Lorraine Lisiecki

Professor
Department of Earth Science
University of California, Santa Barbara
email: lisiecki AT geol.ucsb.edu

Ongoing research projects:

CycloAstro, Project 2: Astronomical forcing of the paleoclimate system, 0-66 Ma
Links between climate and tectonics
Reconstructing climate and ocean circulation change over glacial cycles
Estimating age uncertainty in paleoclimate records
Modeling ice volume changes in response to orbital forcing

Research Interests

My research focuses on computational approaches to the interpretation of paleoclimate records. I believe that the integrated analysis of widely distributed paleoclimate records will yield important information about the climate system that cannot be obtained by studying these records individually. I am particularly interested in the evolution of Plio-Pleistocene climate as it relates to Milankovitch forcing, 100-kyr glacial cycles, and deep-ocean circulation. I also develop and distribute software related to age model development and stratigraphy. The analytical techniques I use most frequently are stratigraphic correlation, simple physical models, Matlab programming, and mathematical tools such as time series analysis, principal component analysis, and computational probability and statistics (e.g., Bayesian statistics).

What does this mean? Simple, non-technical explanations of what I study and why. Also, PowerPoint slides for teachers.

Ted-Ed Lesson: What causes an ice age? Animated video suitable for K-12.

Data & Software

LR04 Benthic Stack [Lisiecki and Raymo, 2005]
Match & Autocomp Software [Lisiecki and Lisiecki, 2002]
HMM-Match [Lin et al, 2014]
HMM-Stack [Ahn et al, 2017]
BIGMACS Multiproxy alignment [Lee et al., in review]

Curriculum Vitae

Awards

Doris M. Curtis Outstanding Woman in Science Award, Geological Society of America, 2008
Editors' Citation for Excellence in Refereeing for Paleoceanography, 2008
Joukowsky Outstanding Dissertation Award, Brown University, 2005

