Staff profile

2019 – present — Professor in Earth Sciences, University of Durham, UK

2009 – present  — Director of the Sir Kingsley Dunham Palaeoclimate Laboratory , University of Durham

2015 – 2019 — Associate Professor (Reader), University of Durham, UK

2010 – 2015 — Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer), University of Durham, UK

2006 – 2010 — Assistant Professor (Lecturer), University of Durham, UK

2004 – 2006  — Postdoctoral Research Fellow , University College Dublin, Ireland

2002 – 2003  — Marie Curie Research Fellow, University of Bristol, UK

2000 – 2004  — PhD., University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

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Career Research Highlights

My research applies and develops high-resolution techniques to investigate a variety of scientific problems, and also utilises environmental monitoring and modelling to better understand the processes leading to climate proxy emplacement. A primary research interest is developing and understanding climate records created using stalagmites. I am currently the PI on the large ERC-funded HURRICANE Project, which aims to reconstruct tropical storm landfalls around the Caribbean region using stalagmites. Several current collaborations also involve archaeology, and a recent research highlight was working with a large multidisciplinary group to link cultural shifts that occurred during the Classic Maya Collapse to Central American climate variability. I am also involved in research reconstructing the North Atlantic Oscillation using stalagmites from Poland and Germany, modelling karst hydrology and the emplacement of climate signals into stalagmites, and establishing how oxygen isotopes in rainfall are affected by variability in major modes of atmospheric circulation. Related to my work with cave deposits, I have worked extensively on carbon dioxide in cave atmospheres and its effect on stalagmite climate proxies, and plan to continue this research into the future.

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Invited Talks

2018 — Grey College, Durham University.

2018 — Calman Learning Centre, Durham University.

2014 — Steinmann Institute, University of Bonn, Germany.

2014  — University of Northumbria, UK.

2013  — Durham/Newcastle Postgraduate Conference Keynote

2012  — Josephine Butler College, Durham University, UK.

2012  — Department of Geography, Durham University, UK.

2010  — RWTH Aachen, Germany.

2010  — The Open University, UK.

2010  — University of Liverpool, UK.

2008  — Natural History Society of Northumbria, UK.

2007  — Arthur Holmes Geological Society, Durham University, UK.

2004  — Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.

2004  — University College Dublin, Ireland

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Recent and Current Grants

2016 — Long-Term Human-Environmental Interaction In a Lowland Tropic Setting. NSF Collaborative Grant (Co-I; $156,157).

2015 — CoChange: Coastal societies in a changing world: A diachronic and comparative approach to the Prehistory of SW Europe from the late Palaeolithic to the Neolithic. Spanish Government grant (Co-I; 220,000 euro)

2014 — SCENT: Controls on Soil Carbon Export revealed by Novel Tracers on multiple timescales. NERC grant (Co-I; £442,072)

2009  — HURRICANE: Past hurricane activity reconstructed using cave deposits. ERC Starting Grant (PI; 1.4 million euro)

2009  — ONE Northeast MSc studentships (PI; £32,000)

2008  — NERC U-series facility grant (Co-I; £13,000)

2008  — Co-host to Marie Curie postdoctoral fellow (£150,000)

2006  — Awarded a European Synchrotron Facility grant to analyse the trace elemental geochemistry of stalagmites at an extremely high spatial resolution (£50,000)

2002 — Marie Curie Fellowship, Bristol University (£75,000)

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Chapter in book

• Baldini, J. (2010). Cave atmosphere controls on stalagmite growth rate and palaeoclimate records. In H. Pedley, & M. Rogerson (Eds.), Tufas and Speleothems: Unravelling the Microbial and Physical Controls (283-294). Geological Society Special Publication

Conference Paper

• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., & Fairchild, I. (2004). Environmental controls on annual carbonate deposition for stalagmites from Brown's Folly Mine, Wiltshire, England.
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., & Fairchild, I. (2002). Speleothem trace elements as palaeohydrological proxies during the'8,200 year' cold/dry event.

