Dr Irene Malmierca Vallet

My research interests focus primarily on past climate change. I am interested in using climate models to develop a better understanding of the changes in the ice sheet, sea ice, and climate over the last 800,000 years.

I am currently involved in the EU TiPES project, investigating Dansgaard-Oeschger (DO) events, abrupt, large climate swings that punctuated the last glacial period. There is uncertainty whether current IPCC-relevant models can effectively represent the processes that cause DO events. If this holds true, this could noticeably influence their capability to predict future abrupt transitions, with significant consequences for their use in the identification of Tipping Elements (TEs), and more in general, for the delivery of precise climate change projections. In this task, the objective of my study is to formulate possible pathways to a DO Paleoclimate Modelling Intercomparison Project (PMIP) protocol that could help investigate cold-period instabilities through a range of insolation-, freshwater-, GHG-, and NH ice sheet-related forcings, as well as evaluating the possibility of spontaneous internal oscillations.

My previous research has particularly focused on explaining the LIG Greenland δ18O maximum. In particular, I used the isotope-enabled HadCM3 climate model to investigate the isotopic signature of Arctic sea-ice changes and Greenland Ice Sheet retreat during the Last Interglacial and to determine whether this can be reconciled with Greenland ice core records.