Profile

Dr James Rae
Reader

My research focuses on Earth's carbon cycle and climate. I am particularly interested in major environmental change in Earth's past, including rapid CO2 and climate change during the ice ages, the long-term chemical evolution of Earth's ocean and atmosphere, and the enivornmental perturbations that led to mass extinction.

To address these questions I use novel geochemical measurements on fossils, sediments, water, and ice, with a focus on the boron isotope proxy for pH and CO2. I am a PI of the St Andrews isotope Geochemistry labs (STAiG), a state-of-the-art clean room and mass spectrometry facility. I also use a variety of numerical tools to explore mechanisms of environmental change, including the cGENIE Earth System model.

I'm also fascinated by biomineralisation processes in corals and foraminifera, and the insights that geochemistry offers into calcification and ocean acidification.

I give regular public shows, lectures, and teacher development workshops on climate change. I am currently developing a series of teaching resources with Geobus and serve on the board of the Royal Meteorological Society's MetLink outreach programme.

You can follow me on Twitter @mudwaterclimate

For more information please see my website.

Open positions for postdoctoral fellows!

I am currently looking for postdoctoral fellows to join our group as part of my ERC project "100 Myr of ocean pH & atmospheric CO2". For more info and how to apply see the official advertisement. This first call closes 21 June 2019, but there will be other opportunties to join this team, so please get in touch if you're interested in CO2 reconstruction over the last 100 Million years.

Research Group

Postdocs

Dr William Gray

Dr Rosanna Greenop

Dr Rhian Rees-Own

PhD Students

Ben Taylor

Jess Crumpton-Banks

Eloise Littley

Research Overview:

My research focuses on reconstructing past climate change and its causes.  I'm particularly interested in the cause of recent glacial-interglacial cycles, and climate changes over the Cenozoic.  To study these questions I use geochemical measurements on fossils, sediments, water and ice, with a special focus on the boron isotope proxy for pH.  I interpret these data with the help of a variety of numerical models.  I'm also fascinated by biomineralisation processes in corals and foraminifera, and the insights that geochemistry offers into calcification and ocean acidification.