Dr. Charlotte A. Brunner
- Ph.D. in Oceanography, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, U.S.A., 1978
- B.A. in Geology, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, Rhode Island, U.S.A., 1970
Professor of Marine Science
Dr. Brunner is a paleoceanographer, who uses fossil planktonic and benthic foraminifers and other proxies of the ocean environment to infer the environmental history of the oceans over the past 5 million years. She has participated in research cruises all over the world, including a series of dives on board the DSRV Alvin, and has taken part in the Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) on board the JOIDES Resolution. She recently participated in ODP Leg 182, which cored an enormous temperate-water carbonate reef built by bryozoans over the past 50 million years in the Great Australian Bight. She is presently examining the effects of climate change on the flanks of the reef at scales of hundreds to thousands of years. In a second project using ODP material, she is examining changes in paleoproductivity in the northeast Pacific Ocean during the last complete glacial cycle. She is also investigating the coastal marshes of Mississippi over the last 6 thousand years determining the relationship between environmental changes in the marshes and occupation patterns of the indigenous peoples that relied on the marshes for food.
GoMRI-funded projects:
- A Comprehensive Assessment of Oil Distribution, Transport, Fate and Impacts on Ecosystems and the Deepwater Horizon Oil Release (Year One Block Grant, The Northern Gulf Institute, Role: Co-Principal Investigator, Task Lead, Task Data Contact)
- Responses of Benthic Communities and Sedimentary Dynamics to Hydrocarbon Exposure in Neritic and Bathyal Ecosystems: Phase II (Year One Block Grant, The Northern Gulf Institute, Role: Principal Investigator, Project Data Point of Contact)
Relevant to the biota of the Gulf of Mexico, Dr. Brunner has published the following:
Brunner, C. A. 1979. Distribution of planktonic foraminifera in surface sediments of the Gulf of Mexico. Micropaleontology 25: 325–335.
Brunner, C. A. 2003. Foraminifer and arcellacean assemblages of Mississippi marshes. Geological Society of America Abstract with Programs 35: 491.
Dowsett, H. J., C. A. Brunner, S. Verado, and R. Z. Poore. 2003. Gulf of Mexico planktic foraminifer core-top calibration data set: raw data. United States Geological Survey Open-File Report OF 03-8.