Welcome to the Biogeosciences and Climate Change Group
The PASSAGE Team is part of the Biogeosciences and Climate Change Group of IRNASA-CSIC.
Our research is interdisciplinary and pursues two main objectives: studying the carbon cycle in modern environments and reconstructing our planet’s past climate.
The global carbon cycle has undergone drastic changes since the Industrial Revolution, with variations in the size of carbon reservoirs and the fluxes between them. In this field, our group aims to:
- Investigate the dynamics of organic matter using a source-to-sink approach to determine the processes controlling organic carbon fluxes between reservoirs and the burial of organic carbon.
- Generate novel insights into the synthesis, transport, and burial of lipid biomarkers in different ecosystems.
- Assess the ecological preferences of phytoplankton groups with the potential to capture carbon and sequester it in sediments.
Anthropogenic climate change is a growing societal concern due to its potential unforeseen impacts on societies and ecosystems. Paleoclimate records extend instrumental observations of climate variables back in time and provide an informative context for climate models. These reconstructions offer the long-term perspective needed to assess how unusual recent and potential future changes may be. In this context, our research aims to:
- Quantify the impact of hydrodynamic transport on particles that encapsulate climatic information, as well as on the climate signals derived from them, to identify and explain potential spatiotemporal biases in paleoclimate reconstructions.
- Provide effective analogues for the future using multiproxy approaches from different climate archives.
Blanca Ausín
Principal Investigator
I have a dual background in Oceanography and Paleoclimatology with an interest in addressing multidisciplinary research questions at different time scales merging observational, analytical, and modeling approaches and different aspects of the carbon cycle. I am a Distinguished Researcher at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) and the Head of the Biogeoscience Lab. Formerly, I was a permanent Full Professor at USAL (Spain), and a postdoctoral researcher at ETH Zurich (Switzerland), where I trained to become an organic geochemist. During my research, I revealed that hydrodynamic particle sorting processes exert a ubiquitous influence on the radiocarbon age of sedimentary organic carbon in the world’s oceans. My work has provided a generic framework that may guide the assessment of organic carbon burial and constrain the extent to which down-core variations in sedimentary records reflect hydrodynamic changes versus derived proxy signals.
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Prabodha Hewage
PhD Researcher
I am an oceanographer and a geology enthusiast. My interests lie in deploying a multi-disciplinary approach to understanding the past, present, and future of our oceans and climate. The oceans and changing climate are fascinating research avenues that fuel my passion. I graduated with a BSc. Fisheries and Marine Sciences (Spl. Oceanography and Marine Geology) from the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka. My Msc. Marine Environment and Resources (MER+) was jointly offered by the University of Bordeaux (France), the University of Basque Country (Spain), and the University of Southampton (UK). The paleo-proxies are the backbone of paleo-climatic constructions, the way finders for possible future projections. I focus my research line on radiogenic isotopes (Pb, Sr, and Nd) and coccoliths (phytoplankton and major carbonate contributors) to decipher their source-to-sink relationships. My line of work is aimed at improving the robustness of deciphering a climatic signal encrypted by proxies.
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Nadee Nanayakkara
PhD Researcher
My research interest lies in paleoclimatology, with a focus on understanding the complex interactions between Earth’s oceans, climate systems, and geological processes. I explore how past climatic conditions shaped both marine and terrestrial environments, offering valuable insights into long-term environmental shifts. I hold a BSc in Fisheries and Marine Sciences from the University of Ruhuna, Sri Lanka, where I specialized in Oceanography and Marine Geology. For my undergraduate thesis, I reconstructed paleo-environmental changes in Choctawhatchee Bay, Florida. I then completed my M.Phil. in Earth Sciences at the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, where my research focused on reconstructing Quaternary climate variability using both marine and terrestrial cores. My research focuses on quantifying and understanding spatiotemporal biases in paleoclimate reconstructions, with an emphasis on radiocarbon dating and extracting organic biomarkers from marine sediments. This work is essential for improving the accuracy of climate reconstructions and advancing our understanding of past oceanic and atmospheric changes.
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Celia Merchán Gómez
Lab Technician
I am a lab technician and a chemistry enthusiast. My work focuses on developing or fine-tuning existing methodologies using gas chromatography to extract and purify different organic compounds (alkenones, alkanes, F.A.M.E.) from complex marine sediments and other matrices. My tasks also include the proper maintenance of our Biogeochemistry laboratory and its instruments.
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TBD
Postdoctoral Researcher
A Postdoctoral researcher will be recruited at the end of 2025 to join the last two years of PASSAGE
TBD
Master Student
Do you want to carry out your Master Thesis (TFM) within the context of PASSAGE? Master Students are welcome anytime!