Journal Article

• Watson, T. H., & Baldini, J. U. (2024). Martian cave detection via machine learning coupled with visible light imagery. Icarus, 411, Article 115952. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.icarus.2024.115952
• Baldini, J. U. L., Brown, R. J., Wadsworth, F. B., Paine, A. R., Campbell, J. W., Green, C. E., …Baldini, L. M. (2023). Possible magmatic CO2 influence on the Laacher See eruption date. Nature, 619(7968), E1-E2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-023-05965-1
• Braun, T., Breitenbach, S. F., Skiba, V., Lechleitner, F. A., Ray, E. E., Baldini, L. M., …Marwan, N. (2023). Decline in seasonal predictability potentially destabilized Classic Maya societies. Communications Earth & Environment, 4(1), Article 82. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00717-5
• Eberhard, J., Bevan, O. E., Feulner, G., Petri, S., van Hunen, J., & Baldini, J. U. L. (2023). Sensitivity of Neoproterozoic snowball-Earth inceptions to continental configuration, orbital geometry, and volcanism. Climate of the Past, 19(11), 2203-2235. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-19-2203-2023
• Kennett, D., Masson, M., Peraza Lope, C., Serafin, S., George, R., Spencer, T., …Hodell, D. (2022). Drought-Induced Civil Conflict Among the Ancient Maya. Nature Communications, 13, Article 3911. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-31522-x
• Baldini, J. U., Lechleitner, F. A., Breitenbach, S. F., van Hunen, J., Baldini, L. M., Wynn, P. M., …Fohlmeister, J. (2021). Detecting and quantifying palaeoseasonality in stalagmites using geochemical and modelling approaches. Quaternary Science Reviews, 254, Article 106784. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106784
• Paine, A. R., Baldini, J. U., Wadsworth, F. B., Lechleitner, F. A., Jamieson, R. A., Baldini, L. M., …Kasprzak, M. (2021). The trace-element composition of a Polish stalagmite: Implications for the use of speleothems as a record of explosive volcanism. Chemical Geology, 570, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2021.120157
• Paine, A. R., Wadsworth, F. B., & Baldini, J. U. (2021). Supereruption doublet at a climate transition. Communications Earth & Environment, 2(1), Article 219. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00293-6
• Fell, H. G., Baldini, J. U., Dodds, B., & Sharples, G. J. (2020). Volcanism and global plague pandemics: Towards an interdisciplinary synthesis. Journal of Historical Geography, 70, 36-46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhg.2020.10.001
• Asmerom, Y., Baldini, J., Prufer, K., Polyak, V., Ridley, H., Aquino, V., …Kennett, D. (2020). Intertropical convergence zone variability in the Neotropics during the Common Era. Science Advances, 6(7), Article eaax3644. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.aax3644
• Baldini, L., Baldini, J., McDermott, F., Arias, P., Cueto, M., Fairchild, I., …Richards, D. (2019). North Iberian temperature and rainfall seasonality over the Younger Dryas and Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews, 226, Article 105998. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.105998
• Lechleitner, F. A., Lang, S. Q., Haghipour, N., McIntyre, C., Baldini, J. U., Prufer, K. M., & Eglinton, T. I. (2019). Towards organic carbon isotope records from stalagmites: coupled d13C and 14 C analysis using wet chemical oxidation. Radiocarbon, 61(3), 749-764. https://doi.org/10.1017/rdc.2019.35
• Sandhu, A. S., & Baldini, J. U. (2018). Evaluating the significance of the contrail effect on diurnal temperature range using the Eyjafjallajökull eruption-related flight disruption. Geophysical Research Letters, 45(23), 13,090-13,098. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018gl080899
• Atsawawaranunt, K., Comas-Bru, L., Mozhdehi, S. A., Deininger, M., Harrison, S. P., Baker, A., …Working Group Members, S. (2018). The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems. Earth System Science Data, 10(3), 1687-1713. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2018-17
• Baldini, J. U., Brown, R. J., & Mawdsley, N. (2018). Evaluating the link between the sulphur-rich Laacher See volcanic eruption and the Younger Dryas climate anomaly. Climate of the Past, 14(7), 969-990. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-14-969-2018
• Wynn, P. M., Fairchild, I., Borsato, A., Spötl, C., Hartland, A., Baker, A., …Baldini, J. (2018). Sulphate partitioning into calcite: Experimental verification of pH control and application to seasonality in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 226, 69-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2018.01.020
• Baldini, J. U., Bertram, R. A., & Ridley, H. E. (2018). Ground air: A first approximation of the Earth's second largest reservoir of carbon dioxide gas. Science of the Total Environment, 616-617, 1007-1013. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.10.218
• Lechleitner, F., Dittmar, T., Baldini, J., Prufer, K., & Eglinton, T. (2017). Molecular signatures of dissolved organic matter in a tropical karst system. Organic Geochemistry, 113, 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2017.07.015
