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Nick Scroxton

@stalagnick.bsky.social
151 followers 91 following 54 posts

Paleoclimatologist. Ringmaster @climatecircus. Stalagmite afficiando. he/him 🏳️‍🌈

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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 29/05/2026
Dynamic Electricity Tariffs are arriving in Ireland (equivalent of Octopus Agile). So I wrote an explainer. Lower bills and lower carbon emissions. A win-win.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
I also spoke to RTE News at One yesterday on what an Early Warning Flood System for Ireland would look like. This morning, they've also turned that into a Brainstorm article!
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 29/01/2026
Wrote a thing for RTE Brainstorm! When Does Spring Begin? February or March? In the article I touch on how Ireland's unique geography and climate result in a battle of light versus warmth in shaping our perceptions and definitions of the beginning of Spring.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Declining river flows forced Stegodon and the hobbit out of their remote mountain refuge, potentially bringing the face to face with Homo sapiens. Paper out now at: www.nature.com/articles/s43...
nature.com
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
We combined a new stalagmite geochemical record of seasonal rainfall variability with archaeological evidence to show an extreme summer rainfall drought beginning 61,000 years ago coincided with declines in the hobbit's key prey, the pygmy elephant Stegodon.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 08/12/2025
Who killed the hobbit? 💀🐘🦴⛰️🌧️☀️🪨⛏️ Our new paper out today in Communications Earth and Environment reveals the role of a major drought in the disappearance of the diminutive hominin Homo floresiensis. theconversation.com/the-hobbits-...
theconversation.com
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Reposted by Nick Scroxton
Carbon Brief @carbonbrief.org · 15/05/2025
NEW – Analysis: Clean energy just put China’s CO2 emissions into reverse for first time | @laurimyllyvirta.bsky.social Read here: buff.ly/6eAcjRU
Line chart – China's CO2 emissions are now 1% below their March 2024 peak: China’s emissions from fossil fuels and cement, million tonnes of CO2, rolling 12-month totals. Source: Emissions are estimated from National Bureau of Statistics data on production of different fuels and cement, China Customs data on imports and exports and WIND Information data on changes in inventories, applying emissions factors from China’s latest national greenhouse gas emissions inventory and annual emissions factors per tonne of cement production until 2024. Sector breakdown of coal consumption is estimated using coal consumption data from WIND Information and electricity data from the National Energy Administration.
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S4 2025 @s42025.bsky.social · 16/04/2025
Less than a month left for you to apply Deadline : May 14, 2025 www.speleothemschool.com/apply
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
Wow! 😲😲
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 22/04/2025
China powers up first Thorium Molten Salt Reactor. Big, exciting step for clean energy with far lower weapons, waste and meltdown potential. futurism.com/china-thoriu...
futurism.com
China Fires Up World's First Thorium-Powered Nuclear Reactor
Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences revealed the successful refueling of an operational Thorium-powered nuclear reactor.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 15/04/2025
Big deal going under the news radar: IMO introduces regulation of shipping emissions. International shipping accounts for 3% of emissions yet is not attributable to individual nations and therefore is not part of most legally binding targets. This is a mini-Paris moment. eutoday.net/landmark-dea...
eutoday.net
"Landmark" deal agreed on global shipping - https://eutoday.net
Apostolos Tzitzikostas, Commissioner for Sustainable Transport and Tourism, noted, “This landmark deal highlights the strong commitment of the international
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Melanie Leng @meljleng.bsky.social · 13/04/2025
This issue of Quaternary Science Reviews comprises reviews on stable isotopes in different types of records. This is an update of the 2004 issue on “Isotopes in Quaternary Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction (ISOPAL)”, volume 23, issue 7–8, pages 739–992. www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
sciencedirect.com
Isotopes in Palaeoenvironmental Research – A 20 year update
This special issue of Quaternary Science Reviews comprises a series of review papers which discuss the application of stable isotopes to different typ…
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 29/03/2025
Electrification better than insulation? Some interesting thoughts (and studies!) here. cleantechnica.com/2025/03/27/t...
cleantechnica.com
The "Fabric First" Trap: Decades Of Studies Show Electrification Wins Every Time - CleanTechnica
Over-insulating buildings through “fabric first” wastes money and delays decarbonization; electrification with moderate insulation gets much bigger results.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 18/03/2025
U-Series sampling day. Taking those lovely polished stalagmites from last week and drilling out top and bottom powder samples so that we can date them and understand their growth history. 100mg should do the trick.
