Dr Nick Scroxton
Biography
Dr. Nick Scroxton is a paleoclimatologist working on rainfall variability in past, present, and future climates. He specialises in using stalagmite geochemistry to reconstruct past rainfall variability in southern hemisphere tropical monsoon systems but has broad research interests relating to past climate variability in Ireland, working collaboratively with the Aid and Development sectors to climate proof real world adaptation and mitigation strategies, and working collaboratively with paleoanthropologists on human evolution, megafaunal extinctions and societal transformations.
Dr. Scroxton joined the Department of Geography and the Irish Climate Analysis and Research UnitS (ICARUS) at Maynooth University as an Assistant Professor of Climate Change in 2021. Prior to that he has worked at University College Dublin as an Irish Research Council/Marie Skłodowska Curie Cofund CAROLINE Fellow (2019-2021), a Postdoctoral Research Scholar and the University of Massachusetts and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (2015-2019), conducted a Ph.D. in Paleoclimatology at The Australian National University (2015), and gained an MESci in Earth Sciences (2009) and a BA in Geology at Oxford University (2008).
Research Interests
- Reconstructing past rainfall variability and dynamics using stalagmite geochemistry, with a focus on southern hemisphere tropical monsoon systems, and a multi-proxy approach.
- Past rainfall variability across Ireland, focusing on spatial heterogeneity and high resolution records.
- Investigating the impact of past changes in climate, volcanism and human land use on past environments, including hominin, primate evolution and extinction, and civilization collapse.
- Modern climate variability in southern Africa. Investigating emergent trends and future projections in rainfall variability using remote sensing and model outputs, and their impact on smallholder farmers and development strategies of agricultural development NGOs.
Grants:
2022 2,960 EUR Research Incentivization Award, Department of Geography, Maynooth University (PI)
‘Investigating past drought variability in Ireland using high resolution trace element concentrations of stalagmites from Crag Cave, Co. Kerry’ (RIA22.03)
2022 6,800 EUR Geological Survey Ireland Equipment Grant (co-PI)
‘Expansion of ICARUS Palaeo Research Laboratory’ (2021-EC-002).
Total project award of 22,500 EUR to three PIs.
2022 no direct Geological Survey Ireland Short Call (co-applicant)
‘A multi-proxy geology approach to resolving critical uncertainties in Irish cosmogenic nuclide geochronology’.
Total project award of 29,859 EUR to Dr. Bromley, University of Galway.
2020 10,306 EUR Enterprise Ireland Proposal Development Award (PI)
‘Locating past volcanic eruptions with stalagmites’
2019 173,434 EUR Irish Research Council and Marie Skłodowska-Curie CoFund CAROLINE Fellowship (PI)
‘Constraining past moisture variability in sub-Saharan Africa to improve future projections and enhance resiliency under a changing climate’
2018 22,000 USD MISTI Global Seed Fund (PI)
‘Dominican Republic Caves and Climate Collaboration’. Fieldwork and conference seed fund to develop a new field area and international collaborations in the Dominican Republic.
2017 627,103 USD National Science Foundation P2C2 (I)
‘Madagascar Caves and Paleoclimate (MADCAP), Investigating climate variability in the Southern Hemisphere of the Western Indian Ocean’. PIs: Stephen Burns, David McGee, Laurie Godfrey. Named investigator on the grant, contributing to project design and grant writing.
2014 2,000 AUD Ocean and Climate Geosciences Cluster, ANU (PI)
‘Wee Jasper Speleothem Project: Carey’s Cave’. Fieldwork and analysis seed fund to set up Carey’s Cave, New South Wales as a field site for cave monitoring and speleothem paleoclimatology.
