Alice Paine

My main interests are explosive volcanism, climate and environmental change during the Quaternary.  I am particularly interested in the largest (> magnitude 7) explosive eruptions known to science: how they work, where they are found, and the spatiotemporal scale of their impact on the Earth system.

My ongoing research projects include:

• Exploring the Quaternary mercury cycle
  Mercury (Hg) is a highly mobile and toxic element, so quantifying the timescales upon which it is cycled through the environment is therefore essential to constrain the rate, magnitude, and impact of amplified Hg emissions, and better understand the processes that could accelerate the bioaccumulation of this substance in terrestrial ecosystems and reservoirs. Changes in the global Hg cycle may be triggered by either: (1) a net increase in mobilization and subsequent emission of Hg from deep Earth reservoirs to the surface; and/or (2) changes in the rate of Hg exchange between reservoirs by external factors (e.g., climate). However, the timescales upon which these mechanisms operate, and the effect they have on Hg deposited into the biosphere are not well understood on pre-Holocene timescales.  This project will seek to better understand processes affecting the deposition and preservation of sedimentary Hg over multiple millennia on local, regional, and global scales, and in turn assess whether transient, short-lived events (e.g., volcanic eruptions) have the capacity to produce measurable sedimentary Hg signals.
  (DPhil project under the supervision of Tamsin Mather, David Pyle, and Stuart Robinson, and funded by the European Research Council (ERC))
• Volcanic eruptions and Dansgaard-Oeschger events – a causal link?
  Understanding the causes of abrupt climate change is crucially important for quantifying present and future climate stability. Between 11 and 120,000 years ago Earth’s climate was punctuated by rapid and aperiodic shifts between relatively warm (interstadial) and relatively cold (stadial) conditions referred to as Dansgaard-Oeschger events . However, the trigger for these rapid shifts remains unknown and is therefore a key unresolved question in paleoclimate science. This project will explore the extent to which volcanic eruptions could represent a potential trigger mechanism.
• Climate change in the Eastern Mediterranean during the Last Glacial Period – evidence from speleothem trace elements
  Speleothems can be used to track external changes in hydroclimate, moisture balance, and temperature on on multi-millennial timescales, and hence are particularly important for climatologically-sensitive regions such as the Eastern Mediterranean. However, the number of high-resolution, continuous paleoclimate archives from this region are relatively few in number. This project will analyse and develop a new, high-resolution geochemical record from a stalagmite grown in Dim Cave (Southern Turkey) between 90 – 70 ka – with the aim of characterizing the onset and expression of Greenland Stadial-20 in the Eastern Mediterranean, and subsequently integrating the last glacial climate of Turkey into a wider regional and hemispheric context.