Research Interests
Understanding how global warming will effect water availability is one of the crucial questions of our time.
My research is aimed at quantifying past changes in rainfall and evaporation in different places around the world (China, Mongolia, western US, Middle East) in order to understand the natural variability of rainfall and evaporation and the processes that govern this variability.
I combine geomorphology with isotope geochemistry (compound specific stable isotopes (dD, d13C), traditional stable isotopes (dD, 18O, d13C), clumped isotopes and U/Th dating) to investigate how the status of lakes has changed through time. I use hydrological models and outputs of climate models to quantify and evaluate the empirical data I collect.
I’m also interested in how human societies respond to climate change throughout history and in the present.
Ongoing projects:
- Quantifying the migration of the East Asian Monsoon during the Late Quaternary in China and Mongolia
- Reconstructing paleo-intensity of the Indian Monsoon using lake-area fluctuations from Lake Chenghai, Southern China
- Developing and applying compound specific stable isotope biogeochemistry to problems in terrestrial hydroclimate, East Asia, West Asia, Western USA
- Chemical and isotopic processes of shoreline tufa formation in Mono Lake, USA.