Data-driven solution of the carbon emission conundrum over the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) event

Abstract

Current estimates concerning the amount of carbon emission over the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) event remain elusive, ranging from ~4,500 to ~13,000 Gt. Associated with such a large uncertainty is the incapacity of using a carbon cycle model to reconcile multiproxy records in the carbonate system (e.g., pH and calcite compensation depth). We hypothesize that this incapacity might be due to simplified formulation of silicate weathering in the current carbon model framework, which only incorporates the Ca-silicate weathering on land and neglects the reverse weathering in the ocean. To address this issue, we propose collecting mineralogical and elemental data from IODP sediment cores to quantify the evolution of reverse weathering flux and develop a fully coupled C-Si cycle model. Our goal is to narrow our knowledge gap in the carbon emission trajectory across the PETM.

Biography

Since childhood, I have been fascinated by math and history: math is so elegant, and history is like a puzzle game where people can reconstruct a story using pieces of information.  Pursuing geoscience, I earned my bachelor’s degree from Tongji University in China and my master’s degree from the University of Bremen in Germany, where I first discovered the field of paleoclimate research. There, I employed oxygen and carbon isotope data from sedimentary foraminiferal tests to explore Earth’s climate since the Last Glacial Maximum. Currently, as a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University working with Dr. Shuang Zhuang, I use both data-driven and model-driven approaches to investigate the link between the climate evolution and the global carbon cycle. The ultimate objective of my research is to generate trustworthy implications for past and future climate change caused by large carbon emissions. With the Schlanger Fellowship, I will assimilate mineralogical and elemental data from IODP sediment cores to help quantify the carbon emission scenario during the PETM event. To serve the global research community, the code developed in the project will be published on GitHub as open-source resources. In addition, with the vision of introducing more mathematical and modeling techniques to the geoscience community, I intend to host workshops and share the modeling deliverables from this project with other students.