Staff profile

Research Interests

My research interests lie in understanding decadal to millennial scale ocean variability and its relationship to climate over the recent past, including the last millennia, the current interglacial, and last deglaciation. To reconstruct these ocean changes I use proxies such as faunal and geochemical analysis in foraminifera, grain size measurements, and chemical sediment composition on high-resolution marine sediment cores. So far, my work has been centered around key oceanographic regions such as the North Atlantic and the Western Tropical Pacific. My research can be grouped into three main themes:

• Extending ocean observations back in time using proxies
• The study of the ocean changes across the last millennia: The key to understanding natural climate variability
• Interglacial climates and their onset

Journal Article

• Kilbourne, K. H., Wanamaker, A. D., Moffa-Sanchez, P., Reynolds, D. J., Amrhein, D. E., Butler, P. G., …Whitney, N. M. (2022). Atlantic circulation change still uncertain. Nature Geoscience, 15(3), 165-167. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41561-022-00896-4
• Cartapanis, O., Jonkers, L., Moffa-Sanchez, P., Jaccard, S. L., & de Vernal, A. (2022). Complex spatio-temporal structure of the Holocene Thermal Maximum. Nature Communications, 13(2022), Article 5662. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-33362-1
• Hernández, A., Martin-Puertas, C., Moffa-Sánchez, P., Moreno-Chamarro, E., Ortega, P., Blockley, S., …Xu, G. (2020). Modes of climate variability: Synthesis and review of proxy-based reconstructions through the Holocene. Earth-Science Reviews, 209, Article 103286. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2020.103286
• Kaufman, D., McKay, N., Routson, C., Erb, M., Davis, B., Heiri, O., …Zhilich, S. (2020). A global database of Holocene paleotemperature records. Scientific Data, 7(1), Article 115. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-0445-3
• Moffa-Sánchez, P., Moreno-Chamarro, E., Reynolds, D., Ortega, P., Cunningham, L., Swingedouw, D., …Yeager, S. (2019). Variability in the northern North Atlantic and Arctic oceans across the last two millennia: A review. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 34(8), 1399-1436. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018pa003508
• Moffa‐Sanchez, P., Rosenthal, Y., Babila, T. L., Mohtadi, M., & Zhang, X. (2019). Temperature evolution of the Indo‐Pacific Warm Pool over the Holocene and the last deglaciation. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 34(7), 1107-1123. https://doi.org/10.1029/2018pa003455
• Thornalley, D. J., Oppo, D. W., Ortega, P., Robson, J. I., Brierley, C. M., Davis, R., …Keigwin, L. D. (2018). Anomalously weak Labrador Sea convection and Atlantic overturning during the past 150 years. Nature, 556(7700), 227-230. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0007-4
• Hollstein, M., Mohtadi, M., Rosenthal, Y., Prange, M., Oppo, D. W., Martínez Méndez, G., …Hebbeln, D. (2018). Variations in Western Pacific Warm Pool surface and thermocline conditions over the past 110,000 years: Forcing mechanisms and implications for the glacial Walker circulation. Quaternary Science Reviews, 201, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.10.030
• Servera-Vives, G., Riera, S., Picornell-Gelabert, L., Moffa-Sánchez, P., Llergo, Y., Garcia, A., …Calvo Trías, M. (2018). The onset of islandscapes in the Balearic Islands: A study-case of Addaia (northern Minorca, Spain). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 498, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.02.015
• Moffa-Sánchez, P., & Hall, I. R. (2017). North Atlantic variability and its links to European climate over the last 3000 years. Nature Communications, 8(1), Article 1726. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01884-8
• Alonso-Garcia, M., Kleiven, H. (. F., McManus, J. F., Moffa-Sanchez, P., Broecker, W. S., & Flower, B. P. (2017). Freshening of the Labrador Sea as a trigger for Little Ice Age development. Climate of the Past, 13(4), https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-13-317-2017
• Ortega, P., Robson, J., Moffa-Sanchez, P., Thornalley, D., & Swingedouw, D. (2017). A last millennium perspective on North Atlantic variability: exploiting synergies between models and proxy data. PAGES Magazine, 25(1), https://doi.org/10.22498/pages.25.1.61
• Hollstein, M., Mohtadi, M., Rosenthal, Y., Moffa Sanchez, P., Oppo, D., Martínez Méndez, G., …Hebbeln, D. (2017). Stable Oxygen Isotopes and Mg/Ca in Planktic Foraminifera From Modern Surface Sediments of the Western Pacific Warm Pool: Implications for Thermocline Reconstructions. Paleoceanography, 32(11), https://doi.org/10.1002/2017pa003122
• Moffa-Sanchez, P., Hall, I. R., Thornalley, D. J., Barker, S., & Stewart, C. (2015). Changes in the strength of the Nordic Seas Overflows over the past 3000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews, 123, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.06.007
• Moffa-Sánchez, P., Hall, I. R., Barker, S., Thornalley, D. J., & Yashayaev, I. (2014). Surface changes in the eastern Labrador Sea around the onset of the Little Ice Age. Paleoceanography, 29(3), 160-175. https://doi.org/10.1002/2013pa002523
• Moffa-Sánchez, P., Born, A., Hall, I. R., Thornalley, D. J., & Barker, S. (2014). Solar forcing of North Atlantic surface temperature and salinity over the past millennium. Nature Geoscience, 7(4), 275-278. https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo2094