A Newsletter for UMW Faculty and Staff
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
Professor of Earth and Environmental Science Pamela Grothe was featured in a recent segment of With Good Reason radio titled “Christmas Island Coral Reefs.” Coral reefs are one of the most beautiful ecosystems of the natural world. But they’re more than just a feast for the eyes. Pamela Grothe says coral reefs offer a map to the past, helping researchers track climate history over many hundreds of years. Hear the segment.
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
Pamela Grothe, a climate scientist at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., is working to understand how much of these El Niño temperature surges are related to the warming climate.
Grothe and her team have traveled to the [Christmas] island several times to collect samples by drilling cores through corals and taking them back to the lab for analysis.
“One millimeter (in the sample) equates to about one month of coral growth, so that equates to a monthly sea surface temperature. We can plot the temperature record right on top of the geochemistry records, and it is actually really amazing,” she said. Read more.
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe’s research appeared in a recent article titled “How we know past climate without thermometers” in The Richmond Times-Dispatch. A picture of Grothe drilling into 5,000-year-old coral with help from Florida State University Assistant Professor Alyssa Atwood, as part of their research in 2018 on Christmas (Kiritimati) Island, ran with the article. Read more.
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe spoke to The Richmond Times-Dispatch for an article titled “One scientist drills into the past to figure out ocean warming.” Grothe is working to understand how much of these El Niño temperature surges are related to the warming climate. Read more.
Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe
An opinion piece by Assistant Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences Pamela Grothe Pamela Grothe, titled “Commentary: Urban heat islands make climate change worse,” ran in The Free Lance-Star on Sunday, Aug. 21. Along with her co-author, Adam Lynch, a river steward with Friends of the Rappahannock, Grothe wrote: Little was known about Fredericksburg’s urban heat islands until this summer, when our two organizations, the University of Mary Washington and Friends of the Rappahannock, partnered on a comprehensive heat-mapping campaign, tracking heat in the city and surrounding counties. Read more.