The research activities of the Paleoclimate and Sedimentary Dynamics (PDS) team are based on the use of a large variety of tools in the fields of sedimentology (grain size), mineralogy (clay minerals), paleontology (coccolithophorids, foraminifera, deep-sea corals), element geochemistry (TOC, CaCO₃, bio-Si, XRF, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca, Br/Ca… ), isotope geochemistry (δ¹⁸O, δ¹³C, εNd, ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr), and geochronology (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar, tephrochronology, Uranium series).

The team’s main goal is to reconstruct and date Quaternary climate changes on different temporal (decadal to orbital) and geographical (local, regional, global) scales, by studying the interactions within the external compartments of the Earth system (ocean, atmosphere, biosphere, continents).

More specifically, the team is interested in:

• Understanding how sediments are formed (erosion/weathering), transferred (eolian and river transport) and deposited in the ocean, in relation to the hydrological cycle.
• Understanding the impact of changes in ocean circulation, biological productivity, and terrestrial input, on the carbon cycle, and more specifically on changes in atmospheric pCO₂.
• Placing sedimentary sequences (marine and lake sediment cores, volcanic sequences, and archeological sites) in a robust chronological context, particularly using tephrochronology, enabling archives to be correlated with one another.