Dr Bridget Warren
Research Associate
School of Environment, Earth & Ecosystem Sciences
Biography
Professional biography
I’m an organic geochemist in the School of Environment, Earth and Ecosystem Sciences in the STEM faculty at the Open University. My research focusses on past climate and environmental reconstruction using geologic biomarkers to reconstruct both climate and environment. Particular interests include reconstructing past atmospheric CO2, and how CO2 interacts with both terrestrial and marine environments on different timescales.
I use hyphenated gas chromatographic systems (GC-FID, GC-MS, GC-C-IRMS) to look at the chemical and isotopic composition of lipids preserved in the geologic record to reconstruct temperature (alkenones and GDGTs), CO2 concentration (alkenones) and plant-environment response (n-alkyl lipids).
I’m interested in the interactions between organisms and the environment on evolutionary timescales: the messy and intricate ways with which biology responds to changes in climate, and what understanding those mechanisms can do for our understanding of past climate systems.
Projects
A biomarker-based reconstruction of the Greenland Ice Sheet’s history
This project examines the terrestrial, sea ice and freshwater-release history of the Greenland Ice Sheet (GIS) between 8 and 2.7 million years ago, using biomarkers (molecular fossils). By using plant biomarkers it will reconstruct terrestrial GIS history and provide precise timings of the presence of ice on land and its impacts on ancient ecosystems. By examining sea ice and freshwater release, it will characterise the GIS’s marine impact through time. These records will characterise aspects of the GIS’s behaviour that most influence global climate, allowing prediction of the consequences of GIS melt due to anthropogenic climate change.
