معرفی
Christopher Day is a Research Fellow in Stable Isotopes at the University of Oxford, leading the Environmental Proxies Isotopes & Climate (EPIC) group and managing the department's Stable Isotope laboratory. His dual role ensures synergies between experimental proxy development and applied palaeoclimate research. The laboratory he oversees is a central hub for studying oceanic, terrestrial, hydrological, and carbon cycles.
His research interests center on advancing environmental reconstruction methods through stalagmite analysis, focusing on stable isotopes (O, C, Ca, Mg, Ba, Sr, Cd) and trace metals to infer past rainfall patterns, temperature changes, and carbon cycle dynamics. He pioneered the 'Oxford Cave' experimental system to simulate cave crystal growth under controlled conditions, aiding proxy calibration. Ongoing work explores novel proxies like clumped isotopes and Li-isotopes to quantify weathering intensity and soil processes.
Collaborative projects apply these methodologies to sites in Morocco, Southern Chile, and China, yielding insights into abrupt climate events and hydrological shifts. The CaveCalc software tool, developed by Dr. Robert Owen, is critical to his work, enabling forward modeling of speleothem and dripwater chemistry. Recent applications include reconstructing absolute soil pCO₂ values and soil carbon cycle dynamics.