Publications

Macdonald, F. A., Swanson-Hysell, N. L., Park, Y., and Lisiecki, L. E. (2019), Arc-continent collisions in the tropics set the Earth's climate state, Science, 364, 181-184, doi:10.1126/science.aav5300.
Gebbie, G., A. R. Simms, and L. E. Lisiecki (2019), Why estimates of deglacial ice loss should be biased low, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 515, 112-124.
Littler, K., A. J. Drury, D. Liebrand, L. Lisiecki, and H. Palike (2019), Astronomical Time Keeping of Earth History: An Invaluable Contribution of Scientific Ocean Drilling, Oceanography, 32, 40-44.
Simms, A. R., L. Lisiecki, G. Gebbie, P. L. Whitehouse, J. F. Clark (2019), Balancing the last glacial maximum (LGM) sea-level budget, Quaternary Science Reviews, 205, 143-153. PDF
Peterson, C. D., and L. E. Lisiecki (2018), Deglacial carbon cycle changes observed in a compilation of 127 benthic d13C time series (20-6 ka), Climate of the Past, 14, 1229-1252, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-1229-2018. PDF
Raymo, M.E., R. Kozdon, D. Evans, L. Lisiecki, H. L. Ford (2018), The accuracy of mid-Pliocene d18O-based ice volume and sea level reconstructions, Earth-Science Reviews, 177, 291-302. PDF
Khider, D., S. Ahn, L. E. Lisiecki, C. E. Lawrence, M. Kienast (2017), The role of uncertainty in estimating lead/lag relationships in marine sedimentary archives: A case study from the tropical Pacific, Paleoceanography, 32, https://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA003057. PDF
Ahn, S., D. Khider, L. E. Lisiecki, and C. E. Lawrence (2017), A probabilistic Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of benthic d18O using a profile hidden Markov model, Dynamics and Statistics of the Climate System, 2, 1-6. PDF
Schmittner, A., H. C. Bostock, O. Cartapanis, W. B. Curry, H. L. Filipsson, E. D. Galbraith, J. Gottschalk, J. C. Herguera Garcia, S. Jaccard, L. E. Lisiecki, D. Lund, G. Martinez-Mendez, J. Lynch-Stieglitz, A. Mackensen, E. Michel, A. C. Mix, D. Oppo, C. D. Peterson, H. J. Spero, and C. Waelbroeck (2017), Calibration of the carbon isotopic composition (d13C) of epibenthic foraminifera, Paleoceanography, 32, doi:10.1002/2016PA003072.
Lisiecki, L. E., and Stern, J. V. (2016), Regional and global benthic d18O stacks for the last glacial cycle, Paleoceanography, 31, 1-27, doi:10.1002/2016PA003002. PDF
Spratt, R. M., and L. E. Lisiecki (2016), A Late Pleistocene sea level stack, Climate of the Past, 12, 1079-1092, doi:10.5194/cp-12-1079-2016. PDF
Gebbie, G., C. Peterson, L. Lisiecki, H. Spero (2015), Global-mean marine d13C and its uncertainty in a glacial state estimate, Quaternary Science Reviews, 125, 144-159. PDF
Shakun, J.D., D.W. Lea, L. E. Lisiecki, and M.E. Raymo (2015), An 800-kyr record of global surface ocean d18O and implications for ice volume-temperature coupling, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 426, 58-68. PDF
Stern, J. V., and L. E. Lisiecki (2014), Termination 1 timing in radiocarbon-dated regional benthic d18O stacks, Paleoceanography, 29, 1127-1142, doi:10.1002/2014PA002700. PDF, Supplemental Material
Lin, L., D. Khider, L. E. Lisiecki, and C. E. Lawrence (2014), Probabilistic Sequence Alignment of Stratigraphic Records, Paleoceanography 29, 976-989, doi:10.1002/2014PA002713. PDF
Peterson, C. D., L. E. Lisiecki, and J. V. Stern (2014), Deglacial whole-ocean d13C change estimated from 480 benthic foraminiferal records, Paleoceanography, 29, 549-563, doi:10.1002/2013PA002552. PDF
Lisiecki, L. E. (2014), Atlantic overturning responses to obliquity and precession over the last 3 Myr, Paleoceanograph 29, doi: 10.1002/2013PA002505. PDF
Stern, J. V., and L. E. Lisiecki (2013), North Atlantic circulation and reservoir age changes over the past 41,000 years, Geophys. Res. Lett., 40, doi:10.1002/grl.50679. PDF, Supplemental Material
Imbrie, J. Z., A. Imbrie-Moore, and L. E. Lisiecki (2011), A phase-space model for Pleistocene ice volume, Earth and Planetary Science Letters. 307, 94-102. PDF
Lisiecki, L. E. (2010c), A benthic d13C-based proxy for atmospheric pCO2 over the last 1.5 Myr, Geophys. Res. Lett., 37, L21708, doi:10.1029/2010GL045109. PDF, Supplemental Material,
Lisiecki, L. E. (2010b), A simple mixing explanation for late Pleistocene changes in the Pacific-South Atlantic benthic d13C gradient, Clim. Past, 6, 305-314. PDF
Lisiecki, L. E. (2010a), Links between eccentricity forcing and the 100,000-year glacial cycle, Nature Geoscience, 3, 349-352. PDF
Author's Note: I have received many emails about this article asking me what current climate changes should be expected based on orbital forcing. Orbital forcing cannot be used to explain climate changes on a scale of 100 or even 1000 years. The natural response that would be expected is a very gradual cooling trend over the next 90,000 years or so. However, it is uncertain whether this cooling trend would be expected to start thousands of years ago (e.g., Ruddiman) or thousands of years in the future.
Lisiecki, L. E., and M. E. Raymo (2009), Diachronous benthic d18O responses during late Pleistocene terminations, Paleoceanography 24, PA3210, doi:10.1029/2009PA001732. Link
Lisiecki, L. E., M. E. Raymo, and W. B. Curry (2008), Atlantic overturning responses to Late Pleistocene climate forcings, Nature 456, 85-88. Link to PDF
Lisiecki, L. E., and T. D. Herbert (2007), Automated composite depth scale construction and estimates of sediment core extension, Paleoceanography, 22, PA4213, doi:10.1029/2006PA001401. PDF, Appendix 1: Detailed Methodology, and Appendix 2: Technical Modifications to LL02
Kawamura, K., F. Parrenin, L. Lisiecki, R. Uemura, F. Vimeux, J. P. Severinghaus, M. A. Hutterli, T. Nakazawa, S. Aoki, J. Jouzel, M. E. Raymo, K. Matsumoto, H. Nakata, H. Motoyama, S. Fujita, K. Goto-Azuma, Y. Fujii, and O. Watanabe, 2007, Northern Hemisphere forcing of climatic cycles in Antarctica over the past 360,000 years, Nature, v. 448, p. 912-917, doi:10.1038/nature06015.
Lisiecki, L. E., and M. E. Raymo (2007), Plio-Pleistocene climate evolution: Trends and transitions in glacial cycle dynamics, Quaternary Science Reviews, 26, 56-69. View PDF
Raymo, M. E., L. E. Lisiecki, and K. H. Nisancioglu (2006), Plio-Pleistocene ice volume, Antarctic climate, and the global d¹⁸O record, Science, doi: 10.1126/science.1123296. PDF
Lisiecki, L. E., and M. E. Raymo (2005), A Pliocene-Pleistocene stack of 57 globally distributed benthic d¹⁸O records, Paleoceanography, 20, PA1003, doi:10.1029/2004PA001071. View PDF
Lisiecki, L. E., and P. A. Lisiecki (2002), Application of dynamic programming to the correlation of paleoclimate records, Paleoceanography, 17(D4), 1049, doi:10.1029/2001PA000733. View PDF

Dissertation

Title: Paleoclimate time series: New alignment and compositing techniques, a 5.3-Myr benthic d¹⁸O stack, and analysis of Pliocene-Plesitocene climate transitions

Advisor: Prof. Timothy Herbert, Brown University

Summary and Excerpts