Heather L. Ford

• PhD
• Queen Mary University of London

Southern African (SA) hydroclimate is largely shaped by the interactions of atmospheric circulations, e.g., Hadley Circulation, and oceanic elements, like the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS), Agulhas System, and Antarctic Circumpolar frontal system. Large-scale changes to the Meridional Temperature Gradient (MTG) influence both the atmospheric and...

Today, deep waters do not form in the northern high latitudes of the Pacific Ocean, but this may not have been the case during the Pliocene. Evidence suggests there was a Pacific Meridional Overturning Circulation during the warm Late Pliocene, similar to the modern Atlantic Ocean with a weak halocline in the subpolar North Pacific resulting in Nor...

The investigation of triggers causing the onset and intensification of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG) during the late Pliocene is essential for understanding the global climate system, with important implications for projecting future climate changes. Despite their critical roles in the global climate system, influences of land-ocean interact...

The surface waters around Southern Africa (SA) are a confluence of the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS), the Agulhas System, and the Antarctic Circumpolar frontal system. The Subtropical Front (STF) is largely considered the boundary between the Antarctic Circumpolar frontal system and the Agulhas System; northward shifts of the STF are thought to l...

We present the role of CO2 forcing in controlling Late Pliocene sea surface temperature (SST) change using six models from Phase 2 of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP2) and palaeoclimate proxy data from the PlioVAR working group. At a global scale, SST change in the Late Pliocene relative to the pre-industrial is predominantly dr...

We present the role of CO2 forcing in controlling patterns of Late Pliocene sea surface temperature (SST) using seven models from Phase 2 of the Pliocene Model Intercomparison Project (PlioMIP2) and palaeoclimate proxy data from the PlioVAR working group. At a global scale, SST change in the Late Pliocene relative to the pre-industrial is predomina...

Quantifying variability in, and identifying the mechanisms behind, East Asian dust production and transport across the last several million years is essential for constraining future dust emissions and deposition. Our current understanding of East Asian dust dynamics through the Quaternary is primarily limited to low‐resolution records from the Nor...

The Pliocene Epoch (∼5.3–2.6 million years ago, Ma) was characterized by a warmer than present climate with smaller Northern Hemisphere ice sheets, and offers an example of a climate system in long‐term equilibrium with current or predicted near‐future atmospheric CO2 concentrations (pCO2). A long‐term trend of ice‐sheet expansion led to more prono...

Paleotemperature proxy data form the cornerstone of paleoclimate research and are integral to understanding the evolution of the Earth system across the Phanerozoic Eon. Here, we present PhanSST, a database containing over 150,000 data points from five proxy systems that can be used to estimate past sea surface temperature. The geochemical data hav...

Geologic intervals of sustained warmth such as the mid-Pliocene Warm Period can inform our understanding of future climate change, including the long-term consequences of oceanic uptake of anthropogenic carbon. Here we generate carbon isotope records and synthesize existing records to reconstruct the position of water masses and determine circulati...

Ocean dynamics in the equatorial Pacific drive tropical climate patterns that affect marine and terrestrial ecosystems worldwide. How this region will respond to global warming has profound implications for global climate, economic stability and ecosystem health. As a result, numerous studies have investigated equatorial Pacific dynamics during the...

The future in the past A major cause of uncertainties in climate projections is our imprecise knowledge of how much warming should occur as a result of a given increase in the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Paleoclimate records have the potential to help us sharpen that understanding because they record such a wide variety of environme...

A range of future climate scenarios are projected for high atmospheric CO2 concentrations, given uncertainties over future human actions as well as potential environmental and climatic feedbacks. The geological record offers an opportunity to understand climate system response to a range of forcings and feedbacks which operate over multiple tempora...

Presenting at scientific conferences is key to academic career progression. Scientists don’t just communicate results; they also develop relationships with collaborators and mentors, and identify job and funding opportunities. Giving a talk confers recognition and prestige, particularly for students and early-career researchers. Despite historical...

Biases—structural, implicit, and explicit—exclude many people from STEM education and employment and devalue their contributions1,2. Most studies focus on bias against women. Few datasets offer enough generalizability or statistical power to evaluate the representation of ethnic and racial minorities, or to examine intersectionality—the compound ob...

