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Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton
Phone:
(023) 8059 6164
Email:
paul.wilson@noc.soton.ac.uk

Professor Paul Wilson 

Head of Palaeoceanography and Palaeoclimate Research Group, Professor

Professor Paul Wilson's photo

Professor Paul Wilson is Head of Palaeoceanography and Palaeoclimate Research Group, Professor within Ocean and Earth Science, National Oceanography Centre Southampton at the University of Southampton.

Carbon dioxide, CO2, is a powerful greenhouse gas and its concentration in Earth's atmosphere has increased by around 35% since the start of the Industrial Revolution. Levels are now higher than at any time in the past 800 thousand year (kyr) as recorded by air bubbles trapped in polar ice cores. Projections for ongoing man-made CO2 emissions show that, by 2100, levels will reach those estimated for the mid-Cenozoic (ca. 40 million years ago) when Earth was much warmer and less glaciated than today featuring, for example, a genuinely green Greenland.

These startling observations are a powerful incentive to improve our understanding of the past climate system. For example, we are working to understand the history and cause of polar ice sheet growth and decay and links to extreme variability in rainfall over the continents in regions predicted to be susceptible to dramatic change in their hydroclimate by 2100.

My research background is in palaeoceanography and palaeoclimatology. For the past 20 years or so I have worked extensively with the International Ocean Discovery Program to recover and study new climate archives from deep-sea sediments.

I have spent over a year of my life at sea working aboard the JOIDES Resolution. I am fortunate to have participated in six expeditions including two as Co-Chief Scientist:

Pacific Atolls and Guyots
Blake Nose Atlantic Depth Transect, 171B
Paleogene Pacific Latitudinal Transect
Demerara Rise Cretaceous Oceanic Anoxic Events, 207
Pacific Equatorial Age Transect, 320
Paleogene Newfoundland Sediment Drifts, 342

My PhD students, post-doctoral researchers and colleagues have participated in many others. IODP is often referred to as the space program of the Earth Sciences. It tackles big research problems in a genuinely internationally collaborative way and its outputs underpin a great deal of geoscience research in academia and industry. You can learn more about what life is like aboard the JOIDES Resolution during one of these two month-long expeditions here.

Research interests

Specialisms: Palaeoceanography & Carbonate Sedimentology/Geochemistry

I am interested in the stability of high CO2 climates, the mechanisms of transition between climate states, the origin and stability of early ice sheets, teleconnections between these events atmospheric circulation, extreme perturbations to the carbon cycle and the hydrological responses to climate forcing. My research group is currently actively pursuing research questions using marine sediments of Holocene, Plio-Pleistocene, Miocene, Oligocene and Eocene age.

JOIDES Resolution
JOIDES Resolution

Research group

Palaeoceanography and Palaeoclimate

Research project(s)

Coupled change in global climate and the carbon cycle across the Eocene-Oligocene transition: New insight from the Pacific Ocean, IODP Exp 320

A journey from icehouse to greenhouse and back again...a story of Antarctic ice sheet stability and CO2

North vs South? What’s filling the Atlantic?

From icebergs to ice sheets; provenance of ice rafted sediments

PISTON: Does Developmental Plasticity Influence Speciation?

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Articles

Books

Book Chapters

Conferences

  • Lyle, M., & Wilson, P. A. (2006). Leg 199 synthesis: evolution of the Equatorial Pacific in the Early Cenozoic. In P. A. Wilson, M. Lyle, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 39pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM).
  • Pälike, H., Norris, R. D., Herrle, J. O., Wilson, P. A., Coxall, H. K., Lear, C. H., ... Wade, B. S. (2006). Pacific Oligocene reference curve (invited talk). In International Association for Mathematical Geology XIth Congress Abstract Volume Liège, Belgium: IAMG.
  • Herrle, J. O., Wilson, P. A., & Pälike, H. (2004). High resolution benthic foraminiferal stable isotope records from the late early Oligocene. In 8th International Conference on Paleoceanography (ICP) Programme Book (pp. 38-39). Biarritz, France: UMR 5805 EPOC, CNRS, Bordeaux 1 University, France.
  • Quintin, L., Faul, K., Lear, C. H., Graham, D., Peng, C., Murray, R. W., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Geochemical analysis of bulk marine sediment by Inductively Coupled Plasma–Atomic Emission Spectroscopy on board the JOIDES Resolution. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 14pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.107.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Leg 199 explanatory notes. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 70pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.102.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Leg 199 summary. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 87pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.101.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1215. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 59pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.108.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1216. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. (pp. 47pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.109.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1217. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 64pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.110.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1218. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 125pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.111.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1219. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 128pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.112.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1220. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 92pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.113.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1221. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 65pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.114.2002
  • Backman, J., Busch, W. H., Coxall, H. K., Faul, K., Gaillot, P. A., Hovan, S. A., ... Wilson, P. A. (2002). Site 1222. In M. Lyle, P. A. Wilson, & T. R. Janecek (Eds.), Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports. Vol. 199. Paleogene Equatorial Transect. Covering Leg 199 of the cruises of the Drilling Vessel "Joides Resolution", Honolulu, Hawaii, to Honolulu, Hawaii, Sites 1215-1222, 23 Oct-16 Dec 2001 (pp. 56pp). College Station TX, USA: Texas A & M University Ocean Drilling Program (CDROM). DOI: 10.2973/odp.proc.ir.199.115.2002
Professor Paul Wilson
Ocean and Earth Science
National Oceanography Centre Southampton
University of Southampton Waterfront Campus
European Way
Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK

Room Number: NOCS/164/20

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