Isotope Geochemistry; paired land-sea paleoclimate reconstructions
Organic, carbonate, and water (isotope) geochemistry; paleoceanography and paleoclimate; sedimentology
IODP Expedition 397: Iberian Paleoclimate
I am a postdoctoral researcher in Harvard’s Departments of Earth and Planetary Sciences and Human Evolutionary Biology and an upcoming NSF-EAR postdoctoral fellow at Syracuse. I use the stable isotope geochemistry of carbonate minerals and organic biomarkers to reconstruct the coupled evolution of marine and terrestrial (hydro) climate, particularly in Africa and the Mediterranean during recent (Miocene-present) warm periods.
Current projects
Pleistocene North African hydrology, ecology, fire, and human evolution
Constraining monsoon-vegetation-fire interactions and feedbacks over the last 300,000 years and how they affected human migration to North Africa
Alkenone-specific hydrogen isotopes
Alkenone δ2H values track the δ2H of seawater and accurately reproduce LGM-present whole-ocean δ2H change; there is no apparent C37:3-C37:2 δ2H fractionation
Plio-Pleistocene Indian Ocean Walker Circulation
A wetter East Africa (via n-alkane δ2H values), a drier West Australia, and a steepened zonal Indian Ocean SST gradient at 3 Ma suggest robust Walker circulation as far back as the late Pliocene
Mitsunaga et al., 2023, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology
The Plio-Pleistocene North African monsoon
Northwest African leaf wax δ2H values (ODP Site 659) are primarily driven by local insolation despite the heightened obliquity signal in other proxies coincident with the intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
IODP Expedition 397: Iberian Margin Paleoclimate
Sailed as an organic geochemist, October-December 2022. Proposed research:
- Astronomical forcing of SSTs and terrestrial Iberian hydroclimate / vegetation, Miocene-present
- Iberian paleohydrology and its response to the Messinian Salinity Crisis
IODP3-NSF Expedition 501: New England Shelf Hydrogeology
Sailed as an organic geochemist, June-July 2025. Proposed research:
- Using hydrogen and triple oxygen water isotopes to distinguish between recharge sources for an offshore submarine aquifer (meteoric vs. glacial meltwater vs. subglacial lake)
- Intact polar lipid-based estimates of microbiological community composition
Outreach / Science Communication
- Discover Magazine, EurekAlert!, and Brown press releases on our recent North African monsoon work by Kevin Stacey
- The Public’s Radio in Providence story on Expedition 397 by Amy Mayer
- AAPI in Geosciences summer REU (AGiLE) professional development coordinator
- Leadership Alliance Earth Environmental, and Planetary Sciences group leader 2019
- Exploring Your Universe! at UCLA: Rocks, Minerals, and Fossils exhibit leader 2015-2017
- Earth Magazine journalism “extern” 2013-2014
- Mentor to over 15 undergraduates at Williams, UCLA, Brown, and Harvard
I am seeking faculty / government lab / industry positions. If you have opportunities for collaboration, please get in touch.
→ Syracuse University 2026-2028
NSF-EAR postdoctoral fellow
→ Harvard University 2024-2026
Postdoctoral researcher
→ Brown University ’24
Ph.D., Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences
→ UCLA ’18
M.Sc., Geochemistry
→ NSF Graduate Research Fellowship 2016
→ Iris Environmental 2014-2015
Staff Scientist
→ Williams College ’13
B.A., Geosciences
Bryce Mitsunaga 