Marci M Robinson
Biography
Marci is a Research Geologist specializing in planktic and benthic foraminifera and is the Project Chief of the Eastern Coastal Plain Studies project. The Eastern Coastal Plain Studies project aims to develop a greater understanding of the geology of the U.S. Atlantic Coastal Plain Province through the development of geologic maps and complementary geochronologic and paleontologic data. Detailed and regional-scale geologic mapping, subsurface investigations, and focused studies of landscape evolution and paleoclimate are combined to address geologic framework problems, paleoecological reconstructions, and applied water resource issues such as water-resource availability and sustainability. Within this project, Marci's work focuses on Eocene Hyperthermals.
Thesis: Paleo-inlet dynamics and the genesis of shelf sand ridges via benthic foraminifera: Old Currituck Inlet, Virginia/North Carolina (Advisor: Randolph A. McBride)
B.S. Earth Systems Science (High Distinction), George Mason University, 1996
Thesis: Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages and sea surface temperature estimates for the Benguela Current region of Southwest Africa (Advisor: Richard J. Diecchio)
Research Geologist, USGS (Reston), 2009-Present
Specializing in planktic and benthic foraminifera, changes in shallow shelf environments and paleoclimate research. Current projects focus on the Pliocene and Eocene Hyperthermals.
Mendenhall Post-doctoral Fellow, USGS (Reston), 2007-2009
Project Title: Integrated Multi-proxy Analyses of mid-Pliocene Ocean Temperatures for an Improved Paleoclimate Reconstruction
Science and Products
Geological Investigations of the Neogene
More than a third of the United States population lives in counties directly on the shoreline, making them vulnerable to hazards associated with changing sea level and storm surges associated with hurricanes and severe storms. The geologic record contains many examples of past intervals of warm climate and high sea level. "Geological Investigation of the Neogene" is examining proxy records of...
Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM4)
PRISM will help distinguish the USGS as a world leader in paleoclimate research, data generation and delivery for use in addressing the modern world's climate-related needs. We will be recognized for the passion of our researchers and partners in providing quality, innovative paleoclimate interpretation and data analysis to the science (climate change) community and to the public we serve....
Geological Investigations of the Neogene Project
Geological Investigations of the Neogene explores past warmer-than-modern climates of the mid-Miocene (about 14-17 million years ago) and Piacenzian (about 3 million years ago) to assess the potential environmental and economic impacts to population centers along the US Atlantic coast under different rates and magnitudes of changes related to warmer temperatures. Specifically, we look at past...
Eocene Hyperthermals Project
Sudden and extreme global warming events of the past are known as hyperthermals. The most intensely studied of these is the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) that occurred about 56 million years ago. During the PETM, global temperatures rose by ~5°C, ocean acidification was widespread, floral and faunal communities were severely disrupted, and changing oceanic circulation and a disrupted...
Estimating Piacenzian sea surface temperature using an alkenone-calibrated transfer function
Stationarity of environmental preferences is a primary assumption required for any paleoenvironmental reconstruction using fossil materials based upon calibration to modern organisms. Confidence in this assumption decreases the further back in time one goes, and the validity of the assumption that species temperature tolerances have not changed...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M.
Mid-piacenzian of the north Atlantic Ocean
The Piacenzian Age (Pliocene) represents a past climate interval within which frequency and magnitude of environmental changes during a period of past global warmth can be analyzed, climate models can be tested, and results can be placed in a context to better prepare for future change. Here we focus on the North Atlantic region, incorporating new...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M.; Herbert, Timothy D.; Otto-Bliesner, Bette L.; Spivey, Whittney Environmental and geomorphological changes on the eastern North American Continental Shelf across the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary
Foraminiferal evidence from two sites in southern Maryland, eastern United States, reveals a series of rapid ecological changes on the continental shelf during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Benthic and planktic foraminifer assemblages from the South Dover Bridge (SDB) and Mattawoman Creek-Billingsley Road (MCBR) cores...
Robinson, Marci M.; Spivey, Whittney The planktonic foraminiferal response to the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum on the Atlantic coastal plain
Planktonic foraminiferal assemblages in two cores from Maryland and New Jersey show evidence for significant changes in surface ocean habitats on the continental shelf during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). At both sites, significant assemblage shifts occur immediately before the onset of the event. These changes...
