(518) 442-4478 email

Professor

Current Research Interests:

During the past several years my research has involved the generation of stable isotopic and geochemical time-series data from Pacific Ocean corals and sediment cores for paleoclimatic reconstruction at resolutions that range from sub-seasonal to millennia. This high resolution is only preserved in certain marine environments and is essential for understanding the modes of climatic variability in the past. A better understanding of past climatic variability will help assess the potential anthropogenic component of global climate.

Current research projects include:

• (1) Using oxygen and carbon isotopes and trace metals in Pacific corals in order to reconstruct changing climatic conditions over the past several hundred years.  Current project focused on developing a network of coral records from Fiji and Tonga to examine interdecadal oceanographic variability. This is a joint project with the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University.
• (2)  Analyzing sediment cores to reconstruct surface ocean conditions and Indonesian Throughflow over the last 20,000 years in and around the Makassar Strait in Indonesia. This is a joint project with Rutgers University and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
  

Graduate students supervised by Professor B.K. Linsley at the University at Albany

Selected Publications

Oppo, D.W., Y. Rosenthal, B.K. Linsley, 2009. 2000-year-long temperature and hydrology reconstructions from the Indo-Pacific Warm Pool; Nature, 460, 1113-1116. [PDF file, full text]

Alt, T.R., J.E. Cole, M.N Evans, H. Barnett, N.J. Abram, A.W. Tudhope, B.K. Linsley, 2009. Intensified decadal variability in tropical climate during the late 19th century.  Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L08602, doi:10.1029/2008GL036924. [PDF file, full text]

Langton, S.J., B.K. Linsley, R.S. Robinson, Y. Rosenthal, D.W. Oppo, T.I. Eglinton, S.S. Howe, Y.S. Djajadihardja, F. Syamsudin, 2008. 3500 yr record of centennial-scale climate variability from the Western Pacific Warm Pool. Geology, 36 (10), 795–798. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K. , P. Zhang, A. Kaplan, S.S. Howe, G. M. Wellington, 2008. Interdecadal-decadal climate variability from multicoral oxygen isotope records in the South Pacific Convergence Zone region since 1650 AD. Paleoceanography, 23,  PA2219, pp. 1-16;  doi:10.1029/2007PA001539. [PDF file, full text]

Yasuhara, M., T. M. Cronin, P. B. deMenocal, H. Okahashi, and B. K. Linsley, 2008. Abrupt Climate Change and Collapse of Deep-Sea Ecosystems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 105, (5), 1556-1560. [PDF file, full text]

Rosenthal, Y., B.K. Linsley, Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca Paleothermometery from Calcareous Marine Fossils, chapter in the Encyclopedia of Quaternary Sciences, Elsevier Ltd., 2006. [PDF file, full text]

Yuan, F., B.K. Linsley, S.P. Lund, J.P. McGeehin, and S.S. Howe, Late Holocene lake-level reconstruction based on a sediment record at decadal resolution from Walker Lake, Nevada. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology,  240, 497-507. [PDF file, full text]

Yuan, F., B.K. Linsley, and S.S. Howe, Evaluating sedimentary geochemical lake-level tracers in Walker Lake, Nevada over the last 200 years. Journal of Paleolimnology, C-2, 36, 37-54. [PDF file, full text].

Linsley, B.K., A. Kaplan, Y. Gouriou, J. Salinger, P.B. deMenocal, G.M. Wellington, and S.S. Howe, 2006.  Tracking the extent of the South Pacific Convergence Zone since the early 1600s, Geochem. Geophys. Geosyst., 7, Q05003, doi:10.1029/2005GC001115. [PDF file, full text]

Rosenthal, Y., C.H. Lear, D.W. Oppo, and B.K. Linsley, 2006.  Temperature and carbonate ion effects on Mg/Ca and Sr/Ca ratios in benthic foraminifera: Aragonitic species Hoeglundina elegans, Paleoceanography, 21, PA1007, doi:10.1029/2005PA001158. [PDF file, full text]

Bagnato, S., B.K. Linsley, S.S. Howe, G.M. Wellington, S.J. Salinger, 2005. Coral oxygen isotope records of interdecadal climate variations in the South Pacific Convergence Zone region, Geophys. Geochem. Geosys., vol 6 (6), Q06001, doi: 10.1029/2004GC000879. [PDF file, full text]

D’Arrigo, R., R. Wilson, C. Deser, G. Wiles, E. Cook, R. Villalba, S. Tudhope, J. Cole, B.K. Linsley, 2005. Tropical climate linkages over the past four centuries, Journal of Climate, 18, 5253-5265. [PDF file, full text]

Yuan, F., B.K. Linsley, S.P. Lund, J.P. McGeehin, 2004. A 1200 year record of hydrologic variability in the Sierra Nevada from sediments in Walker Lake, Nevada, Geophys. Geochem. Geosys., vol. 5 (3), 1003, Q03007, doi:10.1029/2003GC000652. [PDF file, full text]

Bagnato, S., B.K. Linsley, S.S. Howe, G.M. Wellington, J. Salinger, 2004. Evaluating the use of the massive coral Diploastrea helipora for paleoclimate reconstruction, Paleoceanography, vol. 19, PA1032, doi:10.1029/2003PA000935. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K., G.M. Wellington, D.P. Schrag, L. Ren, M.J. Salinger, A.W. Tudhope, 2004. Coral evidence for changes in the amplitude and spatial pattern
of South Pacific interdecadal climate variability over the last 300 years, Climate Dynamics, vol. 22: 1-11 doi: 10.1007/s00382-003-0364-y. [PDF file, full text]
[P. lutea core x-ray PDF file image - enlargement of Fig. 2] [P. lutea in Savusavu Bay, Fiji - jpeg image]

