Laura Gemery is a Ecologist at the Florence Bascom Geoscience Center.
Education and Certifications
Ph.D., University of Maryland, Center for Marine and Environmental Science (UMCES)
M.A. University of Maryland, Marine, Estuarine and Environmental Science (MEES) Graduate Program, Specialization: Environmental Science
B.A. Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Double Major: Zoology/Environmental Science and Journalism
Science and Products
Sea Level and Storm Hazards: Past and Present
Sea level and Storm Hazards: Past and Present is a multidisciplinary study of past changes in sea level. Prehistoric shorelines can be used as a baseline for current and future sea level changes under warmer-than-present climate. Emphasis is placed on looking at sea levels during warm periods of the last 500,000 years as well as how base level changes increase the risk of coastal inundation during...
Land-Sea Linkages in the Arctic
The Arctic is undergoing historically unprecedented changes in weather, sea ice, temperature and ecosystems. These changes have led to greater coastal erosion, greater export of freshwater, and changes to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, habitats, and productivity, among other trends. Meanwhile, many believe the Arctic “amplifies” large climate changes during both warm periods and ice ages and...
Data Release to Multi-proxy record of ocean-climate variability during the last 2 millennia on the Mackenzie Shelf, Beaufort Sea (2013)
A 2,000 year-long oceanographic history of a Canadian Beaufort Sea continental shelf site (60-meters water depth) near the Mackenzie River outlet is reconstructed from various proxies: ostracode faunal assemblages, shell stable isotope ratios (δ18O, δ13C) and sediment biogenic silica. These proxies are extracted from three sediment cores that made a composite section, HLY1302 JPC32, GGC30, MC29. T
Filter Total Items: 17
A 1300-year microfaunal record from the Beaufort Sea shelf indicates exceptional climate-related environmental changes over the last two centuries
The environments of Arctic Ocean nearshore areas experience high intra- and inter-annual variability, making it difficult to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic warming. However, a sediment record from the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea allowed us to reconstruct the impacts of climate and environmental changes over the last 1300 years along the northern Yukon coast, Canada. The coring site (PG230
Authors
Jade Falardeau, Anne de Vernal, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Michael Fritz, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Andre Rochon, Vladislav Carnero-Bravo, Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Christof Pearce, Philippe Archambault
Multi-proxy record of ocean-climate variability during the last 2 millennia on the Mackenzie Shelf, Beaufort Sea
A 2,000 year-long oceanographic history, in sub-centennial resolution, from a Canadian Beaufort Sea continental shelf site (60meters water depth) near the Mackenzie River outlet is reconstructed from ostracode and foraminifera faunal assemblages, shell stable isotopes (delta 18O, delta 13C) and sediment biogenic silica. The chronology of three sediment cores making up the composite section was es
Authors
Laura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin, Lee W. Cooper, Lucy Roberts, Lloyd D Keigwin, Jason A. Addison, Melanie Leng, Peigen Lin, Cedric Magen, Marci E. Marot, Valerie Schwartz
Microfaunal recording of recent environmental changes in the Herschel Basin, western Arctic Ocean
Microfaunal assemblages of benthic foraminifera, ostracods, and tintinnids from two marine sediment cores retrieved from the Herschel Basin of the Canadian Beaufort Sea shelf document relationships with environmental parameters such as salinity, sea-ice cover, and turbulence. Cores YC18-HB-GC01 and PG2303-1 were collected at 18 and 32 m water depth, respectively. At these sites, sediment accumulat
Authors
