Scienze, Seconda Palazzina
Responsabile Prof. Alessandra Negri
| Our research group focuses on understanding when, how, and how rapidly natural changes occurred in the oceans during the recent geological past. This approach helps to better contextualize and interpret ongoing climate and environmental changes driven by human activities. By studying geological archives and past paleoclimatic and paleoceanographic events, we use Earth’s history as a tool to read and decode current changes. |
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Areas of Interest and Projects
- Anoxia and Carbon Sequestration
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We investigate the mechanisms behind major anoxia events (oxygen depletion) in marine sediments throughout geological history, often linked to climate changes. These processes are essential to understanding carbon cycling and ongoing environmental transformations.
- Ecological Status of Marine Environments
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We assess environmental quality using the foraminiferal biotic index or Foram-AMBI, an indicator of marine ecosystem health that can also be applied to the sedimentary record.
- Foraminiferal Ecology and Biodiversity
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We deepen our knowledge of foraminiferal ecology from an actuopaleontological perspective, studying their response to stress conditions such as oxygen deficiency, acidification, methane and sulfur presence, sea ice, and anthropogenic pollutants. This approach helps distinguish between natural variability and human impacts in sediment records.
- Biocalcification and Biomolecular Approaches
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We investigate the processes regulating the formation of calcareous shells in foraminifera through biomolecular and biochemical techniques. This allows us to explore biomineralization from a geochemical perspective, analyzing variations in the shell’s elemental composition (e.g., inorganic Mg, Ca and organic components such as proteins and lipids). Integrating geochemical and biological data provides a more accurate understanding of paleoclimatic proxies used in climate reconstructions and improves the reliability of predictive models for future changes.
- Artificial Intelligence
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We apply AI and machine learning tools to facilitate and speed up the automatic identification of foraminifera, enhancing the efficiency of scientific analysis.
- Citizen Science
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We promote citizen science projects as innovative and participatory methods for collecting and processing scientific data, actively involving the community.
POTENTIAL THESIS TOPICS
• Anoxia and sea-level changes: studying the past to understand possible future environmental scenarios.
• Humans as agents of environmental change from their appearance to the present day: welcome to the Anthropocene.
• Climate change responses in the Arctic and Antarctic.
• The health status of our coastal areas.
• Designing experimental tests: foraminiferal responses in culture to emerging pollutants, with particular interest in biomineralization processes.
WHERE WE CONDUCT OUR RESEARCH
• Coastal ecosystems
• Mediterranean Sea
• Arctic and Antarctic
- Projects
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• 2025-2027 Riqualificazione ambientale di una area boschiva nella zona di falesia sottostante il borgo storico CARIVERONA Capitale Naturale
• 2025-2027 PRIN PNRR 2022 CO2 Lovers: Carbonate biomineralization under chemical stress conditions
• 2024-2026 PNRA IOPPIERS: Ice-ocean interactions in the Eastern Ross Sea
• 2024-2025 HIgh-resolution Sedimentary daTa fOR paleoclImAte recoNstruction (HISTORIAN) PNRR, Missione 4, Componente 2, Investimento 1.3 –finanziato dall’Unione europea - NextGenerationEU
• 2022-2025 PRIN 2020 ICare: Biogeochemical impact of anthropogenic pollutants on benthic foraminifera
• 2022-2024 PNRA LASAGNE: Formation of laminated sediments in Antarctic sea-ice environments
• 2021-2024 PNRA TENORE: Improve the knowledge of interactions between ocean-atmosphere in TNB polynya
• 2021-2022 AMMONITI DI STRADA: Contributi annuali - Legge 113/91 - D.D. 1662 del 22-10-2020 - PANN20_00742
• 2016-2020 PNRA PLEASE: Community structure of Antarctic microplankton and foraminiferal shell geochemistry
- Strumentazione
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Stereomicroscopes, Optical Microscopes, Fluorescence Microscope
Laser Granulometer
Freeze dryer
Staff
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Prof. Alessandra Negri |
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Prof. Anna Sabbatini |
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Dott. Elisa Costanzi PhD Students in Sustainable Development and Climate change IUSS Pavia |
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Laura Bellentani PhD Students in Sustainable Development and Climate change IUSS Pavia |
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Francesca Caridi Post Doc Student |  |