People

Dr Paul Butler’s main focus of research is in the field of sclerochronology, in particular the use of shells from long-lived bivalve molluscs to study the history of the marine environment.

These shells grow synchronously within populations, which means that the patterns of increment widths can be treated just like tree-rings, and used to build long timelines (“chronologies”) of annually averaged growth. These chronologies function as accurately dated stratigraphies for geochemical analysis of the shell material with the eventual aim of creating multi-centennial to millennial length reconstructions of environmental and ecosystem variability. Paul has also worked as the project coordinator for the EU funded international collaboration ARAMACC (“Annually Resolved Archives of Marine Climate Change”) Initial Training Network whose primary goal was to train a cohort of young scientists in skills covering all aspects of sclerochronology research.

Paul is leading Work Package 4, which focuses on proxy archives from the North Icelandic Shelf (NIS) and from shell middens in north Iceland.  Work will include extending the existing chronology for the NIS and possibly establishing new chronologies including chronologies using samples from midden sites in North Iceland. There will also be work on existing sediment cores from the NIS and new cores collected during the North Atlantic cruise.  He will also coordinate the movement of samples between SEACHANGE partners, data warehousing and open access, and the alignment of data processing with ERC requirements.  In his role as Project Coordinator Paul will liaise with James Scourse and Em Squire to ensure the smooth and efficient running of the project.