€210,100
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Noone, S; D'Arcy, C.,; Donegan, S.,; Durkan, W.,; Essel, B.,; Healion, K.,; Hersbach, H.,; Madden, S.,; Marshall, J.,; McConnell, L.,; Mensah, I.,; Scroxton, N.,; Thiesen, S.,; Thorne, P. (2024) 'Investigating the potential for students to contribute to climate data rescue: Introducing the Climate Data Rescue Africa project (CliDaR- Africa)'. Geoscience Data Journal, (00,1-17). [Link] [DOI] | |
| 2024 | Robin R. Dawson; Stephen J. Burns; Benjamin H. Tiger; David McGee; Peterson Faina; Nick Scroxton; Laurie R Godfrey; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana (2024) 'Zonal control on Holocene precipitation in northwestern Madagascar based on a stalagmite from Anjohibe'. Scientific Reports, 14 (5496). [Link] [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2024 | Berry L Williams; Stephen J Burns; Nick Scroxton; Laurie R Godfrey; Benjamin H Tiger; Brian Yellen; Robin R Dawson; Peterson Faina; David McGee; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana (2024) 'A speleothem record of hydroclimate variability in northwestern Madagascar during the mid-late Holocene'. Holocene, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2023 | Benjamin H. Tiger; Stephen J. Burns; Robin R. Dawson; Nick Scroxton; Laurie R. Godfrey; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana; Peterson Faina; David McGee (2023) 'Zonal Indian Ocean Variability Drives Millennial-Scale Precipitation Changes in Northern Madagascar'. Paleoceanography And Paleoclimatology, 38 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2023 | Scroxton N.; Burns S.J.; McGee D.; Godfrey L.R.; Ranivoharimanana L.; Faina P.; Tiger B.H. (2023) 'Tropical Indian Ocean basin hydroclimate at the Mid- to Late-Holocene transition and the double drying hypothesis'. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 300 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2023 | Scroxton N.; Burns S.J.; McGee D.; Godfrey L.R.; Ranivoharimanana L.; Faina P.; Tiger B.H. (2023) 'Hydroclimate variability in the Madagascar and Southeast African summer monsoons at the Mid- to Late-Holocene transition'. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 300 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2022 | Scroxton N.; Gagan M.K.; Ayliffe L.K.; Hantoro W.S.; Hellstrom J.C.; Cheng H.; Edwards R.L.; Zhao J.x.; Suwargadi B.W.; Rifai H. (2022) 'Antiphase response of the Indonesian–Australian monsoon to millennial-scale events of the last glacial period'. Scientific Reports, 12 (1). [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2022 | Burns S.J.; McGee D.; Scroxton N.; Kinsley C.W.; Godfrey L.R.; Faina P.; Ranivoharimanana L. (2022) 'Southern Hemisphere controls on ITCZ variability in southwest Madagascar over the past 117,000 years'. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, 276 . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Faina, P; Burns, SJ; Godfrey, LR; Crowley, BE; Scroxton, N; McGee, D; Sutherland, MR; Ranivoharimanana, L (2021) 'Comparing the paleoclimates of northwestern and southwestern Madagascar during the late Holocene: Implications for the role of climate in megafaunal extinction'. 15 . [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Nick Scroxton; Maureen Walczak; Monika Markowska; Jian-xin Zhao; Stewart Fallon; (2021) 'Historical droughts in Southeast Australia recorded in a New South Wales stalagmite'. Holocene, . [DOI] [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Godfrey L.R.; Crowley B.E.; Muldoon K.M.; Burns S.J.; Scroxton N.; Klukkert Z.S.; Ranivoharimanana L.; Alumbaugh J.; Borths M.; Dart R.; Faina P.; Goodman S.M.; Gutierrez I.J.; Hansford J.P.; Hekkala E.R.; Kinsley C.W.; Lehman P.; Lewis M.E.; McGee D.; Pérez V.R.; Rahantaharivao N.J.; Rakotoarijaona M.; Rasolonjatovo H.A.M.; Samonds K.E.; Turvey S.T.; Vasey N.; Widmann P. (2021) 'Teasing Apart Impacts of Human Activity and Regional Drought on Madagascar’s Large Vertebrate Fauna: Insights From New Excavations at Tsimanampesotse and Antsirafaly'. Frontiers In Ecology And Evolution, 9 . [DOI] | |