Jade Falardeau, Anne de Vernal, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Léo Chassiot, Michael Fritz, Vladislav Carnero-Bravo, Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Philippe Archambault
The Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and ice tongue in north Greenland
The northern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet is considered to be particularly susceptible to ice mass loss arising from increased glacier discharge in the coming decades. However, the past extent and dynamics of outlet glaciers in this region, and hence their vulnerability to climate change, are poorly documented. In the summer of 2019, the Swedish icebreaker Oden entered the previously uncharte
Authors
Matt O'Regan, Thomas M. Cronin, Brendan Reilly, Aage K. Olsen Alstrup, Laura Gemery, Anna Golub, Larry A. Mayer, Mathieu Morlighem, Matthias Moros, Ole L. Munk, Johan Nilsson, Christof Pearce, Henrieka Detlef, Christian Stranne, Flor Vermassen, Gabriel West, Martin Jakobsson
Biogeography and ecology of Ostracoda in the U.S. northern Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas
Ostracoda (bivalved Crustacea) comprise a significant part of the benthic meiofauna in the Pacific-Arctic region, including more than 50 species, many with identifiable ecological tolerances. These species hold potential as useful indicators of past and future ecosystem changes. In this study, we examined benthic ostracodes from nearly 300 surface sediment samples, >34,000 specimens, from three re
Authors
Laura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin, Lee W. Cooper, Harry J. Dowsett, Jacqueline M. Grebmeier
Stable oxygen isotopes in shallow marine ostracodes from the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas
Stable oxygen isotope measurements on calcitic valves of benthic ostracodes (δ18Oost) from the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas were used to examine ecological and hydrographic processes governing ostracode and associated seawater δ18O values. Five cryophilic taxa were analyzed for δ18Oost values: Sarsicytheridea bradii; Paracyprideis pseudopunctillata; Heterocyprideis sorbyana; Heterocyprideis fa
Authors
Laura Gemery, L.W. Cooper, C Magen, T. M. Cronin, J.M. Grebmeier
Ryder Glacier in northwest Greenland is shielded from warm Atlantic water by a bathymetric sill
The processes controlling advance and retreat of outlet glaciers in fjords draining the Greenland Ice Sheet remain poorly known, undermining assessments of their dynamics and associated sea-level rise in a warming climate. Mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet has increased six-fold over the last four decades, with discharge and melt from outlet glaciers comprising key components of this loss. Here
Authors
Martin Jakobsson, Larry Mayer, Johan Nilsson, Christian Stranne, Brian Calder, Matthew O'Regan, J. Farrell, Thomas M. Cronin, Volker Bruchert, Julek Chawarski, Bjorn Eriksson, Jonas Fredriksson, Laura Gemery, Anna Glueder, Felicity A. Holmes, Kevin Jerram, Nina Kirchner, Alan Mix, Julia Muchowski, Abhay Prakash, Brendan Reilly, Brett Thornton, Adam Ulfsbo, Elizabeteh Weidner, Henning Akesson, Tamara Handl, Emelie Stahl, Lee-Gray Boze, Sam Reed, Gabriel West, June Padman
Marine latitudinal diversity gradients, niche conservatism and out of the tropics and Arctic: Climatic sensitivity of small organisms
AimThe latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is a consequence of evolutionary and ecological mechanisms acting over long history, and thus is best investigated with organisms that have rich fossil records. However, combined neontological‐palaeontological investigations are mostly limited to large, shelled invertebrates, which keeps our mechanistic understanding of LDGs in its infancy. This paper ai
Authors
Wing‐Tung Ruby Chiu, Moriaki Yasuhara, Thomas M. Cronin, Gene Hunt, Laura Gemery, Chih‐Lin Wei
The benthic foraminifera cassidulina from the Arctic Ocean: Application to paleoceanography and biostratigraphy
