ivanovic, and Dr Rob Newton

Profile

Masters in Applied and Petroleum Micropalaeontology, University of Birmingham, 2015-2016. Distinction.

- Dissertation Project area: Study of the ecological and evolutionary turnover across the Middle Eocene Climate Optimum of Southern Ocean planktic forams.

Masters of Geology & Bachelor of Sciences (MGEOL) (International), University of Leeds, 2011-2015. 2.1.

- Studied abroad at the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada.

Palaeoclimate and biotic records from the Uruguayan Margin

Dr Tracy Aze, Dr Jason Harvey, Dr Ruza Ivanovic, and Dr Rob Newton

Leeds York NERC Doctoral Training Partnership (DTP)

The study utilises a number of cores made available by the British Ocean Sediment Core Research Facility (BOSCORF) and aims to answer key questions split into three discrete work packages. The first package focuses on gravity core-top data, analysing modern day planktonic foraminiferal abundances and assemblages from the region. This package will set a benchmark for comparison of past communities and construct an ecological map for the region in the modern. The second stage will compare present-day samples with those extracted downcore to assess whether foraminiferal assemblage changes occur, the morphometric variability of species across the margin and through time, and whether observed changes are in line with climatic shifts. This package aims to assess the heterogeneity of morphology of key species both in the modern and tempoerally through time. The third package aims to explore how assemblages have been impacted by transport of planktonic foraminiferal tests from surface waters to the seafloor and their burial in the fossil record in a region under strong, shifting oceanic currents. This final part will seek to work with modellers to assess transport of tests and the potential blurring of a palaeoclimate signal due to the influence of strong, contouritic currents active within the region.

Research interests

Past Climate, Planktonic Foraminifera, Morphometrics, Geochemistry, Uruguayan Margin, Quaternary

Qualifications

  • Masters in Applied and Petroleum Micropalaeontology, University of Birmingham, 2015-2016. Distinc
  • Masters of Geology & Bachelor of Sciences (MGEOL) (International), University of Leeds, 2011-2015. 2

Research groups and institutes

  • Earth Surface Science Institute
  • Cohen Geochemistry
  • Palaeo@Leeds