Dr Matthew Huber

I am interested in past, present and future climate, the mechanisms that govern climate, and the different forms that climates can take on Earth and other planets.Ê Most of my work so far has concentrated on the issue of how "stuff" (e.g. passive tracers, water vapor, heat, spores) goes from the tropics toward the Poles, and specifically with an emphasis on how these processes operates during greenhouse climates (e.g. the Eocene ~55-35 million years ago).Ê I will be continuing to explore these general questions, in various forms, for the foreseeable future and I encourage anyone seriously interested to get in contact with me. My current specific research direction is into the relationship between severe weather and climate change, and the integrated role of storms (such as hurricanes) on heat (and other tracer) transports. Specific areas of interest include: Tracer dynamics in past climates Relationship to isotopic and aeolian records Connection with enthalpy method of estimating paleoelevations Vertical/diapycnal mixing in the ocean A pressing issue in current climate modelling An unexplored issue is how might vertical diffusion change when continental shelves are inundated? Is this an important global warming- ocean heat transport feedback a la Lyle? Hurricanes as suggested by Emanuel? Effects of opening/closing of the Isthmus of Panama? Closing the Isthmus ~ 3.5 Ma is supposed to have had important global climatic/ecological effects (including northern Hemisphere glaciation) Faunal distribution patterns clearly show that the Isthmus closed (or became severely restricted) during the late Paleocene, what effect did that have? Hadley/Walker/ENSO dynamics on long time scales How do the Walker cell and El Ni–o change under dramatically different conditions than modern day (open Isthmus, higher pCO2, larger Pacific Basin)? What are the effects on ecology of climate change? Especially, do tropical species (including diseases) migrate polewards in a global warming world? e.g. corals? Water in the stratosphere One of the most important issues in terms of what separates us from Venus and Mars (the runaway greenhouse) But also a possible key to understanding the maintenance of past warm climates? Changes in severe weather in global warming and how is dissipation related to global climate variations? What about maximum entropy methods?