Miss Sophie Alexander

Professional biography

My PhD project is researching the initiation of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) using fish tooth neodynium analysis to reconstruct ocean circulation patterns. Within my work I also use isotope analysis of foraminifera to make inferences about the climate. I am also interested in the effects of changing circulation on ocean productivity, with potential wider impact on the earth system as a whole. I study productivity using a combination of fish tooth and foraminifera accumulation rates, XRF scanning and trace element analysis.

Fish teeth from an early-middle Eocene sample

My wider research interests include climatic transitions relating to tectonic and circulation changes; the stability of ice sheets and stability of climate under changing CO₂ concentrations. I currently work within the early-middle Eocene (~52-46 Ma), but have previously done work on the Oligocene period (~34-23 Ma).