We investigated the morphology, biostratigraphy, shell stable isotope composition and paleogeography of the common Arctic benthic foraminifera, Cassidulina teretis (Tappan 1951) (sometimes assigned to Islandiella (Nørvang 1958), for application to Quaternary paleoceanography. Cassidulina teretis, which has been studied by several generations of Arctic foraminiferal specialists, is used in Arctic
Authors
Thomas M. Cronin, Julia Seidenstein, Katherine Keller, Kristin McDougall-Reid, Ana Reufer, Laura Gemery
Remobilization of old permafrost carbon to Chukchi Sea sediments during the end of the last deglaciation
Climate warming is expected to destabilize permafrost carbon (PF‐C) by thaw‐erosion and deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer and thereby promote PF‐C mineralization to CO2 and CH4. A similar PF‐C remobilization might have contributed to the increase in atmospheric CO2 during deglacial warming after the last glacial maximum. Using carbon isotopes and terrestrial biomarkers (Δ14C, δ13C, a
Authors
Jannik Martens, Birgit Wild, Christof Pearce, Tommaso Tesi, August Andersson, Lisa Broder, Matt O'Regan, Martin Jakobsson, Martin Skold, Laura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin
Late Holocene paleoceanography in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Arctic Ocean, based on benthic foraminifera and ostracodes
Calcareous microfossil assemblages in late Holocene sediments from the western Arctic continental shelf provide an important baseline for evaluating the impacts of today’s changing Arctic oceanography. This study compares 14C-dated late Holocene microfaunal assemblages of sediment cores SWERUS-L2-2-PC1, 2-MC4 and 2-KL1 (57 mwd), which record the last 4200 years in the Herald Canyon (Chukchi Sea sh
Authors
Julia Lynn Seidenstein, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Lloyd D Keigwin, Christof Pearce, Martin Jakobsson, Helen K Coxall, Emily A Wei, Neal W. Driscoll
Enhanced Arctic amplification began at the Mid-Brunhes Event 430,000 years ago
Arctic Ocean temperatures influence ecosystems, sea ice, species diversity, biogeochemical cycling, seafloor methane stability, deep-sea circulation, and CO2 cycling. Today's Arctic Ocean and surrounding regions are undergoing climatic changes often attributed to "Arctic amplification" - that is, amplified warming in Arctic regions due to sea-ice loss and other processes, relative to global mean t
Authors
Thomas M. Cronin, Gary S. Dwyer, Emma Caverly, Jesse Farmer, Lauren H. DeNinno, Julio Rodriguez-Lazaro, Laura Gemery
Science and Products
- Science
Sea Level and Storm Hazards: Past and Present
Sea level and Storm Hazards: Past and Present is a multidisciplinary study of past changes in sea level. Prehistoric shorelines can be used as a baseline for current and future sea level changes under warmer-than-present climate. Emphasis is placed on looking at sea levels during warm periods of the last 500,000 years as well as how base level changes increase the risk of coastal inundation during...Land-Sea Linkages in the Arctic
The Arctic is undergoing historically unprecedented changes in weather, sea ice, temperature and ecosystems. These changes have led to greater coastal erosion, greater export of freshwater, and changes to marine and terrestrial ecosystems, habitats, and productivity, among other trends. Meanwhile, many believe the Arctic “amplifies” large climate changes during both warm periods and ice ages and... - Data
Data Release to Multi-proxy record of ocean-climate variability during the last 2 millennia on the Mackenzie Shelf, Beaufort Sea (2013)
A 2,000 year-long oceanographic history of a Canadian Beaufort Sea continental shelf site (60-meters water depth) near the Mackenzie River outlet is reconstructed from various proxies: ostracode faunal assemblages, shell stable isotope ratios (δ18O, δ13C) and sediment biogenic silica. These proxies are extracted from three sediment cores that made a composite section, HLY1302 JPC32, GGC30, MC29. T - Multimedia
- Publications
Filter Total Items: 17
A 1300-year microfaunal record from the Beaufort Sea shelf indicates exceptional climate-related environmental changes over the last two centuries
