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Dr James Baldini

Contact Dr James Baldini (email at james.baldini@durham.ac.uk)

Media Contacts

Available for media contact about:

• Earth Sciences: speleology (the study of caves and their development)
• Earth Sciences: Holocene palaeoclimate (changes in the Earth's climate system in the last 10,000 years)
• Earth Sciences: using stalagmites (cave calcite deposits) as palaeoclimate proxies to decode past climate changes
• Weather & climate: anthropogenic climate change

Biography

Invited Speaker

2012 - Josephine Butler College, Durham University, UK.

2012 - Department of Geography, Durham University, UK.

2010 - RWTH Aachen, Germany.

2010 - The Open University, UK.

2010 - University of Liverpool, UK.

2008 - Natural History Society of Northumbria, UK.

2007 - Arthur Holmes Geological Society, Durham University, UK.

2004 - Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

2004 - University College Dublin, Ireland.

Prizes & Awards

2009 - ERC Starting Independent Researcher Grant awarded (1.4 million euro)

2003 - Marie Curie Fellowship to study at Bristol University

2001 - Outstanding Student Presentation, Irish Geological Research Meeting

2000 - Research Demonstratorship, University College Dublin

1999 - Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award, University of Georgia

1996 - Cosminski Award, James Madison University

Selected Publications

Books: sections

• Baldini, J.U.L. (2010). Cave atmosphere controls on stalagmite growth rate and palaeoclimate records. In Tufas and Speleothems: Unravelling the Microbial and Physical Controls. Pedley, H.M. & Rogerson, M. London: Geological Society Special Publication. 336: 283-294.

Journal papers: academic

• Breitenbach, S.F.M., Rehfeld, K., Goswami, B., Baldini, J.U.L., Ridley, H.E., Kennett, D., Prufer, K., Aquino, V.V., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V.J., Cheng, H., Kurths, J. & Marwan, N. (2012). COnstructing Proxy-Record Age models (COPRA). Climate of the Past 8(3): 1765-1779.
• Kennett, D.J., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Aquino, V.V., Asmerom, Y., Awe, J., Baldini, J.U.L., Bartlein, P., Culleton, B.J., Ebert, C., Jazwa, C., Macri, M.J., Marwan, N., Polyak, V., Prufer, K.M., Ridley, H.E., Sodemann, H., Winterhalder, B. & Haug, G.H. (2012). Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to climate change. Science 338(6108): 788-791.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F., Baldini, L.M., Ottley, C.J., Linge, K.L., Clipson, N. & Jarvis, K.E. (2012). Identifying short-term and seasonal trends in cave drip water trace element concentrations based on a daily-scale automatically collected drip water dataset. Chemical Geology 330-331: 1-16.
• Sherwin, C.M. & Baldini, J.U.L. (2011). Cave air and hydrological controls on prior calcite precipitation and stalagmite growth rates: Implications for palaeoclimate reconstructions using speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 75(14): 3915-3929.
• Baldini, L., McDermott, F., Baldini, J.U.L., Fischer, M.J. & Martin Möllhoff (2010). An investigation of the controls on Irish precipitation δ18O values on monthly and event timescales. Climate Dynamics , doi: 10.1007/s00382-010-0774-6.
• Armstrong, H.A., Baldini, J., Challands, T.J., Gröcke, D.R. & Owen, A.W. (2009). Response of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone to Southern Hemisphere cooling during Upper Ordovician glaciation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 284: 227-236.
• Wynn, P.M., Fairchild, I.J., Baker, A., Baldini, J.U.L. & McDermott, F. (2008). Isotopic archives of sulphate in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72(10): 2465-2477.
• Baldini, L.M., McDermott, F., Foley, A.M. & Baldini, J.U.L. (2008). Spatial variability in the European winter precipitation d18O-NAO relationship: Implications for reconstructing NAO-mode climate variability in the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters 35: L04709.
• Baldini, J.U.L. , McDermott, F. Hoffmann, D.L. Richards, D.A. & Clipson, N. (2008). Very high-frequency and seasonal cave atmosphere PCO2 variability: Implications for stalagmite growth and oxygen isotope-based paleoclimate records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 272(1-2): 118-129.
• Baldini, L. M., Walker, S.E., Railsback, L. B., Baldini, J.U.L. & Crowe, D.E. (2007). Isotopic ecology of the modern land snail Cerion, San Salvador, Bahamas: Preliminary advances toward establishing a low-latitude island paleoenvironmental proxy. Palaios 22(2): 174-187.
• Baldini, J.U.L., Baldini, L.M., McDermott, F. & Clipson, N. (2006). Carbon dioxide sources, sinks, and spatial variability in shallow temperate zone caves: Evidence from Ballynamintra Cave, Ireland. Journal Of Cave And Karst Studies 68(1): 4-11.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F. & Fairchild, I.J. (2006). Spatial variability in cave drip water hydrochemistry: Implications for stalagmite paleoclimate records. Chemical Geology 235(3-4): 390-404.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F, Baker, A., Baldini, L.M., Mattey, D.P. & Railsback, L.B. (2005). Biomass effects on stalagmite growth and isotope ratios: A 20th century analogue from Wiltshire, England. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 240(2): 486-494.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F. & Fairchild, I.J. (2002). Structure of the 8200-year cold event revealed by a speleothem trace element record. Science 296(5576): 2203-2206.

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