Adina Paytan, an associate research professor in UCSC's Institute of Marine Sciences, has been appointed as a 2008-09 Ocean Leadership Distinguished Lecturer.
The Consortium for Ocean Leadership's Distinguished Lecturer Series brings the scientific explorations and discoveries of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program to students and to the geoscience community in general. Since 1991, over 250 presentations have been made through the program to audiences at U.S. colleges, universities, and organizations.
As a distinguished lecturer, Paytan will give talks on the subject of "Marine barite: A recorder of ocean chemistry and productivity." Barite is a mineral deposited in ocean sediments, and Payton's research has established its value for reconstructing changes in ocean productivity and seawater chemistry in Earth's past.
Climatic, ecological, and environmental changes are recorded in the chemical and isotopic compositions of fossils and marine sediments. Payton's findings, based on studies of sediment cores collected from the seafloor at sites around the globe by the Ocean Drilling Program, have major implications for understanding the past functioning of global systems and their effects on the climate.
