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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• Climate and Environmental Change
• Geochemistry Research Group
• Palaeoclimate Research Group
• Volcanology Research Group

• HURRICANE

Available for media contact about:

• Earth Sciences: speleology (the study of caves and their development)
• Earth Sciences: Holocene palaeoclimate (changes in the Earth's climate system in the last 10,000 years)
• Earth Sciences: using stalagmites (cave calcite deposits) as palaeoclimate proxies to decode past climate changes
• Weather & climate: anthropogenic climate change

Chapter in book

• Baldini, J.U.L. (2010). Cave atmosphere controls on stalagmite growth rate and palaeoclimate records. In Tufas and Speleothems: Unravelling the Microbial and Physical Controls. Pedley, H.M. & Rogerson, M. London: Geological Society Special Publication. 336: 283-294.

Conference Proceeding

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

Journal Article

• Braun, Tobias, Breitenbach, Sebastian F. M., Skiba, Vanessa, Lechleitner, Franziska A., Ray, Erin E., Baldini, Lisa M., Polyak, Victor J., Baldini, James U. L., Kennett, Douglas J., Prufer, Keith M. & Marwan, Norbert (2023). Decline in seasonal predictability potentially destabilized Classic Maya societies. Communications Earth & Environment 4(1): 82.
• Kennett, D.J., Masson, M., Peraza Lope, C., Serafin, S., George, R.J., Spencer, T.C., Hoggarth, J.A., Culleton, B.J., Harper, T.K., Prufer, K.M., Milbrath, S., Russell, B.W., González, E.U., McCool, W.C., Aquino, V.V., Paris, E.H., Curtis, J.H., Marwan, N., Zhang, M., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V.J., Carolin, S.A., James, D.H., Mason, A.J., Henderson, G.M., Brenner, M., Baldini, J.U.L., Breitenbach, S.F.M. & Hodell, D.A. (2022). Drought-Induced Civil Conflict Among the Ancient Maya. Nature Communications 13: 3911.
• Paine, Alice R., Wadsworth, Fabian B. & Baldini, James U. L. (2021). Supereruption doublet at a climate transition. Communications Earth & Environment 2(1): 219.
• Baldini, James U.L., Lechleitner, Franziska A., Breitenbach, Sebastian F.M., van Hunen, Jeroen, Baldini, Lisa M., Wynn, Peter M., Jamieson, Robert A., Ridley, Harriet E., Baker, Alexander J., Walczak, Izabela W. & Fohlmeister, Jens (2021). Detecting and quantifying palaeoseasonality in stalagmites using geochemical and modelling approaches. Quaternary Science Reviews 254: 106784.
• Paine, Alice R., Baldini, James U.L., Wadsworth, Fabian B., Lechleitner, Franziska A., Jamieson, Robert A., Baldini, Lisa M., Brown, Richard J., Müller, Wolfgang, Hercman, Helena, Gąsiorowski, Michał, Stefaniak, Krzysztof, Socha, Paweł, Sobczyk, Artur & Kasprzak, Marek (2021). The trace-element composition of a Polish stalagmite: Implications for the use of speleothems as a record of explosive volcanism. Chemical Geology 570: 120157.
• Fell, Henry G., Baldini, James U.L., Dodds, Ben & Sharples, Gary J. (2020). Volcanism and global plague pandemics: Towards an interdisciplinary synthesis. Journal of Historical Geography 70: 36-46.
• Asmerom, Y., Baldini, J.U.L., Prufer, K.M., Polyak, V.J., Ridley, H.E., Aquino, V.V., Baldini, L.M., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Macpherson, C.G. & Kennett, D.J. (2020). Intertropical convergence zone variability in the Neotropics during the Common Era. Science Advances 6(7): eaax3644.
• Baldini, L.M., Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F., Arias, P., Cueto, M., Fairchild, I.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Mattey, D.P., Muller, W., Nita, D.C., Ontanon, R., Garcia-Monco, C. & Richards, D.A. (2019). North Iberian temperature and rainfall seasonality over the Younger Dryas and Holocene. Quaternary Science Reviews 226: 105998.
• Lechleitner, Franziska A., Lang, Susan Q., Haghipour, Negar, McIntyre, Cameron, Baldini, James U.L., Prufer, Keith M. & Eglinton, Timothy I. (2019). Towards organic carbon isotope records from stalagmites: coupled d13C and 14 C analysis using wet chemical oxidation. Radiocarbon 61(3): 749-764.
• Sandhu, Ajvir S. & Baldini, James U. L. (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.