| 2020 | Comas-Bru L.; Rehfeld K.; Roesch C.; Amirnezhad-Mozhdehi S.; Harrison S.P.; Atsawawaranunt K.; Ahmad S.M.; Brahim Y.A.; Baker A.; Bosomworth M.; Breitenbach S.F.M.; Burstyn Y.; Columbu A.; Deininger M.; Demény A.; Dixon B.; Fohlmeister J.; Hatvani I.G.; Hu J.; Kaushal N.; Kern Z.; Labuhn I.; Lechleitner F.A.; Lorrey A.; Martrat B.; Novello V.F.; Oster J.; Pérez-Mejías C.; Scholz D.; Scroxton N.; Sinha N.; Ward B.M.; Warken S.; Zhang H.; Apaéstegui J.; Baldini L.M.; Band S.; Blaauw M.; Boch R.; Borsato A.; Budsky A.; Rosell M.G.B.; Chawchai S.; Constantin S.; Denniston R.; Dragusin V.; Drysdale R.; Dumitru O.; Frappier A.; Gandhi N.; Gautam P.; Hanying L.; Isola I.; Jiang X.; Jingyao Z.; Johnson K.; Vanessa Johnston ; Kathayat G.; Klose J.; Krause C.; Lachniet M.; Laskar A.; Lauritzen S.E.; Lončar N.; Moseley G.; Narayana A.C.; Onac B.P.; Racovitǎ E.; Pawlak J.; Ramsey C.B.; Rivera-Collazo I.; Rossi C.; Rowe P.J.; Stríkis N.M.; Tan L.; Verheyden S.; Vonhof H.; Weber M.; Wendt K.; Wilcox P.; Winter A.; Wu J.; Wynn P.; Yadava M.G. (2020) 'SISALv2: A comprehensive speleothem isotope database with multiple age-depth models'. Earth System Science Data, 12 (4):2579-2606. [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Laia Comas-Bru; Sandy P. Harrison; Martin Werner; Kira Rehfeld; Nick Scroxton; Cristina Veiga-Pires; (2019) 'Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial'. Climate of the Past, . [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Khider D.; Emile-Geay J.; McKay N.P.; Gil Y.; Garijo D.; Ratnakar V.; Alonso-Garcia M.; Bertrand S.; Bothe O.; Brewer P.; Bunn A.; Chevalier M.; Comas-Bru L.; Csank A.; Dassié E.; DeLong K.; Felis T.; Francus P.; Frappier A.; Gray W.; Goring S.; Jonkers L.; Kahle M.; Kaufman D.; Kehrwald N.M.; Martrat B.; McGregor H.; Richey J.; Schmittner A.; Scroxton N.; Sutherland E.; Thirumalai K.; Allen K.; Arnaud F.; Axford Y.; Barrows T.; Bazin L.; Pilaar Birch S.E.; Bradley E.; Bregy J.; Capron E.; Cartapanis O.; Chiang H.W.; Cobb K.M.; Debret M.; Dommain R.; Du J.; Dyez K.; Emerick S.; Erb M.P.; Falster G.; Finsinger W.; Fortier D.; Gauthier N.; George S.; Grimm E.; Hertzberg J.; Hibbert F.; Hillman A.; Hobbs W.; Huber M.; Hughes A.L.C.; Jaccard S.; Ruan J.; Kienast M.; Konecky B.; Le Roux G.; Lyubchich V.; Novello V.F.; Olaka L.; Partin J.W.; Pearce C.; Phipps S.J.; Pignol C.; Piotrowska N.; Poli M.S.; Prokopenko A.; Schwanck F.; Stepanek C.; Swann G.E.A.; Telford R.; Thomas E.; Thomas Z.; Truebe S.; von Gunten L.; Waite A.; Weitzel N.; Wilhelm B.; Williams J.; Winstrup M.; Zhao N.; Zhou Y. (2019) 'PaCTS 1.0: A Crowdsourced Reporting Standard for Paleoclimate Data'. Paleoceanography And Paleoclimatology, 34 (10):1570-1596. [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Laurie R. Godfrey; Nick Scroxton; Brooke E. Crowley; Stephen J. Burns; Michael R. Sutherland; Ventura R. Pérez; Peterson Faina; David McGee; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana; (2019) 'A new interpretation of Madagascar's megafaunal decline: The âSubsistence Shift Hypothesisâ'. Journal of Human Evolution, . [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Nick Scroxton; Stephen J. Burns; David McGee; Ben Hardt; Laurie R. Godfrey; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana; Peterson Faina; (2019) 'Competing Temperature and Atmospheric Circulation Effects on Southwest Madagascan Rainfall During the Last Deglaciation'. Paleoceanography And Paleoclimatology, . [DOI] | |
