Keynote: Chemical time capsules: What can molecular fossils tell us about past, present and future environmental change in Antarctica?
| Tuesday, August 25, 2026 |
| 9:00 AM - 9:30 AM |
Overview
Bella Duncan, Victoria University of Wellington (NZ)
Speaker
Dr Bella Duncan
Senior Research Fellow and Environmental Geochemist
Earth Sciences NZ/Victoria University Of Wellington
Chemical time capsules: What can molecular fossils tell us about past, present and future environmental change in Antarctica?
Abstract Document
Molecular fossils, or biomarkers, are the chemical remnants of life on earth. Living organisms synthesise molecules that can be deposited in different geological archives when they die. Molecular fossils can be used to reconstruct many aspects of the environment in the past, including what life was present, air and ocean temperatures, depositional histories, human impacts, and how processes like the hydrological and carbon cycles operated. Here, I’ll introduce how we use molecular fossils to understand how the environment and climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean has transformed through time, from an ancient forested continent to the rapidly changing polar environment of today.
Biography
Bella Duncan is a Senior Research Fellow in the Antarctic Research Centre, Victoria University of Wellington, and Senior Environmental Geochemist at Earth Sciences New Zealand. She is the lead scientist for the ESNZ/VUW Organic Geochemistry Laboratory. Bella’s research uses molecular fossils to investigate environmental change and ancient climate in Antarctica, the Southern Ocean and Aotearoa New Zealand, including as lead organic geochemist for the SWAIS-2C (Sensitivity of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet to 2 Degrees of warming) sediment core drilling project. Bella was awarded the 2024 Royal Society Te Apārangi Hamilton Award for early career research excellence in science for her work reconstructing 45 million years of ocean temperature change around Antarctica.