• Atsawawaranunt, Kamolphat, Comas-Bru, Laia, Mozhdehi, Sahar Amirnezhad, Deininger, Michael, Harrison, Sandy P., Baker, Andy, Boyd, Meighan, Kaushal, Nikita, Ahmad, Syed Masood, Brahim, Yassine Ait, Arienzo, Monica, Bajo, Petra, Braun, Kerstin, Burstyn, Yuval, Chawchai, Sakonvan, Duan, Wuhui, Hatvani, István Gábor, Hu, Jun, Kern, Zoltán, Labuhn, Inga, Lachniet, Matthew, Lechleitner, Franziska A., Lorrey, Andrew, Pérez-Mejías, Carlos, Pickering, Robyn, Scroxton, Nick & SISAL Working Group Members (2018). The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems. Earth System Science Data 10(3): 1687-1713.
• Baldini, James U.L., Brown, Richard J. & Mawdsley, Natasha (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.
• Wynn, Peter M., Fairchild, Ian.J., Borsato, Andrea, Spötl, Christoph, Hartland, Adam, Baker, Andy, Frisia, Silvia & Baldini, James (2018). Sulphate partitioning into calcite: Experimental verification of pH control and application to seasonality in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 226: 69-83.
• Baldini, James U.L., Bertram, Rachel A. & Ridley, Harriet 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.
• Smirnov, D. A., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Feulner, G., Lechleitner, F.A., Prufer, K.M., Baldini, J.U.L., Marwan, N. & Kurths, J. (2017). A regime shift in the Sun-Climate connection with the end of the Medieval Climate Anomaly. Scientific Reports 7: 11131.
• Lechleitner, F.A., Dittmar, T., Baldini, J.U.L., Prufer, K.M.P. & Eglinton, T.I. (2017). Molecular signatures of dissolved organic matter in a tropical karst system. Organic Geochemistry 113: 141-149.
• Lechleitner, Franziska A., Breitenbach, Sebastian F. M., Rehfeld, Kira, Ridley, Harriet E., Asmerom, Yemane, Prufer, Keith M., Marwan, Norbert, Goswami, Bedartha, Kennett, Douglas J., Aquino, Valorie V., Polyak, Victor, Haug, Gerald H., Eglinton, Timothy I. & Baldini, James U. L (2017). Tropical rainfall over the last two millennia: evidence for a low-latitude hydrologic seesaw. Scientific Reports 7: 45809.
• Baldini L.M., Baldini J.U.L., McElwaine J., Frappier A.B., Asmerom Y., Liu K.B., Prufer K., Ridley H.E., Polyak V., Kennett D.J., Macpherson C.G., Aquino V.V., Awe J. & Breitenbach, S.F.M. (2016). Persistent northward North Atlantic tropical cyclone track migration over the past five centuries. Scientific Reports 6(1): 37522.
• Lechleitner, F.A., Baldini, J.U.L., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Fohlmeister, J., McIntyre, C., Goswani, B., Jamieson, R.A., van der Voort, T.S., Prufer, K., Marwan, N., Culleton, B.J., Kennett, D.J., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V. & Eglinton, T.I. (2016). Hydrological and climatological controls on radiocarbon concentrations in a tropical stalagmite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 194: 233-252.
• Jamieson, R.A., Baldini, J.U.L., Brett, M.J., Taylor, J., Ridley, H.E., Ottley, C.J., Prufer, K.M., Wassenburg, J.A., Scholz, D. & Breitenbach, S.F.M. (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.
• Wassenburg, J.A., Scholz, D., Jochumb, K.P., Cheng, H., Ostere, J., Immenhauser, A., Richter, D.K., Häger, T., Jamieson, R.A., Baldini, J.U.L., Hoffmann, D. & Breitenbach, S.F.M. (2016). Determination of aragonite trace element distribution coefficients from speleothem calcite–aragonite transitions. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 190: 347-367.
• Lechleitner, F.A., Fohlmeister, J., McIntyre, C., Baldini, L.M., Jamieson, R.A., Hercman, H., Gąsiorowski, M., Pawlak, J., Stefaniak, K., Socha, P., Eglinton, T.I. & Baldini, J.U.L. (2016). A novel approach for construction of radiocarbon-based chronologies for speleothems. Quaternary Geochronology 35: 54-66.
• Ridley, H.E., Baldini, J.U.L., Prufer, K.M., Walczak, I.W. & Breitenbach, S.F.M. (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.
• Baldini, J.U.L., Brown, R.J. & McElwaine, J.N. (2015). Was millennial scale climate change during the Last Glacial triggered by explosive volcanism? Scientific Reports 5: 17442.
• Walczak, I.W., Baldini, J.U.L., Baldini, L.M., McDermott, F., Marsden, S., Standish, C.D., Richards, D.A., Andreo, B. & 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.
• Baker, A.J., Sodemann, H., Baldini, J. U. L., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Johnson, K. R., 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.
• Baldini, L. M., McDermott, Frank, Baldini, J. U. L., Arias, P., Cueto, M., Fairchild, I. J., Hoffmann, D. L., Mattey, D. P., Müller, W., Nita, D. C., Ontañón, R., Garciá-Moncó, C. & Richards, D. A. (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.
