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Dr Daniel Parkes

Daniel

Research Assistant

Email: d.parkes@qmul.ac.uk

Profile

I’m a Paleoclimatologist interested in examining past warm periods and how they can inform future climate change. My pronouns are He/Him.

My PhD research focussed on a warm period 424,000 years ago we term “MIS 11c”, which is a warm period quite similar today – except without modern human civilisations. It offers a sort of ‘natural test environment’ to investigate what might happen today if human’s weren’t changing the climate. One thing I focussed on is the response of an important climate driver, the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), to Greenland Ice Sheet retreat. During MIS 11c, the Greenland Ice Sheet is thought by some to almost have completely melted; more so than any other recent warm period. As we continue to warm the planet, it offers an opportunity to investigate what may happen in the future as we continue to melt the Greenland Ice Sheet.

I joined Queen Mary in 2024 as a Research Assistant on the PLIOD Project following my PhD and started working with Heather Ford on another warm period in the past called the Pliocene, where carbon dioxide levels were comparable to today. It offers an opportunity to understand how the earth system responds to prolonged periods of higher levels of carbon dioxide.

I also experience in academic publishing, conducting editorial and research integrity work for a number of prominent publishers.

 

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