Abstract. A range of future climate scenarios are projected for high atmospheric CO₂ concentrations, given uncertainties over future human actions as well as potential environmental and climatic feedbacks. The geological record offers an opportunity to understand climate system response to a range of forcings and feedbacks which operate...

Underrepresentation of minority and women in a primary science conference

Implicit and explicit biases impede the participation of women in science, technology, engi- neering, and mathematic (STEM) fields. Across career stages, attending conferences and presenting research are ways to spread scientific results, find job opportunities, and gain awards. Here, we present an analysis by gender of the American Geophysical Uni...

Researchers from racial and ethnic groups that are under-represented in US geoscience are the least likely to be offered opportunities to speak at the field’s biggest meeting. Researchers from racial and ethnic groups that are under-represented in US geoscience are the least likely to be offered opportunities to speak at the field’s biggest meeting...

High-resolution seawater δ18O records, derived from coupled Mg/Ca and benthic δ18O analyses, can be used to evaluate how global ice volume changed during the mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT, ca. 1250–600 ka). However, such seawater δ18O records are also influenced by regional hydrographic signals (i.e., salinity) and changes in deep-ocean circulati...

The Western Equatorial Pacific (WEP) warm pool, with surface temperatures >28 °C and a deep thermocline, is an important source of latent and sensible heat for the global climate system. Because the tropics are not sensitive to ice‐albedo feedbacks, the WEP's response to radiative forcing can be used to constrain a minimum estimate of Earth system...

Implicit and explicit biases impede the participation of women in science, technology, engineering , and mathematic (STEM) fields. Across career stages, attending conferences and presenting research are ways to spread scientific results, find job opportunities, and gain awards. Here, we present an analysis by gender of the American Geophysical Unio...

Implicit and explicit biases impede the participation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematic (STEM) fields. Across career stages, attending conferences and presenting research are ways to spread scientific results, find job opportunities, and gain awards. We present an analysis by gender of the American Geophysical Union Fall M...

Implicit and explicit biases impede the participation of women in geoscience. Documented biases include the quality of postdoctoral recommendation letters and opportunities to review research articles. Across career stages, attending conferences and presenting research are ways to spread scientific results, find job opportunities and funding, and g...

Understanding the sensitivity of the polar ice caps to a modest global warming (2–3 °C above preindustrial) is of paramount importance if we are to accurately predict future sea level change, knowledge that will inform both social and economic policy in the coming years. However, decades of study of the Pliocene (2.6–5.3 Ma), an epoch in recent Ear...

During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), the dominant glacial-interglacial cyclicity as inferred from the marine δ18O records of benthic foraminifera (δ18Obenthic) changed from 41 kyr to 100 kyr years in the absence of a comparable change in orbital forcing. Currently, only two Mg/Ca-derived, high-resolution bottom water temperature (BWT) recor...

The Line Islands Ridge (LIR), located south of the Hawaiian Islands between 7°N and 1°S, is one of the few large central Pacific regions shallower than the regional carbonate compensation depth. Thick sequences of carbonate sediments have accumulated around the LIR despite it being located in the sediment-starved central tropical Pacific. The LIR i...

During the Mid-Pleistocene Transition (MPT), the dominant glacial-interglacial cyclicity as inferred from the marine d18O records of benthic foraminifera (d18Obenthic) changed from 41 kyr to 100 kyr years in the absence of a comparable change in orbital forcing. Currently, only two Mg/Ca-derived, high-resolution bottom water temperature (BWT) recor...

The tropical Pacific thermocline strength, depth, and tilt are critical to tropical mean state and variability. During the early Pliocene (~3.5 to 4.5 Ma), the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) thermocline was deeper and the cold tongue was warmer than today, which resulted in a mean state with a reduced zonal sea surface temperature gradient or El...

Much uncertainty exists about the state of the oceanic and atmospheric circulation in the Tropical Pacific over the last glacial cycle. Studies have been hampered by the fact that sediment cores suitable for study were concentrated in the Western and Eastern parts of the Tropical Pacific, with little information from the Central Tropical Pacific. H...

El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is a major source of global interannual variability, but its response to climate change is uncertain. Paleoclimate records from the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) provide insight into ENSO behavior when global boundary conditions (ice sheet extent, atmospheric partial pressure of CO2) were different from those today....

