Blanca Ausín (Salamanca University, Usal) has obtained an ERC Starting Grant 2021. Her project PASSAGE (Provenance And tranSport PathwayS of mArine proxy-bearinG particlEs) will allow to accurately reconstruct past climates by identifying distorted climate signals in oceanic sedimentary components.

Despite being born and raised in the Castilian plateau, Blanca has been fascinated by the processes that occur in the ocean and their evolution through geological times since she was little. Some years later, she completed a bachelor’s in marine sciences at Vigo University and became a paleoclimatologist after completing her PhD at Salamanca University (Usal) using marine sedimentary archives to unravel past climate changes. She has developed most of her postdoctoral research at ETH Zurich, in Switzerland, where she enjoyed exploring the characteristics of marine sedimentary components to elucidate the driving processes of spatio-temporal biases of climate signals and refine paleoclimate interpretations. She is currently back at Usal to implement her ERC Starting Grant project PASSAGE.

Which are the main objectives of PASSAGE?

The acronym PASSAGE is a tribute to the first ocean explorers and travellers, but also refers to the long journey that sedimentary components experiment in the ocean from their formation until their final deposition. Sedimentary components encapsulate information about the time and environmental conditions in which they were formed and constitute a paramount material to reconstruct past climates. However, their secondary transport to distant locations introduces allochthonous climate signals in our records, raising questions about the robustness and fidelity of corresponding climate interpretations. PASSAGE aims to fill in the knowledge gap on particle transport modes, generate a new proxy to identify distorted climate signals and provide an accessible approach to correct them. PASSAGE will allow us to accurately reconstruct past climates.

Why did you decide to carry out your research Salamanca University?

Salamanca University (Usal) is doing a big effort to attract young and talented researchers and replenish the teaching gap by opening new positions. Usal offered me the possibility to take upon a steady teaching-research position and as Spaniard, I always knew I wanted to come back home and settle with my family somewhere in Spain. I think this aspect of life is often left aside in academia, where researchers are forced to move around over many years as if stability, social integration, quality of life, and personal relationships had to be sacrificed for the benefit of a research career.

How do you expect this grant will affect your professional career?

This grant will guarantee me access to cutting-edge infrastructure and will allow me to open and establish an Organic Geochemistry lab to work independently. This ERC Starting Grant is a fantastic opportunity to build my own research team, pioneer new research lines, and delve into my many and diverse scientific interests.

Are you planning to open research positions in your group?

Definitely. Human power is essential to fulfilling the objectives of PASSAGE and I will soon advertise several positions. The envisaged group will count on two PhD students, one Postdoctoral researcher and one Technical Staff member. PhD students will ideally have a background in either Oceanography or Marine Geology and some experience in Organic Geochemistry. The Postdoctoral researcher will hold a PhD in Earth Science and will ideally have experience in short-term climate variability, radiocarbon dating, and programming.

Are you planning any collaborations?

PASSAGE counts on collaborators from Portugal, Switzerland, Germany, and other Spanish institutions. Nevertheless, I collaborate with researchers from Oxford, Cambridge and UCL on a regular basis and I am certain that new venues of collaboration will arise along the way for the implementation of my project.

Where can we learn more about you and your project?

A webpage for PASSAGE will be ready soon. Meanwhile, I will be glad to hear from you here: ausin@usal.es.

Selected publications

(In)coherent multiproxy signals in marine sediments: Implications for
high-resolution paleoclimate reconstruction, Blanca Ausín, Clayton Magill, Negar Haghipour, et al. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 515, 38-46 (2019)

The influence of lateral transport on sedimentary alkenone paleoproxy signals. Blanca Ausín, Negar Haghipour, Elena Bruni, et al. Biogeosciences, 19(3), 613-627 (2022)

During the following weeks, we will be presenting those researchers working at Spanish institutions that have obtained an ERC Starting or Consolidator Grant 2021 and their projects. You can check their profiles HERE.