Staff and Postgraduate Students
Dr Darren Grocke, BSc (Hons), DPhil (Oxon)
Contact (email at d.r.grocke@durham.ac.uk)
Biography
2006-Sept 2007 - Associate Professor, School of Geography & Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.
2003-2006 - Assistant Professor, School of Geography & Earth Sciences, McMaster University, Ontario, Canada.
200-2003 - Lecturer, Department of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London.
Career Research Highlights
Darren Grocke has diverse research interests ranging from palaeoceanography, palaeoclimatology to biogeochemistry. Darren was a pioneer in the development of carbon isotopes in fossil plants as a proxy for changes in the gobal carbon reservoir. This work has been influential in understanding the Cretaceous period and ocean-atmosphere interactions. His research is not only on palaeo-records, but recently has focused on modern environmental and ecological systems in order to better understand and refine our knowledge of ancient climates. He has edited two international journal issues on understanding ancient climates. Darren has been attracted to any biological material that can be analyzed for stable isotopes, which has included bivalves, kangaroos, sloth faeces, plant cellulose, mammoths, beetles, belemnites, plant leaves and megafauna.
Committee and Society Service
2007: GSA Committee on Research Grants
2007: European Geophysical Union, Secretary, Stratigraphy Subdivision
Conferences and workshops
Conference sessions convened and organised
2006: Session PP33C, "Greenhouse/Icehouse Climates: Organic Proxies and Mechanisms Leading to Organic-Rich Marine Sediments", AGU Fall Meeting.
2006:Special Session SS-22, "Reconstructing ancient climates,environmnets and biology using stable isotopes" GAC-MAC Annual Meeting.
2004: Topical Session T54, "The Evolution and Expansion of C4 Plants" GSA Annual Meeting.
2003: Topical Session T81, "Multi-Proxy Terrestrial Records and the Ocean-Climate System: Links and Perturbations in the Cretaceous", GSA Annual Meeting.
2001: Session PP31, "Transient Climates Events in the Geological Record", AGU Fall Meeting. American Geophysical Union
Editorial Roles
2007: Geological Journal (Editorial Board).
Invited Keynotes
April 2007: "Using terrestrial carbon-isotope startigraphy in understanding climates and environments" EGU Annual Meeting (SSP14/CL44), Vienna.
October 2006: "Using terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy in understanding climates and environments", GSA Annual Meeting (T27), Pennsylvania.
December 2004: "A Cenozoic terrestrial isotope record and the evolution of C4 photosynthesis", AGU Annual Meeting (PP53), San Francisco.
December 2003: "The global significance of a deep-sea isotopic event during the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event recorded in Japan", AGU Annual Meeting (PP41), San Francisco.
December 2002: "Terrestrial carbon-isotope stratigraphy of fossil plants as a correlation and environmental tool", BSRG, Norwich.
Prizes & Awards
2007: Early Research Award, Ontario Provincial Government.
2004: McMaster University VP Research Award.
2004: McMaster University VP Research Award.
Selected Publications
Edited works: contributions
- Gröcke, D.R. 2002. The carbon isotope composition of ancient CO2 based on higher plant organic matter. In Understanding climate change: proxies, chronology, and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Gröcke, D.R. & Kucera, M. London: Royal Society. 360: 633-658. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Edited works: journals
- Gröcke, D.R. & Gillikin, D.P. 2008. Advances in mollusc sclerochronology and sclerochemistry: tools for understanding climate and environment. Geo-Marine Letters, Springer. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Gröcke, D.R. & Wortmann, U. 2008. Investigating climates, environments and biology using stable isotopes. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Elsevier. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Gröcke, D.R. & Kucera, M. 2002. Understanding climate change: proxies, chronology and ocean-atmosphere interactions. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series, 360 Royal Society Publishing. (Additional information) (View publication online)
Journal papers: academic
- Kingston, A.W., Gröcke, D.R. & Burchell, M. 2008. A multiaxial growth analysis of stable isotopes in the modern shell of Saxidomus gigantea: Implications for sclerochronology studies. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 9: Q01007. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- van Hengstum, P. & Gröcke, D.R. 2008. Stable-isotope record of the Eifelian–Givetian boundary Kačák–otomari Event (Middle Devonian) from Hungry Hollow, Ontario, Canada. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences 45: 353-366. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- van Hengstum, P.J., Reinhardt, E.G., Medioli, F.S. & Gröcke, D.R. 2007. Exceptionally preserved Late Albian (Cretaceous) Arcellaceans (Thecamoebians) from the Dakota Formation near Lincoln, Nebraska, USA. Journal of Foraminiferal Research 37: 300-308. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Gröcke, D.R., Ludvigson, G.A., Witzke, B.L., Robinson, S.L., Joeckel, R.M., Ufnar, D.F. & Ravn, R.L. 2006. Recognizing the Albian-Cenomanian (OAE1d) sequence boundary using plant carbon isotopes: Dakota Formation, Western Interior Basin, USA. Geology 34(3): 193-196. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Gröcke, D.R., Schimmelmann, A., Elias, S. & Miller, R.F. 2006. Stable hydrogen-isotope ratios in beetle chitin: preliminary European data and re-interpretation of North American data. Quaternary Science Reviews 25(15-16): 1850-1864. (Additional information) (View publication online)
- Gröcke, D.R., Price, G.D., Robinson, S.A., Baraboshkin, E., Mutterlose, J. & Ruffell, A.H. 2005. The Upper Valanginian (Early Cretaceous) positive carbon-isotope event recorded in terrestrial plants. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 240(2): 495-509. (Additional information) (View publication online)