| 2019 | Stephen J. Burns; Lisa Kanner Welsh; Nick Scroxton; Hai Cheng; R. Lawrence Edwards; (2019) 'Millennial and orbital scale variability of the South American Monsoon during the penultimate glacial period'. Scientific Reports, . [DOI] | |
| 2018 | Kamolphat Atsawawaranunt; Laia Comas-Bru; Sahar Amirnezhad Mozhdehi; Michael Deininger; Sandy P. Harrison; Andy Baker; Meighan Boyd; Nikita Kaushal; Syed Masood Ahmad; Yassine Ait Brahim; Monica Arienzo; Petra Bajo; Kerstin Braun; Yuval Burstyn; Sakonvan Chawchai; Wuhui Duan; István Gábor Hatvani; Jun Hu; Zoltán Kern; Inga Labuhn; Matthew Lachniet; Franziska A. Lechleitner; Andrew Lorrey; Carlos Pérez-MejÃas; Robyn Pickering; Nick Scroxton; SISAL Working Group Members; (2018) 'The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems'. Earth System Science Data, . [DOI] | |
| 2018 | Nick Scroxton; Stephen Burns; Pete Dawson; J. Michael Rhodes; Kaylee Brent; David McGee; Henk Heijnis; Patricia Gadd; Wahyoe Hantoro; Mike Gagan; (2018) 'Rapid measurement of strontium in speleothems using core-scanning micro X-ray fluorescence'. Chemical Geology, . [DOI] | |
| 2017 | Nick Scroxton; Stephen J. Burns; David McGee; Ben Hardt; Laurie R. Godfrey; Lovasoa Ranivoharimanana; Peterson Faina; (2017) 'Hemispherically in-phase precipitation variability over the last 1700 years in a Madagascar speleothem record'. QUATERNARY SCIENCE REVIEWS, . [DOI] | |
| 2016 | Scroxton, N.; Gagan, M.K.; Dunbar, G.B.; Ayliffe, L.K.; Hantoro, W.S.; Shen, C.-C.; Hellstrom, J.C.; Zhao, J.-X.; Cheng, H.; Edwards, R.L.; Sun, H.; Rifai, H.; (2016) 'Natural attrition and growth frequency variations of stalagmites in southwest Sulawesi over the past 530,000 years'. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, . [DOI] | |
| 2011 | Scroxton, N.; Bonham, S.G.; Rickaby, R.E.M.; Lawrence, S.H.F.; Hermoso, M.; Haywood, A.M.; (2011) 'Persistent El Niño-Southern Oscillation variation during the Pliocene Epoch'. Paleoceanography, . [DOI] |
Teaching Interests
My main teaching interests revolve around teaching Climate Science in a positive, solution orientated manner, skills-focused courses that blend direct and transferable skills with content in practical-forward classes, and deeper dives into paleoenvironments and paleoclimates focusing on how as much as what, all with relevance to modern crises and their solutions.
2023-2024
- GY162 - Global Environments 2
- GY202 - Methods in Geography
- GY308 - Field Methods for Geography and Ecology
- GY664 - Palaeoclimatology
2022-2023
- GY162 - Global Environments 2
- GY201 - Methods in Geography
- GY202 - Methods in Geography
- GY308 - Field Methods for Geography and Ecology
- GY664 - Palaeoclimatology
- GY652 - Applied Climate Science
2021-2022
- GY162 - Global Environments 2
- GY201 - Methods in Geography
- GY202 - Methods in Geography
- GY205 - Field Methods for Geography and Ecology
- GY310B - Geography Research Workshops: Water Stress
- GY663 - Detection Attribution and Decision Making
- GY671 - Field Course
- GY652 - Applied Climate Science
2017 - College of Natural Sciences Teaching Fellow (University of Massachusetts Amherst)
- GEOG110 - Global Environmental Change
- NATSCI191 - Not just hot air: Cycles and Trends in Climate