On a white lab bench sits a polished stalagmite slab with ruler, a dremel multitool with drill attachment and various other sampling tools such as a scoop, scalpel and plastic vial.
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PLOS Climate @plosclimate.org · 10/03/2025
New research by @tylerbarrett.bsky.social, @rakramer.bsky.social and colleagues finds that climate change is a significant challenge for farmers in northeast Madagascar, yet adaptation is limited by existing socioeconomic inequalities journals.plos.org/climate/arti...
journals.plos.org
Climate Change Perceptions and Adaptive Behavior Among Smallholder Farmers in Northeast Madagascar
Climate change is impacting the food security and health of people worldwide, and the risk for smallholder farmers is particularly high. While many studies have forecast changes to food production at ...
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 07/03/2025
They could be all sorts, most likely Holocene. Fingers crossed one of the ten turns out to have some continuous growth across the Neolithic (6-4 kyr BP ish).
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 06/03/2025
Stalagmite Polishing Day! Getting these beauties nice and smooth so that we can identify the layering and choose the best locations for u-series sampling next week.
Two sections on stalagmite sit on a white table. Alongside them is a heavy duty Flex Wet Polisher and six brightly coloured polishing pads.
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 26/02/2025
'Here we show that the AMOC is resilient to extreme greenhouse gas and North Atlantic freshwater forcings across 34 climate models.' www.nature.com/articles/s41...
nature.com
Continued Atlantic overturning circulation even under climate extremes - Nature
Climate models suggest that the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation is unlikely to collapse this century, owing to stabilization from wind-driven upwelling in the Southern Ocean.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Correction. Not the first time above 100. Must have missed that milestone!
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Good to know!
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
Amazing new record. Ireland tops 100% renewable generation for the first time ever. Thanks interconnectors. Thanterconnectors.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 20/02/2025
The most impressive part of the improvement in weather forecasting was in 1991 when scientists managed to invent a time machine to go back and improve the five day forecast. Either that or someone forgot to sort the columns by date before plotting.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Paper available here: doi.org/10.5194/cp-2....
doi.org
Spatio-temporal dynamics of speleothem growth and glaciation in the British Isles
Abstract. Reconstructing the spatio-temporal dynamics of glaciations and permafrost largely relies on surface deposits and is therefore a challenge for every glacial period older than the last due to ...
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
We created time-slice maps to compare our work with BritIce-Chrono. Our results largely agree with the ‘optimal’ reconstruction but some differences, especially with the ‘maximum’ reconstruction, show utility in including speleothem data in future reconstructions of ice-sheet extent.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
In detail, we compiled all published ages from nearly fifty years of speleothem research. Using the principle that stalagmites tend not to grow underneath ice-sheets and permafrost, we compared peaks and troughs in the age probability distributions with interglacial-glacial climate variability.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 05/02/2025
Can we use speleothem growth phases to trace the growth and decay of past ice-sheets? Our compilation of 1020 U-series dates from the UK and Ireland says Yes! Read all about it in our 📣New Paper📣 led by Sina Panitz, feat @speleoseb.bsky.social, myself and others, out now in Climate of the Past.
An artistic Irish Burren Karst landscape featuring retreating glaciers in the background. In small pockets young plants and trees are beginning to take root in an otherwise barren landscape. The landscape is mostly bright but contains a small cave entrance.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 18/01/2025
Very cool. I love this. Congratulations on a great paper Sophie!
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Reposted by Nick Scroxton
Thomas Bauska @tinyicybubbles.bsky.social · 09/01/2025
🎉🎉🎉 Woo hoo! 🎉🎉🎉 Amazing feat by the Beyond EPICA-Oldest Ice team! www.bbc.co.uk/news/article... Smashing the 800,000 year record for a continuous ice core by a country mile back to 1.2 million years ago.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
It is AI generated in Canva. Alt text is the approximate prompt. AI is useful for a social media splash, but would generally prefer an artist for more major work (once I have the grant money that pays!)
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 07/01/2025
Sounds interesting. Looking forward to reading it. Though, in my opinion, I would say the two are not one asynchronous event, rather they are two different climate events.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
I just discovered @alexkjames.bsky.social is on here. He's the lead author. Go Alex!
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Kevin Anchukaitis @thirstygecko.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Analysis of speleothems across Asia suggest no coherent 4.2kya event agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....
agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com
Regime Shifts in Holocene Paleohydrology as Recorded by Asian Speleothems
A pronounced isotopic enrichment trend is observed from 3.9 to 3.6 ka in a network of Asian speleothem records This trend is observed in records influenced by both the Indian Summer Monsoon and t...
