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van Hengstum, Peter Associate Professor

Positions

Our team diagnoses how global coastal systems responded to previous climate, sea-level and anthropogenic changes with the goal of predicting how these systems will respond to future changes in these forcings. This is typically achieved through a combined field (piston coring, vibracoring, advanced technical SCUBA diving, geophysical surveying) and laboratory approach (sedimentology, micropaleontology, and isotopic geochemistry). Of particular interest are climate-coastal dynamics on tropical and subtropical carbonate landscapes, where sinkholes, blueholes, and underwater caves provide a vast untapped library of paleoenvironmental information archived in their sediments. Some of the projects our team are currently investigating include: tropical precipitation and vegetation variability, cave and sinkhole sedimentology, biogeochemical cycling in the coastal carbonate zone, how aquifers in carbonate platforms respond to climate forcing, the landscape usage (e.g., groundwater, agriculture) of prehistoric populations (Mayans, Lucayans), coastal sea surface temperature variability, coastal cave ecosystem dynamics, and hurricane variability and coastal flooding.

HR job title

  • Associate Professor