Benthic Foraminifera and Global Change Lab
Led by Dr. Laia Alegret, the Benthic Foraminifera and Global Change Lab at the University of Zaragoza brings together pre- and postdoctoral students and researchers aiming to understand past global environmental change, to look into causes and consequences, and gain a well-founded understanding of the workings of Earth system, as indispensable contextualization of the current and future global change.
The study of microscopic fossils over millions of years, in particular benthic foraminifera (unicellular organisms that provide the best fossil record of the diversity at the seafloor), helps document the penetration of global changes into the largest and one of the most stable habitats on Earth, the deep ocean.
Research in the lab covers four fundamental research lines:
Micropaleontology and benthic foraminifera.
Taxonomy and paleoecology.
Applications, paleoenvironmental reconstructions, paleoceanography.
Evolution and extinction events.
Other microfossils as proxies for ocean change.
Critical events.
Rapid vs. gradual climate changes.
Oceanic anoxic events.
Asteroid impacts.
Biogeochemical cycles, biotic changes.
Benthic foraminifera as proxies for global change.
How does global change penetrate in the deep-sea?
How does the deep-sea relate to conditions and life at the surface?
Contribution to the study of the current climate change.
Zealandia, the submerged continent.
How did the continent, and its climate, evolve over the last 70 million years?
Benthic foraminifera: species, endemisms, evolution.
Paleobathymetric reconstructions.
Subduction, geological risks.
