James Baldini

My research explores how past climate variability is recorded in natural archives, particularly stalagmites, which preserve detailed environmental signals over centuries to millennia. My foundation in environmental geochemistry and interest in understanding Earth's climate system has resulted in a diverse research portfolio spanning paleoclimatology, archaeology, and atmospheric science. Recent work has ranged from reconstructing tropical storm activity in the Caribbean using cave deposits, to investigating how volcanic eruptions influence regional and global climate patterns.

I apply a range of techniques, including high-resolution geochemical analysis, environmental monitoring, numerical modelling, and fieldwork in caves across multiple continents, to decode climate signals preserved in speleothems. I am involved in projects studying atmospheric circulation patterns like the North Atlantic Oscillation, collaborating with archaeologists to understand climate-culture interactions during events like the Classic Maya Collapse, and investigating how carbon dioxide variations in cave environments affect paleoclimate records.