The environments of Arctic Ocean nearshore areas experience high intra- and inter-annual variability, making it difficult to evaluate the impact of anthropogenic warming. However, a sediment record from the southern Canadian Beaufort Sea allowed us to reconstruct the impacts of climate and environmental changes over the last 1300 years along the northern Yukon coast, Canada. The coring site (PG230AuthorsJade Falardeau, Anne de Vernal, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Michael Fritz, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Andre Rochon, Vladislav Carnero-Bravo, Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Christof Pearce, Philippe ArchambaultMulti-proxy record of ocean-climate variability during the last 2 millennia on the Mackenzie Shelf, Beaufort Sea
A 2,000 year-long oceanographic history, in sub-centennial resolution, from a Canadian Beaufort Sea continental shelf site (60meters water depth) near the Mackenzie River outlet is reconstructed from ostracode and foraminifera faunal assemblages, shell stable isotopes (delta 18O, delta 13C) and sediment biogenic silica. The chronology of three sediment cores making up the composite section was esAuthorsLaura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin, Lee W. Cooper, Lucy Roberts, Lloyd D Keigwin, Jason A. Addison, Melanie Leng, Peigen Lin, Cedric Magen, Marci E. Marot, Valerie SchwartzMicrofaunal recording of recent environmental changes in the Herschel Basin, western Arctic Ocean
Microfaunal assemblages of benthic foraminifera, ostracods, and tintinnids from two marine sediment cores retrieved from the Herschel Basin of the Canadian Beaufort Sea shelf document relationships with environmental parameters such as salinity, sea-ice cover, and turbulence. Cores YC18-HB-GC01 and PG2303-1 were collected at 18 and 32 m water depth, respectively. At these sites, sediment accumulatAuthorsJade Falardeau, Anne de Vernal, Marit-Solveig Seidenkrantz, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Léo Chassiot, Michael Fritz, Vladislav Carnero-Bravo, Claude Hillaire-Marcel, Philippe ArchambaultThe Holocene dynamics of Ryder Glacier and ice tongue in north Greenland
The northern sector of the Greenland Ice Sheet is considered to be particularly susceptible to ice mass loss arising from increased glacier discharge in the coming decades. However, the past extent and dynamics of outlet glaciers in this region, and hence their vulnerability to climate change, are poorly documented. In the summer of 2019, the Swedish icebreaker Oden entered the previously uncharteAuthorsMatt O'Regan, Thomas M. Cronin, Brendan Reilly, Aage K. Olsen Alstrup, Laura Gemery, Anna Golub, Larry A. Mayer, Mathieu Morlighem, Matthias Moros, Ole L. Munk, Johan Nilsson, Christof Pearce, Henrieka Detlef, Christian Stranne, Flor Vermassen, Gabriel West, Martin JakobssonBiogeography and ecology of Ostracoda in the U.S. northern Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort Seas
Ostracoda (bivalved Crustacea) comprise a significant part of the benthic meiofauna in the Pacific-Arctic region, including more than 50 species, many with identifiable ecological tolerances. These species hold potential as useful indicators of past and future ecosystem changes. In this study, we examined benthic ostracodes from nearly 300 surface sediment samples, >34,000 specimens, from three reAuthorsLaura Gemery, Thomas M. Cronin, Lee W. Cooper, Harry J. Dowsett, Jacqueline M. GrebmeierStable oxygen isotopes in shallow marine ostracodes from the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas
Stable oxygen isotope measurements on calcitic valves of benthic ostracodes (δ18Oost) from the northern Bering and Chukchi Seas were used to examine ecological and hydrographic processes governing ostracode and associated seawater δ18O values. Five cryophilic taxa were analyzed for δ18Oost values: Sarsicytheridea bradii; Paracyprideis pseudopunctillata; Heterocyprideis sorbyana; Heterocyprideis faAuthorsLaura Gemery, L.W. Cooper, C Magen, T. M. Cronin, J.M. GrebmeierRyder Glacier in northwest Greenland is shielded from warm Atlantic water by a bathymetric sill
