About

Yige Zhang

PhD Candidate

Office: KGL 246

Mailing Address

Mailing Address:  P.O. Box 208109, New Haven, CT 06520-8109

Street Address: 210 Whitney Ave, New Haven, CT 06511

Bio/Research:

Research Interests:

• Paleoclimatology and Paleoceanography: Cenozoic long-term global cooling; warming and cooling events (mid-Miocene, Pliocene; Oi-1, Mi-1); Earth System climate sensitivity; paleo-El Niño; surface/deep water circulations

• Geochemistry: organic geochemistry (U^k’₃₇, TEX₈₆); stable isotope geochemistry (clumped isotopes); global biogeochemical cycles

• Geomicrobiology and Biogeochemistry: Archaea evolution
  

Current Projects:

    I'm a geochemist interested in understading how the Earth evolved chemically, and using various geochemical tools to study climate change of the geological past. My dissertation research is focused on climate reconstructions and modeling of the Cenozoic greenhouse - icehouse climate transition, including the Oligocene, Miocene and Pliocene epochs. Topics are temperature, CO₂ and ice volume variability across the Oligocene - Miocene boundary, high-latitude temperature changes during Oligocene to Miocene from clumped isotopes perspective, and equatorial Pacific warm pool and cold tongue evolutions since late Miocene (~12 Ma), with implications for the character of ancient El Niño. Other projects include evaluating the TEX₈₆ paleothermometry.