Dr Georgy Falster

Dr Georgy Falster

Contacts

Postdoctoral Fellow
ANU College of Science

My PhD research focussed on reconstructing Australian Quaternary palaeo-environments, using palaeolimnology, and the stable & clumped isotopic composition of various carbonate phases.

After finishing my doctorate, I held a Postdoctoral Research Associate position at Washington University in St. Louis, where I used proxy records for the stable isotopic composition of environmental waters through the Common Era to investigate changes in global hydroclimate. I also used water isotope observations alongside palaeoclimate proxy data to investigate variability in tropical Pacific atmospheric circulation through the last millennium.

I have also worked as a Marine Scientist for Geoscience Australia, where I mapped and analysed seabed morphology.

Outside academia, my interests are many & varied: some edited highlights include cross country & alpine skiing, open water swimming, hiking, reading fantasy novels, and playing assorted musical instruments.

Research interests

I use climatic information from the Common Era (the past ~2000 years) to contextualise modern climate change. Specifically, I seek to develop 'pre-industrial climatic baselines' against which we can assess the influence of human activities on Earth's climate. For this, I integrate information from palaeoclimate proxies, modern observations, and climate model simulations.

I have a particular focus on hydroclimatic variability; that is, understanding the nature and drivers of variability in the water cycle. The main research tool I use is the stable isotopic composition of water, which is an integrative tracer of many water cycle processes. As well as observational and climate model data, I use water isotope proxy data from multiple archives including:

  • lake & marine sediments
  • glacier ice
  • corals & other marine carbonates
  • terrestrial & marine molluscs
  • tree rings
  • speleothems (cave carbonate)

I also have a particular interest in the influence of the tropical Pacific on global hydroclimate.

    Groups

    • Falster, G, Konecky, B, Madhavan, M et al. 2021, 'Imprint of the Pacific Walker Circulation in Global Precipitation δ18O

      ', Journal of Climate, vol. 34, no. 21, pp. 8579-8597.

    • Konecky, B, McKay, N, Churakova, O et al. 2020, 'The Iso2k database: a global compilation of paleo-δ18O and δ2H records to aid understanding of Common Era climate', Earth System Science Data, vol. 12, no. 3, pp. 2261-2288.
    • Khider, D, Emile‐Geay, J, McKay, N et al. 2019, 'PaCTS 1.0: A Crowdsourced Reporting Standard for Paleoclimate Data', Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, vol. 34, no. 10, pp. 1570-1596.
    • Falster, G, Delean, S & Tyler, J 2018, 'Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment of Natural Lake Sediment Prior to Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotope Analysis of Calcium Carbonate', Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, vol. 19, no. 9, pp. 3583-3595.
    • Falster, G, Tyler, J, Grant, K et al. 2018, 'Millennial-scale variability in south-east Australian hydroclimate between 30,000 and 10,000 years ago', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 192, pp. 106-122.
    • Collins, A, Patranabis-Deb, S, Alexander, E et al. 2015, 'Detrital mineral age, radiogenic isotopic stratigraphy and tectonic significance of the Cuddapah Basin, India', Gondwana Research, vol. 28, no. 4, pp. 1294-1309.