Lisa Orme

Dr. Lisa Orme is a palaeoclimatologist working in ICARUS (Irish Climate Research and Analysis Unit) and serving as a lecturer in the Department of Geography at Maynooth University. Her academic journey began with a Geography degree that included extensive fieldwork on Svalbard in the Arctic, which sparked her interest in studying past climate conditions through geological evidence.

Dr. Orme specializes in researching climate change during the last 10,000 years (the Holocene epoch). Her primary methodology involves analyzing sediment cores extracted from various environments including peatbogs, lakes, and ocean floors. These sediment layers contain valuable records of past environmental conditions that allow her to reconstruct historical climate patterns.

• Using sand layers preserved within coastal peatbogs to determine past storminess variability
• Analyzing diatoms (microscopic algae) in ocean sediments to reveal historical temperature patterns in the Southern Ocean and North Atlantic
• Examining lake sediments to understand past changes in catchment runoff
• Investigating how different aspects of the climate system vary naturally under different temperature conditions

Dr. Orme's palaeoclimate research provides crucial context for understanding current climate change by revealing how the climate system has responded to warmer and cooler conditions in the past. Her work helps establish natural climate variability baselines against which anthropogenic climate change can be measured.

Dr. Orme is affiliated with ICARUS (Irish Climate Research and Analysis Unit) and has conducted fieldwork in diverse locations including the Barents Sea for marine sediment collection and Achill Island for peat core extraction.