Catherine Davis

Area(s) of Expertise

I am interested in connecting ongoing global change with past records of the marine environment. The interrelated issues of ocean acidification and deoxygenation are of particular interest to me. In linking the past to the present, I focus on processes and materials that are common to both modern and fossil records, such as how marine chemistry and the pelagic environment are reflected in sediment flux and the marine microfossil record. As a result, my research uses a combination of 1) modern observations of ocean chemistry, flux, and fossilizing fauna, 2) laboratory culture of fossilizing organisms for proxy development, and 3) analyses of sedimentary and microfossil records. It is my goal to contextualize current global change by connecting observational to proxy time series, and the study of oceanographic change during periods of past warmth or rapid change.