Elliot, M., P.B. deMenocal, B.K. Linsley, S.S. Howe, 2003. Environmental controls on the seasonal isotopic records of Mercenaria mercenaria and potential
applications to paleoenvironmental studies,  Geophys. Geochem. Geosys. vol. 4, (7), 1056, doi:10.1029/2002GC000425. [PDF file, full text]

Rosenthal, Y., D.W. Oppo, B.K. Linsley, 2003. The amplitude and phasing of climate change during the last deglaciation in the Sulu Sea, western equatorial Pacific, Geophysical Research Letters, vol. 30, (8),1428, doi:10.1029/2002GL016612. [PDF file, full text]

Benson, L., B.K. Linsley, J. Smoot, S. Mensing, S. Lund, S. Stine, A. Sarna-Wojcicki, 2003. Influence of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) on the climate of the Sierra Nevada, California and Nevada,  Quaternary Research, vol. 59, 151-159. [PDF file, full text]

Ren, L., B.K. Linsley, G.M. Wellington, D.P. Schrag, and O.Hoegh-Guldberg, 2003. Deconvolving the d¹⁸Oseawater Component from Subseasonal Coral d18O and Sr/Ca at Rarotonga in the Southwestern Subtropical Pacific for the period 1726-1997, Geochimica et Cosmochimica. Acta, vol 67, (9), 1609-1621. [PDF file, full text]

Oppo, D.W., B.K. Linsley, Y. Rosenthal, S. Dannenmann, and L. Beaufort, 2003, Orbital and suborbital climate variability in the Sulu Sea, western tropical Pacific, Geophys. Geochem. Geosys., vol 4 (1), 1003, doi:10.1029/2001GC00260.[abstract] [PDF file, full text]

Dannenmann, S., B.K. Linsley*, D. W. Oppo Y. Rosenthal, and L. Beaufort-, 2003, East Asian monsoon forcing of suborbital variability in the Sulu Sea during Marine Isotope Stage 3:  Link to northern Hemisphere climate, (*=corresponding author), Geophys. Geochem. Geosys., vol 4, (1), 1001, doi: 10.1029/2002GC00390. [abstract] [PDF file, full text]

Schrag, D. P., and B. K. Linsley, 2002, Corals, Chemistry and Climate (Perspective), Science, vol. 296, 277-278. PDF file

Evans, M.N., M.A. Cane, D.P. Schrag, A. Kaplan, B.K. Linsley, R. Villalba, and G.M. Wellington, 2001,  Support for tropically-driven Pacific decadal variability based on paleo-proxy evidence,  Geophysical Research Letters, vol 28, no. 19, 3689-2692. [PDF file, full text]

de Garidel-Thoron, T., L. Beaufort, B.K. Linsley, and S. Dannenmann, 2001, Millennial-scale  Dynamics of the East Asian Winter Monsoon during the last 200,000 years,   Paleoceanography, 16, no. 5, 491-502. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K., G. M. Wellington, and D.P. Schrag, 2000, Decadal Sea Surface Temperature Variability in the Sub-tropical South Pacific from 1726 to 1997 A.D.  Science, vol. 290, 1145-1148. [abstract] [Science - Abstract][Science - Full text, free access]  [NOAA WDC Paleo Archive [abstract, data and figures]

Linsley, B.K., L. Ren, R.B. Dunbar, and S.S. Howe, 2000, ENSO and decadal-scale climate variability at 10°N in the Eastern Pacific from 1893 to 1994;  A coral-based reconstruction from Clipperton Atoll, Paleoceanography, vol 15, no. 3, 322-335 . [PDF file, full text]

Guilderson, T. P., D.P. Schrag, E. Goddard, M. Kashgarian, G. M. Wellington, B.K. Linsley, 2000, Southwest subtropical Pacific surface water radiocarbon in a high-resolution coral, Radiocarbon, vol 42, no 1,  249-256. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K.; Messier, R.G., and Dunbar, R.B., 1999, Assessing between colony oxygen isotope variability in the  coral Porites lobata  at Clipperton Atoll, Coral Reefs, 18(1), 13-27 . PDF file, full text

Linsley, B.K., 1996, Oxygen isotope evidence of sea level and climatic variations in the Sulu Sea over  the past 150,000 years.,  Nature, vol 380, p234-237. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K., R.B. Dunbar, G.M. Wellington, and D.A. Mucciarone, 1994,  A coral based reconstruction of Intertropical Convergence Zone variability over Central America since 1707, Journal of Geophysical Research, vol 99, no. C5, 9977-9994. [PDF file, full text]

Linsley, B.K., and Thunell, R.C., 1990, The record of deglaciation in the Sulu Sea: Evidence for the Younger Dryas event in the tropical western Pacific. in  J.P. Kennett, ed., Paleoceanography, Special Issue on the Younger Dryas, 5, no. 6, 1025-1039. [PDF file, full text]
 

X-ray image of coral core, Clipperton Atoll [190K .png]

In memory of Greg Brosnan ("Broz").  The only person I have known to ask for a drink of water while drilling a coral 10m down.  Greg was instrumental in the success of our Fiji-Tonga November 2004 drilling and helped advance the state of underwater coral drilling. He died tragically in a glider accident in New Zealand in January 2005.

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