Ellen Thomas – Page 3

#THISISWHY Research Professor Ellen Thomas grasps a glass-enclosed sample of hundreds of microfossils, each a white fleck of limestone barely visible to the human eye. "The first time students look at these they say, 'they all look the same to me,' but in reality, they are all have very different shapes," Thomas says. "Even under a microscope, it can be difficult for a new eye to see the differences, but each species has its own shape; some have a much more open, light structure because they lived floating in the oceans close to the surface. Others have denser shells and lived on the bottom of the ocean,…

Wesleyan faculty Joop Varekamp and Ellen Thomas are among the authors of a paper on rates of sea-level rise along the eastern U.S. seaboard titled "Late Holocene sea level variability and Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation," published in the journal Paleoceanography, Volume 29, Issue 8, pages 765–777 in August 2014. Varekamp is the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental sciences and professor of environmental studies. Thomas is research professor of earth and environmental sciences at Wesleyan, and also a senior research scientist in geology and geophysics at Yale University. Pre-20th century sea level variability remains poorly understood due to…

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the author of a paper titled "Rapid and sustained surface ocean acidification during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum," published in Paleoceanography, May 2014. In this paper Thomas and her colleagues document that ocean acidification of the surface ocean not only occurred during past times of global warming and high CO2 levels, but also by how much — about 0.3 pH units. The group studied planktic foraminifers from a drill site in the North Pacific. Thomas' study has been highlighted in a press release from Columbia University and also on Phys.org.

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of a paper titled "Carbon Sequestration during the Palaeocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum by an Efficient Biological Pump," published in the April 2014 edition of Nature Geoscience. In the paper, Thomas explains how ocean-dwelling bacteria may have vacuumed up carbon and halted a period of extreme warmth some 56 million years ago. The finding suggests how Earth might once have rapidly reversed a runaway greenhouse effect. Its effect on global oceanic productivity is controversial. In the paper, Thomas and her colleagues present records of marine barite accumulation rates that show distinct peaks during…

Joop Varekamp and Ellen Thomas are the authors of three chapters included in a reference volume for Long Island Sound. The book, Long Island Sound: Prospects for the Urban Sea, is published by Springer in 2013. Varekamp is the Harold T. Stearns Professor of Earth Science, professor of earth and environmental sciences, professor of environmental studies. Thomas is research professor of earth and environmental sciences. Varekamp co-authored a chapter titled "Metals, Organic Compounds and Nutrients in Long Island Sound: Sources, Magnitudes, Trends and Impacts," and another chapter titled "The Physical Oceanography of Long Island Sound." Thomas co-authored a chapter titled…

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, was named the winner of the 2013 Association for Women Geoscientists Professional Excellence Award in the Academia category. This award recognizes exceptional women who have made distinguished contributions in their professions throughout their careers. "The Award Committee was especially impressed with the breadth and depth of your professional accomplishments, your commitment to mentoring, and the emphasis you have placed on outreach and other service activities during your career," wrote Aimee Scheffer, president of the AWG in Thomas' award letter. "Congratulations and thank you for being a positive role model to current and…

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, presented a keynote address at the 11th International Conference on Paleoceanography, Sept. 1-6 in Barcelona-Sitges, Spain. The theme of this conference was "Long-term perspectives on ocean and climate dynamics" and Thomas spoke on "Dynamics of the ancient non-analogue oceans." See her CV online here.

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, is the co-author of "Surviving rapid climate change in the deep-sea during the Paleogene hyperthemals," published in the June 4 issue of The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Vol. 110, No. 23. Read the paper's abstract online here. Thomas also is the co-author of "Paleoenvironmental changes during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) and its aftermath: the benthic foraminiferal record from the Alano section (NE Italy)," published in the May 15 issue of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 378, 22-35. Read the paper's abstract online here. She also co-authored a book titled, The…

A geology book featuring a chapter co-authored by Ellen Thomas received a PROSE Award from The American Publishers Awards for Professional and Scholarly Excellence in 2013. Thomas is a research professor of earth and environmental sciences. She co-authored a chapter titled, "Carbon Isotope Stratigraphy," in the book, The Geologic Time Scale 2012, published by Elsevier in July 2012. The PROSE Awards annually recognize the very best in professional and scholarly publishing by bringing attention to distinguished books, journals, and electronic content in over 40 categories. Judged by peer publishers, librarians, and medical professionals since 1976, the PROSE Awards are extraordinary for…

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences, has been awarded the Maurice Ewing Medal by the American Geophysical Union (AGU). The medal is one of the AGU’s most prestigious awards and will be presented to Thomas during the organization’s annual meeting later this year. According to AGU, “Jointly sponsored with the United States Navy, the Ewing Medal is named in honor of Maurice Ewing, who made significant contributions to deep-sea exploration.” It is presented each year for significant original contributions to the scientific understanding of the processes in the ocean; for the advancement of oceanographic engineering, technology, and…

Dana Royer and Ellen Thomas are among the 21 authors of a review paper, "The Geological Record of Ocean Acidification," published in Science, March 2012: Vol. 335, no. 6072, pages 1058-1063. In the paper, the authors review events exhibiting evidence for elevated atmospheric CO2, global warming, and ocean acidification over the past 300 million years of Earth’s history, some with contemporaneous extinction or evolutionary turnover among marine calcifiers. Ocean acidification may have severe consequences for marine ecosystems; however, assessing its future impact is difficult because laboratory experiments and field observations are limited by their reduced ecologic complexity and sample period, respectively. Royer is…

Ellen Thomas, research professor of earth and environmental sciences is the co-author of "End-Cretaceous Marine Mass Extinction not Caused by Productivity Collapse," published in (PNAS) Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences; "Blake Outer Ridge: late Neogene variability in paleoenvironments and deep-sea biota," published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 302: 435-451; "Seawater calcium isotopic ratios across the Eocene-Oligocene Transition, published in Geology, 39: 683-686; "A core-top calibration of B/Ca in the benthic foraminifera Nuttallides umbonifera and Oridorsalis umbonatus: reconstructing bottom water carbonate saturation," published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 310: 360-368; "Ocean deoxygenation: past, present and future," published in EOS Transactions AGU, 92: 409-410, all in 2011.

Thomas Uses CT Scans, Computer-Aided Visualizations to Study and Teach Microfossils

Studies by Varekamp, Thomas Published in Paleoceanography

Thomas’s Paper Published in Paleoceanography

Thomas’s Paper Published in Nature Geoscience

Varekamp, Thomas Author Chapters on Long Island Sound Reference Volume

Thomas Wins Women Geoscientist Excellence Award

Thomas Presents Keynote Address at Paleoceanography Conference

Thomas Authors Papers, Book on Climate Change, Global Extinction

Book Co-Authored by Thomas Receives Prose Award

Thomas Honored with Prestigious AGU Award for Paleoceanography Research

Ocean Acidification Paper by Royer, Thomas Published in Science

Papers by Thomas in Several Earth Science Publications