In early 2019 (January-March 2019), PhD Researcher Marcelo Mota from the Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography research group at Birmingham will be participating as a shipboard palynologist on IODP Expedition 379 to the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica.
Marcelo (2nd from right, front row) with the Marine Palynology group in Utrecht.
In early 2019 (January-March 2019), PhD Researcher Marcelo Mota from the Palaeoclimatology and Palaeoceanography research group at Birmingham will be participating as a shipboard palynologist on IODP Expedition 379 to the Amundsen Sea, West Antarctica.
He will be responsible for developing shipboard age models and palaeonvironmental histories from any organic walled marine or terrestrial groups preserved in recovered deep sea sediments (e.g., pollen, spores and dinoflagellates). In the run-up to the expedition, he has taken part in extensive technical training (13-20th Nov. 2018) in the Earth Sciences Department at Utrecht University, Netherlands.
He has been trained in new alternative non-hydrofluoric (HF) palynology processing technique to be adopted on upcoming IODP Expeditions by Dr Peter Bijl. This method will allow safer extraction of palynological material for analysis whilst at sea than standard existing HF protocols. He has also accessed the wide literature, sample/slide and database resources housed in the world-class Marine Palynology and Palaeoclimate research group at the institution for advanced taxonomic training necessary for the role.
This visit is part of a of collaboration between the University of Birmingham (UK), Utrecht University (The Netherlands) and the University of Vale do Rio dos Sinos (Brazil).