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Links! Get your links here: Full Paper: doi.org/10.1029/2024... Free readable version: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/author...
onlinelibrary.wiley.com
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Work was funded by NSF Grant 2002556.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
We did find an abrupt isotopic enrichment 3.9-3.6 kyr BP. This ‘tropical climate shift’ is becoming more and more evident in high-res records and is temporally distinct to 4.2 (take note low res records), supporting previous work and the Double Drying hypothesis (Scroxton et al., 2023).
PCA of speleothems analysed showing in three parts, PC1 with an abrupt shift between 3.9 and 3.5 kyr BP, and PSD of periodicity, and a map showing loadings.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
In detail, we used a network of 14 high-res speleothems and some fancy stats (Laplacian Eigenmaps for Recurrence Matrices and Monte Carlo Principal Component Analysis). We find a robust 8.2ka event response, but 4.2 is not spatially coherent. Results hold for both East Asian and South Asian subsets.
Map of the locations of the 14 high res speleothems. Arrows point outwards to individual time series.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 02/01/2025
Kicking off the new year with a 📣New Paper📣 in Paleoceanography and Palecolimatology, led by Alexander James at USC, with Jun Hu, Julien-Emile Geay and others. In it we explore whether we can find regime changes in the Holocene Asian Summer Monsoons. We can for 8.2, but 4.2 falls short.
An artistic East Asian hilly karst landscape of blues and greens. Dark and heavy clouds cause rainy downpours over patches of the landscape. Angular, jagged lines in the clouds represent paleoclimate timeseries.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
Absolutely delighted for Ros! Prof. Rickaby was my MESci thesis supervisor, and I could not have wished for a better start of my research career with Ros as a supervisor and with all those in the group she led. (Even if I did jump ship (haha) to terrestrial paleoclimate)
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 31/12/2024
A very useful dataset that will underpin paleotempestology work for a long while.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 29/12/2024
Yes, especially given poor chronological control in many records. There must be plenty of examples out there. Interesting that you suspect Meltwater Pulse 1a might be one. What would be the ideal well-dated archive to test?
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Green Collective @greencollective.io · 24/12/2024
Santa won't be leaving coals for anyone this year... It's a week now since Moneypoint was in operation. With the end of the year targetted for shutdown, we suspect the era of coal generation in Ireland quietly ended last week, just a few months after the UK's last coal plant shuttered. 🏭🤞
A stacked chart of coal generation on the island of Ireland running December 10-23. There is just one plant, Moneypoint, which abruptly ends December 16.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 20/12/2024
Sphere is a relatively succinct way of saying a physical area surrounding a point. I think we need to understand both spheres to understand how climate events propagate through the climate system. Knowing where something might have impacted is still important even if it is not of unusual magnitude.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
Of course, seeing an event at the right time but not of unusual magnitude is no guarantee of it being the event in question. Individual studies must therefore be more cautious of positive results bias and confirmation bias when it comes to abrupt climate change events.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
We posit a difference in language where different studies target different spheres of influence of a climate event: individual studies delineate a 'detection sphere', while statistical studies delineate an 'impact sphere'. The difference being the relative significance/magnitude of the event.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 19/12/2024
📢New Paper📢 In our opinion piece "The Hunt for Holocene Abrupt Climate Change" in #PLOSClimate, Nick McKay and myself ask why are ACCs found easily in individual studies but not in compilations? doi.org/10.1371/jour...
An artistic snowy mountainous landscape of blues and whites with far off lands of oranges and and orange sun. Lots of angular lines and clouds. A group of people chart and explore the landscape at the front. Made by AI.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
I'm writing a grant proposal due the 10th January. I think the real deadline is the 22nd December, for my own sanity.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 17/12/2024
Shiny new ocean drilling ship will keep lots of paleoclimatologists knee deep in forams for decades to come. Hooray. But it marks another step along the road of the US abdication of science, as the scientific baton transfers from the Joides Resolution to Meng Xiang. www.science.org/content/arti...
science.org
China’s ‘dreamy’ new ship aims for Earth’s mantle—and assumes ocean-drilling leadership
As U.S.-led program falters, Meng Xiang prepares for bold mission to drill 7 kilometers below the sea floor
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 13/12/2024
Latest sunset in Ireland was today. What are you going to do with all that extra light tomorrow evening?
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Brilliant! Congratulations. And not a moment too soon.
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Nick Scroxton @stalagnick.bsky.social · 28/11/2024
Ooh, that could be exciting. I've always wanted to play around with plant models.
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