The processes controlling advance and retreat of outlet glaciers in fjords draining the Greenland Ice Sheet remain poorly known, undermining assessments of their dynamics and associated sea-level rise in a warming climate. Mass loss of the Greenland Ice Sheet has increased six-fold over the last four decades, with discharge and melt from outlet glaciers comprising key components of this loss. HereAuthorsMartin Jakobsson, Larry Mayer, Johan Nilsson, Christian Stranne, Brian Calder, Matthew O'Regan, J. Farrell, Thomas M. Cronin, Volker Bruchert, Julek Chawarski, Bjorn Eriksson, Jonas Fredriksson, Laura Gemery, Anna Glueder, Felicity A. Holmes, Kevin Jerram, Nina Kirchner, Alan Mix, Julia Muchowski, Abhay Prakash, Brendan Reilly, Brett Thornton, Adam Ulfsbo, Elizabeteh Weidner, Henning Akesson, Tamara Handl, Emelie Stahl, Lee-Gray Boze, Sam Reed, Gabriel West, June PadmanMarine latitudinal diversity gradients, niche conservatism and out of the tropics and Arctic: Climatic sensitivity of small organisms
AimThe latitudinal diversity gradient (LDG) is a consequence of evolutionary and ecological mechanisms acting over long history, and thus is best investigated with organisms that have rich fossil records. However, combined neontological‐palaeontological investigations are mostly limited to large, shelled invertebrates, which keeps our mechanistic understanding of LDGs in its infancy. This paper aiAuthorsWing‐Tung Ruby Chiu, Moriaki Yasuhara, Thomas M. Cronin, Gene Hunt, Laura Gemery, Chih‐Lin WeiThe benthic foraminifera cassidulina from the Arctic Ocean: Application to paleoceanography and biostratigraphy
We investigated the morphology, biostratigraphy, shell stable isotope composition and paleogeography of the common Arctic benthic foraminifera, Cassidulina teretis (Tappan 1951) (sometimes assigned to Islandiella (Nørvang 1958), for application to Quaternary paleoceanography. Cassidulina teretis, which has been studied by several generations of Arctic foraminiferal specialists, is used in ArcticAuthorsThomas M. Cronin, Julia Seidenstein, Katherine Keller, Kristin McDougall-Reid, Ana Reufer, Laura GemeryRemobilization of old permafrost carbon to Chukchi Sea sediments during the end of the last deglaciation
Climate warming is expected to destabilize permafrost carbon (PF‐C) by thaw‐erosion and deepening of the seasonally thawed active layer and thereby promote PF‐C mineralization to CO2 and CH4. A similar PF‐C remobilization might have contributed to the increase in atmospheric CO2 during deglacial warming after the last glacial maximum. Using carbon isotopes and terrestrial biomarkers (Δ14C, δ13C, aAuthorsJannik Martens, Birgit Wild, Christof Pearce, Tommaso Tesi, August Andersson, Lisa Broder, Matt O'Regan, Martin Jakobsson, Martin Skold, Laura Gemery, Thomas M. CroninLate Holocene paleoceanography in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas, Arctic Ocean, based on benthic foraminifera and ostracodes
Calcareous microfossil assemblages in late Holocene sediments from the western Arctic continental shelf provide an important baseline for evaluating the impacts of today’s changing Arctic oceanography. This study compares 14C-dated late Holocene microfaunal assemblages of sediment cores SWERUS-L2-2-PC1, 2-MC4 and 2-KL1 (57 mwd), which record the last 4200 years in the Herald Canyon (Chukchi Sea shAuthorsJulia Lynn Seidenstein, Thomas M. Cronin, Laura Gemery, Lloyd D Keigwin, Christof Pearce, Martin Jakobsson, Helen K Coxall, Emily A Wei, Neal W. DriscollEnhanced Arctic amplification began at the Mid-Brunhes Event 430,000 years ago
Arctic Ocean temperatures influence ecosystems, sea ice, species diversity, biogeochemical cycling, seafloor methane stability, deep-sea circulation, and CO2 cycling. Today's Arctic Ocean and surrounding regions are undergoing climatic changes often attributed to "Arctic amplification" - that is, amplified warming in Arctic regions due to sea-ice loss and other processes, relative to global mean tAuthorsThomas M. Cronin, Gary S. Dwyer, Emma Caverly, Jesse Farmer, Lauren H. DeNinno, Julio Rodriguez-Lazaro, Laura Gemery - News