My research focuses on investigating short-term and long-term (decadal-to-centennial) climate variability and ocean-atmosphere interactions in the Common Era through the reconstruction of paleoenvironmental records using geochemical techniques, such as stable isotope and trace metal analysis of carbonates and water.

My work involves utilizing the geochemistry of slow growing brain corals from the Tropical North Atlantic to understand how changes in environmental parameters such as sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS) interact with climate teleconnections such as the North Atlantic Oscillation and the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation in the Common Era. I am currently working on the calibration and reconstruction of SST derived from a new coral species collected from Trinidad and Tobago. My goal is to better understand the natural variability of the climate and ocean systems and how they have changed in the past, to give a better insight in predicting future climate change.

• Full CV

Publications

The CoralHydro2K Database: a global, actively curated compilation of coral δ18O and Sr/Ca proxy records of tropical ocean hydrology and temperature for the Common Era

Walter, R. M., Sayani, H. R., Felis, T., Cobb, K. M., Abram, N. J., Arzey, A. K., Atwood, A., Brenner, L. D., Dassié, E. P., DeLong, K. L., Ellis, B., Emile-Geay, J., Fischer, M. J., Goodkin, N. F., Hargreaves, J. A., Kilbourne, K. H., Krawcyzk, H. A., McKay, N. P., Moore, A. L., Murty, S. A., Ong, M. R., Ramos, R. D., Reed, E. V., Samanta, D., Sanchez, S. C., Zinke, J., and the PAGES CoralHydro2K Project Members (2023). The CoralHydro2K Database: a global, actively curated compilation of coral δ18O and Sr/Ca proxy records of tropical ocean hydrology and temperature for the Common Era. Earth System Science Data, 15(5), 2081-2116.

Colpophyllia natans from Tobago, a novel paleoclimate archive for reconstructing sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic

Ong, M. R., Goodkin, N. F., Guppy, R., Hughen, K. A. (2022). Colpophyllia natans from Tobago, a novel paleoclimate archive for reconstructing sea surface temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 37(12), e2022PA004483.

Environmental Calibration of Coral Luminescence as a Proxy for Terrigenous Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentration in Tropical Coastal Oceans

Kaushal, N., Tanzil, J. T. I., Zhou, Y., Ong, M. R., Goodkin, N. F., Martin, P. (2022). Environmental Calibration of Coral Luminescence as a Proxy for Terrigenous Dissolved Organic Carbon Concentration in Tropical Coastal Oceans. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 23(10), e2022GC010529.

Natural and Anthropogenic Forcing of Multi-decadal to Centennial Scale Variability of Sea Surface Temperature in the South China Sea

Goodkin, N. F., Samanta, D., Bolton, A., Ong, M. R., Phan, K. H., Vo, S. T., Karnauskas, K. B., Hughen, K. A., (2021). Natural and Anthropogenic Forcing of Multi-decadal to Centennial Scale Variability of Sea Surface Temperature in the South China Sea. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 36(10), e2021PA004233.

East Asian Monsoon variability since the sixteenth century

Goodkin, N. F., Bolton, A., Hughen, K. A., Karnauskas, K. B., Griffin, S., Phan, K. H., Vo, S. T., Ong, M. R., Druffel, E. R. M. (2019). East Asian Monsoon variability since the sixteenth century. Geophysical Research Letters, 46 (9), 4790-4798.

Continuous real-time analysis of the isotopic composition of precipitation during tropical rain events: Insights into tropical convection

He, S., Goodkin, N. F., Jackisch, D., Ong, M. R., Samanta, D. (2018). Continuous real‐time analysis of the isotopic composition of precipitation during tropical rain events: Insights into tropical convection. Hydrological Processes. 32(11), 1531-1545.

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