Study of organisms from sediments
The scientific themes of the PALEOCEAN team are based around four main themes, the common objective of which is to improve our understanding of the various mechanisms that play a role in climate variability over the last few hundred thousand years, and their interactions with global climatology, such as greenhouse gases (through the carbon cycle), ice caps, the continental biosphere, etc. Reconstructions of this variability are based essentially on the study of the remains of organisms found in marine sediments.
Our tools
The main tools used by the laboratory are micropalaeontological parameters (planktonic and benthic foraminifera, pollen) and geochemical parameters (carbon and oxygen isotope compositions, trace elements, biomarkers) in marine cores with high sedimentation rates or coral cores. This work can only be carried out using very high quality recordings, which require a major investment in oceanographic missions. The success of these missions owes much to the support of the Institut Polaire Paul Emile Victor and the technical skills developed on board the oceanographic vessel Marion Dufresne.