Belen Martrat

Within the Anthropocene new epoch, the consequences of environmental oscillations at time scales relevant to human life and societal development are as yet to be explored. My research interest lies in setting boundaries to possible causes of changes occurring when thresholds are crossed in the Earth’s system: involving the temporal and spatial distribution of insolation, volcanic activity, wind patterns, ocean’s thermohaline pump, extension and retreat of marine and continental ice and the chemistry of the atmosphere. The Arctic, North Atlantic and Mediterranean regions are taken as the laboratory for tracing these processes and the tools for detecting them are fossil organic compounds originally forming part of diverse organisms, such as bacteria, archaea or eucarya (e.g. marine and terrestrial flora). The study of how transition phenomena occur in the past and present will place events to come in their proper context.

I've been awarded a Ramón y Cajal contract at CSIC-IDAEA and the Shackleton award by the University of Cambridge, elected into Life Membership of Clare Hall College as linked honours. I was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Natural Sciences magna Cum laude (B.Sc. in Agricultural Engineering - Soil Sciences and Environmental Management); PhD dissertation as publication compendium in peer-reviewed journals; attended more than 20 postgraduate programmes on the subject of environmental issues; mentoring Graduate Research Students, reviewer for ELSEVIER, SCIENCE, NATURE, AGU, EGU and editor of the special issues in Climate of the Past ‘Human–land–sea interactions in the Mediterranean Basin’ (2017) and ‘PAGES 2k’ (2018); coordinating laboratory tasks, organising and participating actively in samplings. Contributor to the Regional Climate Change Assessment Report 2010 Climate in Spain and to the Scientific Committee for updates from the Fifth IPCC Report (2014) and the CFCC15_Paris for the UNFCCC COP 21 - Climate Change Policy & Practice (2015). I have played an active role in nat./internat. projects and I'm currently leading the 2k Network [Coordination team; NATURE (2016); NATURE SCI. DATA (2017)], SISAL Middle East [QUAT. special issue (2019)] and the TORE-5deg project; member of the ‘Shackleton Site Project’ [SCIENTIFIC DRILLING, IODP] and MEDCLIVAR and MedECC international networks to coordinate and promote the study of the Mediterranean region. My contributions are published in journals with high impact factors (e.g. NATURE, NATURE GEOSCI./SCI. R./SCI. DAT/COMM, SCIENCE, etc) prioritizing Open Access and are frequently cited, meaning that they are opening a valuable line of research appreciated by the scientific community.