The tropical Pacific thermocline strength, depth, and tilt are critical to tropical mean state and variability. During the early Pliocene (~3.5 to 4.5 Ma), the Eastern Equatorial Pacific (EEP) thermocline was deeper and the cold tongue was warmer than today, which resulted in an mean state with a reduced zonal sea surface temperature gradient, or E...

Zhang et al. (Reports, 4 April 2014, p. 84) interpret TEX86 and U(37)(K') paleotemperature data as providing a fundamentally new view of tropical Pacific climate during the warm Pliocene period. We argue that, within error, their Pliocene data actually support previously published data indicating average western warm-pool temperature similar to tod...

During the early Pliocene warm period (∼4.6–4.2 Ma) in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific upwelling region, sea surface temperatures were warm in comparison to modern conditions. Warm upwelling regions have global effects on the heat budget and atmospheric circulation, and are argued to have contributed to Pliocene warmth. Though warm upwelling regions...

Deep-time palaeoclimate studies are vitally important for developing a complete understanding of climate responses to changes in the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration (that is, the atmospheric partial pressure of CO(2), p(co(2))). Although past studies have explored these responses during portions of the Cenozoic era (the most recent 65.5 mi...

During the early Pliocene warm period (~4.6-4.2 Ma) in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific upwelling region, sea surface temperatures were warm in comparison to modern conditions. Warm upwelling regions have global effects on the heat budget and atmospheric circulation, and are argued to have contributed to Pliocene warmth. Though warm upwelling regions...

The early Pliocene (~4.6 - 4.8 Ma) is an important geological interval for understanding future climate change, since CO2 levels during the Pliocene are very similar to those of today. Scientists do not know much about Earth's climate during this time period, so additional sea surface temperature measurements from the Western and Eastern Pacific, p...

The tropical Pacific ocean is the largest source of global climate interannual variability today. Climate model simulations of future warming exhibit widely divergent behavior indicating an incomplete understanding of the factors that dictate tropical climate variability. Past records of tropical Pacific variability are one approach to deepening ou...

Today in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific, a shallow thermocline and rigorous wind-driven upwelling brings cool, nutrient-rich water to the surface. In contrast, during the warm Pliocene (~3-5 Ma), sea surface temperatures in the Eastern Equatorial Pacific were much warmer than modern. Warm sea surface temperatures in upwelling regions, which have gl...

Molluscan shell chemistry may provide an important archive of mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual range in temperature (MART), but such direct temperature interpretations may be confounded by biologic, metabolic, or kinetic factors. To explore this potential archive, we outplanted variously sized specimens of the common mussel Mytilus cal...

Sea surface temperature (SST) reconstructions from the Western and Eastern Equatorial Pacific (WEP and EEP) indicate the Equatorial Pacific was in a permanent El Niño-like state during the early Pliocene. Specifically, SST in the WEP was nearly the same as today, while SST in the EEP cold tongue region was 2-3 °C warmer than today. Climatic transit...

Oxygen isotope values in carbonate shells from the coastal zone are influenced by temperature and by the delta18O value of water, which could be 18O-depleted relative to average ocean water due to input of freshwater runoff. If Mg/Ca ratios are a reliable independent proxy for past sea-surface temperature (SST), we can reconstruct the delta18O valu...

Paleoceanographic reconstructions depend upon accurate estimations of mean annual temperature (MAT) and mean annual range in temperature (MART). Mollusk shells may offer an archive of seasonal to decadal data on environmental conditions. However, a suite of factors (e.g., biologic, metabolic, kinetic) may confound interpretations of mollusk records...

Mg/Ca ratios of metazoan carbonate may provide a useful archive of decadal and seasonal parameters such as mean annual temperature and annual range in temperature, but the reliability of this proxy remains questionable given potential ontogenetic and microenvironmental effects. We investigated these potential effects in the mussel species Mytilus c...

Mytilus californianus, a common intertidal mussel of the North Pacific, is often used to monitor coastal water quality via tissue incorporation of heavy metals and biotoxins, and is increasingly used to reconstruct environmental conditions (i.e. temperature, salinity, and seasonality) archived within shell carbonate. However, little is known about...