U.S.-Mexico Cooperative Research: High Resolution Paleoceanographic Records in Laminated Sediments, Gulf of California, Mexico

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Abstract

9908773 Douglas This US-Mexico award will support Professor Robert Douglas and Donn Gorsline of the University of Southern California (USC) in a research collaboration with Drs. Enrique Nava-Sanchez and Janette Murillo-Jimenez at CICIMAR/IPN and Dr. Adolfo Monia-Cruz at the National Autonoma University of Mexico. The researchers intend to build on previous work by other investigators and the group at USC to examine annual to millennial cycles recorded in dysaerobic to anaerobic sediment deposits preserved in slope and margin basins of the western Gulf of California from Santa Rosalia south to La Paz. This research initiative arises from the increasing interest of the past two decades in global climate change and the search for high-resolution records of such changes. By studying change in productivity or in water mass characteristics and position, the investigator aims to define the effects of the major factors both across the Gulf and along the Gulf axis following the major productivity gradients. These records are critical in defining the variations in ocean-climate interactive and to test models for climate prediction. In addition to the collaborative work between the investigators, this project will support thesis and dissertation work by students from Mexico and the United States. ***