Topics for internships or student research projects

• Milankovitch forcing of climate
  Is precession the dominant parameter? Where do we expect to find obliquity signals? Eccentricity may be important during the Quaternary, when the Northern Hemisphere experiences glaciations, but what about earlier time periods? These issues can be addressed by analysing long climate model simulations with orbital forcing and/or reconstructed ice caps and greenhouse gas concentrations. This is a collaboration with the Earth Sciences Department.
• Variations in atmospheric methane concentration
  Why is the methane concentration reduced during a glacial? Is this due to the shut-down of (boreal or tropical) wetlands, or completely different causes like lower productivity of plants? And did humans start to influence atmospheric methane (by agriculture) already in the early Holocene? Here we compute methane emissions with a simple process model, forced off-line by climate model output.
• Greenhouse worlds of the past
  Proxy data indicate mild polar temperatures during past Greenhouse climates, like the mid-Pliocene or the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). In contrast, the tropics were just a few degrees warmer than at present. Which mechanism was responsible? This question can be addressed with snap-shot simulations with a climate model forced by high greenhouse gas levels. The answer is obviously very relevant for predictions of the future climate.
• Rivers of the World.
  Here we will use a global run-off model which has been developed at the Department of Physical Geography to compute changes in river flow during the past. Focus is on the Holocene.
• 1000 yrs of Climate in the Low Countries
  Here we analyse several aspects of the reconstruction of Buisman (this is the one topic where models are not used!).

Contributions to various university courses at the Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University

• Hydrology, climate change and fluvial systems (GEO4-4423), MSc course, lecturer, 2007-present.
• Reconstructing Quaternary environments (GEO4-4409), MSc course, lecturer, 2008-present.
• Astronomical climate forcing and timescales (GEO4-1412), MSc course, lecturer, 2009-present.
• System Earth Modelling (Prestige Masters), seminar, 2008

Other

• The climate system, introductory course for KNMI research staff, development of the course, organiser and lecturer, 2004-present. This is a course consisting of two independent blocks. The last oblock took place 17-19 November 2009, the next one will be 1-3 June 2010.
• CKO International Summerschool, lecturer, 21-30 Septembre 2003, Les Diablerets, Switzerland.

Recent talks for download

SEM seminar

Back to homepage of Nanne Weber