Livsey, Caitlin M.; Babila, Tali; Robinson, Marci M.; Bralower, Timothy J. Evidence for shelf acidification during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum
A transect of paleoshelf cores from Maryland and New Jersey contains a ~0.19 m to 1.61 m thick interval with reduced percentages of carbonate during the onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Outer paleoshelf cores are barren of nannofossils and correspond to two minor disconformities. Middle paleoshelf cores contain a mixture of...
Bralower, Timothy J.; Kump, Lee R.; Robinson, Marci M.; Self-Trail, Jean M.; Lyons, Shelby L.; Babila, Tali; Ballaron, Edward; Freeman, Katherine H.; Hajek, Elizabeth A.; Rush, William; Zachos, James C. North Atlantic midlatitude surface-circulation changes through the Plio-Pleistocene intensification of northern hemisphere glaciation
The North Atlantic Current (NAC) transports warm salty water to high northern latitudes, with important repercussions for ocean circulation and global climate. A southward displacement of the NAC and Subarctic Front, which separate subpolar and subtropical water masses, is widely suggested for the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) and may have acted as a...
Bolton, Clara T.; Bailey, Ian; Friedrich, Oliver; Tachikawa, Kazuyo; de Garidel‐Thoron, Thibault; Vidal, Laurence; Sonzogni, Corinne; Marino, Gianluca; Rohling, Eelco J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Ermini, Magali; Koch, Mirjam; Cooper, Matthew J.; Wilson, Paul A.
PRISM marine sites—The history of PRISM sea surface temperature estimation
For more than three decades, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Pliocene Research, Interpretation and Synoptic Mapping (PRISM) Project has compiled paleoenvironmental data with the goal of reconstructing global conditions during the warm interval in the middle of the Piacenzian Age of the Pliocene Epoch (about 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago). Because...
Robinson, Marci M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Riesselman, Christina R.
Sea surface temperature estimates for the mid-Piacenzian Indian Ocean—Ocean Drilling Program sites 709, 716, 722, 754, 757, 758, and 763
Despite the wealth of global paleoclimate data available for the warm period in the middle of the Piacenzian Stage of the Pliocene Epoch (about 3.3 to 3.0 million years ago [Ma]; Dowsett and others, 2013, and references therein), the Indian Ocean has remained a region of sparse geographic coverage in terms of microfossil analysis. In an effort to...
Robinson, Marci M.; Dowsett, Harry J.; Stoll, Danielle K. Shallow marine response to global climate change during the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, Salisbury Embayment, USA
The Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was an interval of extreme warmth that caused disruption of marine and terrestrial ecosystems on a global scale. Here we examine the sediments, flora, and fauna from an expanded section at Mattawoman Creek-Billingsley Road (MCBR) in Maryland and explore the impact of warming at a nearshore shallow marine...
Self-Trail, Jean M.; Robinson, Marci M.; Bralower, Timothy J.; Sessa, Jocelyn A.; Hajek, Elizabeth A.; Kump, Lee R.; Trampush, Sheila M.; Willard, Debra A.; Edwards, Lucy E.; Powars, David S.; Wandless, Gregory A. PRISM late Pliocene (Piacenzian) alkenone - derived SST data
Dowsett, Harry J.; Foley, Kevin M.; Robinson, Marci M.; Herbert, Timothy D. A simple rubric for Stratigraphic Fidelity (β) of paleoenvironmental time series
The Pliocene, specifically the late Pliocene, has been a focus of paleoclimate research formore than 25 years. Synoptic regional and global reconstructions along with high-resolution time-series have produced nuanced conceptual models of paleoenvironmental conditions and enhanced our understanding of climate variability and climate sensitivity...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Robinson, Marci M.; Foley, Kevin M. The PRISM4 (mid-Piacenzian) paleoenvironmental reconstruction
The mid-Piacenzian is known as a period of relative warmth when compared to the present day. A comprehensive understanding of conditions during the Piacenzian serves as both a conceptual model and a source for boundary conditions as well as means of verification of global climate model experiments. In this paper we present the PRISM4...
Dowsett, Harry J.; Dolan, Aisling M.; Rowley, David; Moucha, Robert; Forte, Alessandro; Mitrovica, Jerry X.; Pound, Matthew; Salzmann, Ulrich; Robinson, Marci M.; Chandler, Mark; Foley, Kevin M.; Haywood, Alan M.