We search for chemical compounds that can inform about the climate in earlier times. For this we are working on techniques that will allow to read sediment archives using “proxies”: compounds that indirectly tell us something about the temperature or chemical composition of the atmosphere or the oceans. We mainly look at the different chemical compounds that occur in microorganisms. For example, we culture microbes at different temperatures and then examine the influence of those temperatures on the lipids these organisms produce. Ultimately, there is no such thing as the “ideal proxy” for the climate of the past as all proxies have their own shortcomings. We try to recognise and understand the shortcomings of these proxies, to better constrain their application in reconstructing past climate.
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