• Smirnov, D., Breitenbach, S., Feulner, G., Lechleitner, F., Prufer, K., Baldini, J., …Kurths, J. (2017). A regime shift in the Sun-Climate connection with the end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Scientific Reports, 7, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-11340-8
• Lechleitner, F. A., Breitenbach, S. F., Rehfeld, K., Ridley, H. E., Asmerom, Y., Prufer, K. M., …Baldini, J. U. (2017). Tropical rainfall over the last two millennia: evidence for a low-latitude hydrologic seesaw. Scientific Reports, 7, Article 45809. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep45809
• Lechleitner, F., Baldini, J., Breitenbach, S., Fohlmeister, J., McIntyre, C., Goswani, B., …Eglinton, T. (2016). Hydrological and climatological controls on radiocarbon concentrations in a tropical stalagmite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 194, 233-252. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.08.039
• Baldini, L., Baldini, J., McElwaine, J., Frappier, A., Asmerom, Y., Liu, K., …Breitenbach, S. (2016). Persistent northward North Atlantic tropical cyclone track migration over the past five centuries. Scientific Reports, 6, Article 37522. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep37522
• Wassenburg, J., Scholz, D., Jochumb, K., Cheng, H., Ostere, J., Immenhauser, A., …Breitenbach, S. (2016). Determination of aragonite trace element distribution coefficients from speleothem calcite–aragonite transitions. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 190, 347-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.06.036
• Jamieson, R., Baldini, J., Brett, M., Taylor, J., Ridley, H., Ottley, C., …Breitenbach, S. (2016). Intra- and inter-annual uranium concentration variability in a Belizean stalagmite controlled by prior aragonite precipitation: A new tool for reconstructing hydro-climate using aragonitic speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 190, 332-346. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2016.06.037
• Lechleitner, F., Fohlmeister, J., McIntyre, C., Baldini, L., Jamieson, R., Hercman, H., …Baldini, J. (2016). A novel approach for construction of radiocarbon-based chronologies for speleothems. Quaternary Geochronology, 35, 54-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2016.05.006
• Ridley, H., Baldini, J., Prufer, K., Walczak, I., & Breitenbach, S. (2015). High resolution monitoring of Yok Balum Cave, Belize: an investigation of seasonal ventilation regimes and the atmospheric and drip-flow response to a local earthquake. Journal of cave and karst studies, 77(3), 183-199. https://doi.org/10.4311/2014es0117
• Baldini, J., Brown, R., & McElwaine, J. (2015). Was millennial scale climate change during the Last Glacial triggered by explosive volcanism?. Scientific Reports, 5, Article 17442. https://doi.org/10.1038/srep17442
• Jamieson, R., Baldini, J., Frappier, A., & Müller, W. (2015). Volcanic ash fall events identified using principal component analysis of a high-resolution speleothem trace element dataset. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 426, 36-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.06.014
• Baker, A., Sodemann, H., Baldini, J., Breitenbach, S., Johnson, K., van Hunen, J., & Pingzhong, Z. (2015). Seasonality of westerly moisture transport in the East Asian Summer Monsoon and its implications for interpreting precipitation δ18O. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 120(12), 5850-5862. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014jd022919
• Baldini, L., McDermott, F., Baldini, J., Arias, P., Cueto, M., Fairchild, I., …Richards, D. (2015). Regional temperature, atmospheric circulation, and sea-ice variability within the Younger Dryas Event constrained using a speleothem from northern Iberia. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 419, 101-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2015.03.015
• Allan, M., Fagel, N., Van Rampelbergh, M., Baldini, J., Riotte, J., Cheng, H., …Verheyden, S. (2015). Lead concentrations and isotope ratios in speleothems as proxies for atmospheric metal pollution since the industrial revolution. Chemical Geology, 401, 140-150. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2015.02.035
• Ridley, H., Asmerom, Y., Baldini, J., Breitenbach, S., Aquino, V., Prufer, K., …Haug, G. (2015). Aerosol forcing of the position of the intertropical convergence zone since AD1550. Nature Geoscience, 8(3), 195-200. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2353
• Walczak, I., Baldini, J., Baldini, L., McDermott, F., Marsden, S., Standish, C., …Slater, J. (2015). Reconstructing high-resolution climate using CT scanning of unsectioned stalagmites: A case study identifying the mid-Holocene onset of the Mediterranean climate in southern Iberia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 127, 117-128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.06.013
• Brett, M., Baldini, J., & Gröcke, D. (2014). Environmental controls on stable isotope ratios in New Zealand Podocarpaceae: implications for palaeoclimate reconstruction. Global and Planetary Change, 120, 38-45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloplacha.2014.05.010
