Dr Nick Scroxton

    Geography, ICARUS

    Associate Professor

    Biography

    I am a paleoclimatologist working on rainfall variability in past, present, and future climates. I specialise in using stalagmite geochemistry to reconstruct past rainfall variability in southern hemisphere tropical monsoon regions during periods of abrupt climate change. However, I am interested in rainfall variability on all time scales and places, including Ireland. I have an interest in working collaboratively with the Aid and Development sectors to synthesise and disseminate state of the art climate information, to climate proof real world adaptation and mitigation strategies. I also work on understanding the impacts of past climatic changes on environments, flora and fauna and human societies. I work collaboratively with paleoanthropologists, palaeontologists, and archaeologists to uncover how past climate variability has shaped and influenced human evolution, megafaunal extinctions and societal transformations. 
     I received a Ph.D. in Paleoclimatology at The Australian National University (2015), following an MESci in Earth Sciences (2009) and a BA in Geology at Oxford University (2008). I was a Postdoctoral Research Scholar at University of Massachusetts Amherst before becoming an Irish Research Council/Marie Skłodowska Curie Cofund CAROLINE Fellow at University College Dublin, with secondment at the Irish NGO Self Help Africa. I 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. 

    Peer Reviewed Journals

      Year Publication
    2022 'Southern Hemisphere controls on ITCZ variability in southwest Madagascar over the past 117,000 years'
    Burns, Stephen J and McGee, David and Scroxton, Nick and Kinsley, Christopher W and Godfrey, Laurie R and Faina, Peterson and Ranivoharimanana, Lovasoa (2022) 'Southern Hemisphere controls on ITCZ variability in southwest Madagascar over the past 117,000 years'. Quaternary Science Reviews, 276 [Details]
    2021 'Comparing the paleoclimates of northwestern and southwestern Madagascar during the late Holocene: Implications for the role of climate in megafaunal extinction'
    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 [Details]
    2021 'Historical droughts in Southeast Australia recorded in a New South Wales stalagmite'
    Nick Scroxton;Maureen Walczak;Monika Markowska;Jian-xin Zhao;Stewart Fallon; (2021) 'Historical droughts in Southeast Australia recorded in a New South Wales stalagmite'. The Holocene, [DOI] [Details]
    2017 'Hemispherically in-phase precipitation variability over the last 1700 years in a Madagascar speleothem record'
    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] [Details]
    2016 'Natural attrition and growth frequency variations of stalagmites in southwest Sulawesi over the past 530,000 years'
    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] [Details]
    2019 'Evaluating model outputs using integrated global speleothem records of climate change since the last glacial'
    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] [Details]
    2018 'The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems'
    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-Mejías;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] [Details]
    2018 'Rapid measurement of strontium in speleothems using core-scanning micro X-ray fluorescence'
    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] [Details]
    2011 'Persistent El Niño-Southern Oscillation variation during the Pliocene Epoch'
    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] [Details]
    2019 'Millennial and orbital scale variability of the South American Monsoon during the penultimate glacial period'
    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] [Details]
    2019 'A new interpretation of Madagascar's megafaunal decline: The “Subsistence Shift Hypothesis”'
    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 “Subsistence Shift Hypothesis”'. Journal of Human Evolution, [DOI] [Details]
    2019 'Competing Temperature and Atmospheric Circulation Effects on Southwest Madagascan Rainfall During the Last Deglaciation'
    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] [Details]