• Ridley, H.E., Asmerom, Y., Baldini, J.U.L., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Aquino, V.V., Prufer, K.M., Culleton, B.J., Polyak, V., Lechleitner, F.A., Kennett, D.J., Zhang, M., Marwan, N., Macpherson, C.G., Baldini, L.M., Xiao, T., Peterkin, J.L., Awe, J. & Haug, G.H. (2015). Aerosol forcing of the position of the intertropical convergence zone since AD1550. Nature Geoscience 8(3): 195-200.
• Allan, Mohammed, Fagel, Nathalie, Van Rampelbergh, Maité, Baldini, James, Riotte, Jean, Cheng, Hai, Edwards, R. Lawrence, Gillikin, David, Quinif, Yves & Verheyden, Sophie (2015). Lead concentrations and isotope ratios in speleothems as proxies for atmospheric metal pollution since the industrial revolution. Chemical Geology 401: 140-150.
• Jamieson, R.A., Baldini, J.U.L., Frappier, A.B. & 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.
• Brett, M.J., Baldini, J.U.L. & Gröcke, D.R. (2014). Environmental controls on stable isotope ratios in New Zealand Podocarpaceae: implications for palaeoclimate reconstruction. Global and Planetary Change 120: 38-45.
• Baker, A.J., Mattey, D.P. & Baldini, J.U.L. (2014). Reconstructing modern stalagmite growth from cave monitoring, local meteorology, and experimental measurements of dripwater films. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 392: 239-249.
• Breitenbach, S.F.M., Rehfeld, K., Goswami, B., Baldini, J.U.L., Ridley, H.E., Kennett, D., Prufer, K., Aquino, V.V., Asmerom, Y., Polyak, V.J., Cheng, H., Kurths, J. & Marwan, N. (2012). COnstructing Proxy-Record Age models (COPRA). Climate of the Past 8(5): 1765-1779.
• Kennett, D.J., Breitenbach, S.F.M., Aquino, V.V., Asmerom, Y., Awe, J., Baldini, J.U.L., Bartlein, P., Culleton, B.J., Ebert, C., Jazwa, C., Macri, M.J., Marwan, N., Polyak, V., Prufer, K.M., Ridley, H.E., Sodemann, H., Winterhalder, B. & Haug, G.H. (2012). Development and disintegration of Maya political systems in response to climate change. Science 338(6108): 788-791.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F., Baldini, L.M., Ottley, C.J., Linge, K.L., Clipson, N. & Jarvis, K.E. (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.
• Sherwin, C.M. & Baldini, J.U.L. (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.
• Baldini, L., McDermott, F., Baldini, J.U.L., Fischer, M.J. & Möllhoff, M. (2010). An investigation of the controls on Irish precipitation δ18O values on monthly and event timescales. Climate Dynamics 35(6): 977-993.
• Baldini, J.U.L. (2010). The geochemistry of cave calcite deposits as a record of past climate. The Sedimentary Record 8(2): 4-9.
• Rooney, D.C., 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.
• Whitaker, T., Jones, D., Baldini, J.U.L. & Baker, A.J. (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.
• Armstrong, H.A., Baldini, J., Challands, T.J., Gröcke, D.R. & Owen, A.W. (2009). Response of the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone to Southern Hemisphere cooling during Upper Ordovician glaciation. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 284(3-4): 227-236.
• Baldini, J.U.L. McDermott, F. Hoffmann, D.L. Richards, D.A. & 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.
• Wynn, P.M., Fairchild, I.J., Baker, A., Baldini, J.U.L. & McDermott, F. (2008). Isotopic archives of sulphate in speleothems. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 72(10): 2465-2477.
• Baldini, L.M., 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): L04709.
• Baldini, L. M., Walker, S.E., Railsback, L. B., Baldini, J.U.L. & Crowe, D.E. (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.U.L., McDermott, F. & Fairchild, I.J. (2006). Spatial variability in cave drip water hydrochemistry: Implications for stalagmite paleoclimate records. Chemical Geology 235(3-4): 390-404.
• Baldini, J.U.L., Baldini, L.M., 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.U.L., McDermott, F, Baker, A., Baldini, L.M., Mattey, D.P. & Railsback, L.B. (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.
• Baldini, J.U.L., McDermott, F. & Fairchild, I.J. (2002). Structure of the 8200-year cold event revealed by a speleothem trace element record. Science 296(5576): 2203-2206.
• 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.