• Baker, A., Mattey, D., & Baldini, J. (2014). Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 392, 239-249. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2014.02.036
• Kennett, D., Breitenbach, S., Aquino, V., Asmerom, Y., Awe, J., Baldini, J., …Haug, G. (2012). Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to climate change. Science, 338(6108), 788-791. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1226299
• Breitenbach, S., Rehfeld, K., Goswami, B., Baldini, J., Ridley, H., Kennett, D., …Marwan, N. (2012). COnstructing Proxy-Record Age models (COPRA). Climate of the Past, 8(5), 1765-1779. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-8-1765-2012
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., Baldini, L., Ottley, C., Linge, K., Clipson, N., & Jarvis, K. (2012). Identifying short-term and seasonal trends in cave drip water trace element concentrations based on a daily-scale automatically collected drip water dataset. Chemical Geology, 330-331, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2012.08.009
• Sherwin, C., & Baldini, J. (2011). Cave air and hydrological controls on prior calcite precipitation and stalagmite growth rates: Implications for palaeoclimate reconstructions using speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 75(14), 3915-3929. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2011.04.020
• Baldini, L., McDermott, F., Baldini, J., Fischer, M., & Möllhoff, M. (2010). An investigation of the controls on Irish precipitation δ18O values on monthly and event timescales. Climate Dynamics, 35(6), 977-993. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-010-0774-6
• Baldini, J. (2010). The geochemistry of cave calcite deposits as a record of past climate. The Sedimentary record, 8(2), 4-9. https://doi.org/10.2110/sedred.2010.2.4
• Rooney, D., Hutchens, E., Clipson, N., Baldini, J., & McDermott, F. (2010). Microbial community diversity of moonmilk deposits at Ballynamintra Cave, Co. Waterford, Ireland. Microbial Ecology, 60(4), 753-761. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00248-010-9693-7
• Armstrong, H., Baldini, J., Challands, T., Gröcke, D., & Owen, A. (2009). Response of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone to Southern Hemisphere cooling during Upper Ordovician glaciation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 284(3-4), 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.10.001
• Whitaker, T., Jones, D., Baldini, J., & Baker, A. (2009). A high-resolution spatial survey of cave air carbon dioxide concentrations in Scoska Cave (North Yorkshire, UK): implications for calcite deposition and re-dissolution. Cave and karst science, 36(3), 85-92
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., Hoffmann, D., Richards, D., & Clipson, N. (2008). Very high-frequency and seasonal cave atmosphere PCO2 variability: Implications for stalagmite growth and oxygen isotope-based paleoclimate records. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 272(1-2), 118-129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2008.04.031
• Wynn, P., Fairchild, I., Baker, A., Baldini, J., & McDermott, F. (2008). Isotopic archives of sulphate in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 72(10), 2465-2477. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2008.03.002
• Baldini, L., McDermott, F., & Foley, A. (2008). Spatial variability in the European winter precipitation d18O-NAO relationship: Implications for reconstructing NAO-mode climate variability in the Holocene. Geophysical Research Letters, 35(4), Article L04709. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007gl032027
• Baldini, L., Walker, S., Railsback, L., Baldini, J., & Crowe, D. (2007). Isotopic ecology of the modern land snail Cerion, San Salvador, Bahamas: Preliminary advances toward establishing a low-latitude island paleoenvironmental proxy. PALAIOS, 22(2), 174-187
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., & Fairchild, I. (2006). Spatial variability in cave drip water hydrochemistry: Implications for stalagmite paleoclimate records. Chemical Geology, 235(3-4), 390-404. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2006.08.005
• Baldini, J., Baldini, L., McDermott, F., & Clipson, N. (2006). Carbon dioxide sources, sinks, and spatial variability in shallow temperate zone caves: Evidence from Ballynamintra Cave, Ireland. Journal of cave and karst studies, 68(1), 4-11
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., Baker, A., Baldini, L., Mattey, D., & Railsback, L. (2005). Biomass effects on stalagmite growth and isotope ratios: A 20th century analogue from Wiltshire, England. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 240(2), 486-494. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2005.09.022
• Baldini, J., McDermott, F., & Fairchild, I. (2002). Structure of the 8200-year cold event revealed by a speleothem trace element record. Science, 296(5576), 2203-2206. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1071776
• Baldini, J. (2001). Morphological and dimensional linkage between recently deposited speleothems and drip water from Browns Folly Mine, Wiltshire, England. Journal of cave and karst studies, 63, 83-90