Isotope geochemistry
Biogeochemical cycles
Paleoclimate
My research group uses isotope and organic geochemistry to study climate change and carbon cycling in terrestrial, freshwater, and coastal environments. Recently our research has focused in three main themes: 1) Defining isotope signals of methane emissions from local to planetary scales; 2) Understanding the fate of carbon and nitrogen released from thawing permafrost; and 3) Reconstructing records of Holocene natural and anthropogenic environmental change in tropical and Arctic landscapes.
Douglas, P.M.J., Stolper, D.A., Eiler, J.M., Sessions, A.L., Lawson, M., Shuai, Y., Bishop, A., Podlaha, O.G., Ferreira, A.A., Santos Neto, E.V., Niemann, M., Steen, A.S., Huang, L., Chimiak, L., Valentine, D.L., Fiebig, J., Luhmann, A.J., Seyfried, W.E., Jr., Etiope, G., Schoell, M., Inskeep, W.P., Moran, J.J. and Kitchen, N., 2017. Methane clumped isotopes: Progress and potential for a new isotopic tracer. Organic Geochemistry 113, 262-282.
Douglas, P.M.J., Stolper, D.A., Smith, D.A., Walter Anthony, K.M., Paull, C.K., Dallimore, S., Wik, M., Crill, P.M., Winterdahl, M., Eiler, J.M. and Sessions, A.L., 2016. Diverse origins of Arctic and Subarctic methane point source emissions identified with multiply-substituted isotopologues. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 188, 163-188.
Douglas, P.M.J., Demarest, A.A., Brenner, M. and Canuto, M.A., 2016. Impacts of Climate Change on the Collapse of Lowland Maya Civilization. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences 44, 613-645.
Douglas, P.M.J., Brenner, M., Curtis, J.H., 2016. Methods and future directions for paleoclimatology in the Maya Lowlands. Global and Planetary Change 138, 3-24.
Stolper, D.A., Martini, A.M., Clog, M., Douglas, P.M., Shusta, S.S., Valentine, D.L., Sessions, A.L. and Eiler, J.M., 2015. Distinguishing and understanding thermogenic and biogenic sources of methane using multiply substituted isotopologues. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 161, 219-247.
Coutros, P.R. and Douglas, P.M.J., 2015. Coring Lake Fati and Settlement Archaeology of the Middle Niger Lakes Region. African Archaeological Review 32(2), 249-266.
Douglas, P.M.J., Pagani, M., Canuto, M.A., Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Eglinton, T.I. and Curtis, J.H., 2015. Drought, agricultural adaptation, and sociopolitical collapse in the Maya Lowlands. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 112(18), 5607-5612.
Douglas, P.M.J., Pagani, M., Eglinton, T.I., Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., Ma, K.F. and Breckenridge, A., 2014. Pre-aged plant waxes in tropical lake sediments and their influence on the chronology of molecular paleoclimate proxy records. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 141, 346-364.
Douglas, P.M.J., Affek, H.P., Ivany, L.C., Houben, A.J.P., Sijp, W.P., Sluijs, A., Schouten, S., Pagani, M., 2014. Pronounced zonal heterogeneity in Eocene southern high-latitude sea surface temperatures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 111(18), 6582-6587.
Sijp, W.P., von der Heydt, A.S., Dijkstra, H.A., Flögel, S., Douglas, P.M.J., Bijl, P.K., 2014. The role of ocean gateways on cooling climate on long time scales. Global and Planetary Change 119, 1-22.
Douglas, P.M.J., Pagani, M., Brenner, M., Hodell, D.A., Curtis, J.H., 2012. Aridity and vegetation composition are important determinants of leaf-wax δD values in southeastern Mexico and Central America. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 97, 24-45.
Keating-Bitonti, C.R., Ivany, L.C., Affek, H.P., Douglas, P., Samson, S.D., 2011. Warm, not super-hot, temperatures in the early Eocene subtropics. Geology 39(8), 771-774.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Sujet de recherche : Using isotope tracers to understand greenhouse gas emissions in Greater Montreal/L'utilisation de traceurs isotopiques pour comprendre les émissions de gaz à effet de serre dans le Grand Montréal
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Codirection : John Stix
Sujet de recherche : Trees as passive sensors and archives of volcanic CO2 emissions.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Sujet de recherche : Nitrous oxide emissions from arctic and boreal areas of thawing permafrost.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Codirection : Josué Jautzy (Geological Survey of Canada);
Sujet de recherche : Using clumped isotopes to understand methane formation in the permafrost active layer
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Codirection : Yi Huang, McGill University
Natural Resource Sciences, McGill
Codirection : Cynthia Kallenbach, McGill Natural Resource Sciences
Sujet de recherche : Parameterizing microbial specific models of soil carbon cycling for permafrost environments
Institut des sciences de la mer de Rimouski, Université du Québec à Rimouski
Codirection : André Pellerin
Sujet de recherche : Production de méthane et de dioxyde de carbone dans les sédiments côtiers de l’Arctique Ouest en contexte de changements climatiques
Département d'anthropologie, Université de Montréal
Codirection : Christina Halperin, Université de Montréal
Sujet de recherche : Portrait spatio-temporel de la contamination des réservoirs d’eau de consommation à l’ancienne cité maya d’Ucanal au Guatemala / Spatio-temporal portrait of contamination of drinking water reservoirs in the ancient Mayan city of Ucanal, Guatemala.
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Sujet de recherche : Using gas radiocarbon measurements to detect plastic biodegradation in landfills
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, McGill
Sujet de recherche : Examining the molecular variability in sedimentary organic matter in a large tropical lake