Dr Andrew Moy — ice core research scientist

Scientists of the Antarctic: Dr Andrew Moy

Video transcript

To me, it's a very unique opportunity to study the history of our climate. It is a privilege to be able to use ice cores, sediment cores, as a time capsule, and understand what has happened in the past.

My PhD looked at reconstructing past ocean circulation in the Southern Ocean. So essentially, I used sediment cores, and then looked at specific little microfossils. And this provided a chemistry or a signature of past ocean circulation and then I was able to look at reconstructing climate over the last 160,000 years.

In my current work I've been looking at ice cores from Law Dome that go back about 90,000 years. With the ice core, the ice cores are a record of what happens in the atmosphere. I tend to think of them as an archive or a library of past climate information. So we have different tools, different scientific instruments, and we can look at the different layers in these different cores.

It is a privilege to be able to access parts of our history.

[end transcript]

Dr Andrew Moy: BSc (Hons), PhD

Research interests

My research is focused on palaeoclimate — ‘past climate’. I have been lucky enough to work with national and international research teams that use ice core and marine sediment records that can be used to reconstruct past climate conditions.

In my current role as an Ice Core Research Scientist at the Australian Antarctic Division, I work with a team that uses ice core records to understand past and present climate variability, and change, with particular emphasis in the Australian Antarctic Territory, the Southern Ocean, and Australian sub-Antarctic territories. Our work uses existing and recently collected ice cores from East Antarctica to continue the development of ice core records and climate reconstructions, to explore climate processes, and to improve the calibrations and interpretations used in ice core studies.

I am currently using water isotopes of oxygen and hydrogen (deuterium) in ice cores from East Antarctica to look at changes in snowfall, temperature, atmospheric composition, and atmospheric circulation. These records will help us to understand, quantify and determine the natural variability of climate processes, and changes caused by human activities.

Prior to working at the Australian Antarctic Division, my PhD and post-doctoral research used micro-fossils from marine sediment cores and sediment traps from the South Tasman Rise region to reconstruct past deep water circulation and carbonate chemistry in the Southern Ocean, and to study the effects of ocean acidification (caused by increasing amounts of carbon dioxide dissolving in the ocean) on calcareous shelled organisms in the Southern Ocean.

I have a background in Earth Sciences and have previously worked as a mine geologist in northern Queensland.

Current projects

#4537: East Antarctic Synthesis of Ice cores (EASI) — Ice core records of continental, hemispheric and global variability and change
#4414: IPICS 2k ice core array: Filling the climatological gap of the Indian Ocean sector from Wilhelm II Land
#4062: Law Dome Summit Snow-Climate Observatory

Collaborations & representations

Co-leader, Climate variability in Antarctica and Southern Hemisphere in the past 2000 years (CLIVASH2k)
International Partnerships in Ice Core Sciences (IPICS)

Key outcome areas

Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)
Australian Antarctic strategic plan with particular focus on Theme 1: Climate Processes and Change and through the Stream implementation plans.

Publications

Crockart, C. K., Vance, T. R., Fraser, A. D., Abram, N. J., Criscitiello, A. S., Curran, M. A. J., Favier, V., Gallant, A. J. E., Kittel, C., Kjær, H. A., Klekociuk, A. R., Jong, L. M., Moy, A. D., Plummer, C. T., Vallelonga, P. T., Wille, J., & Zhang, L., 2021. El Niño–Southern Oscillation signal in a new East Antarctic ice core, Mount Brown South, Climate of the Past, 17(5): 1795-1818.

Inoue, M., Curran, M. A. J., Moy, A. D., van Ommen, T. D., Fraser, A. D., Phillips, H. E., & Goodwin, I. D., 2017. A glaciochemical study of the 120 m ice core from Mill Island, East Antarctica, Clim. Past, 13(5): 437-453.

Moy, A. D., Palmer, M. R., Howard, W. R., Bijma, J., Cooper, M. J., Calvo, E., Pelejero, C., Gagan, M. K., & Chalk, T. B., 2019. Varied contribution of the Southern Ocean to deglacial atmospheric CO2 rise, Nature Geoscience: 10.1038/s41561-41019–40473-41569.

Moy, A. D., Howard, W. R., Bray, S. G., & Trull, T. W., 2009. Reduced calcification in modern Southern Ocean planktonic foraminifera, Nature Geoscience, 2: 276–280.

Klein, F., Abram, N. J., Curran, M. A. J., Goosse, H., Goursaud, S., Masson-Delmotte, V., Moy, A., Neukom, R., Orsi, A., Sjolte, J., Steiger, N., Stenni, B., & Werner, M., 2019. Assessing the robustness of Antarctic temperature reconstructions over the past 2 millennia using pseudoproxy and data assimilation experiments, Climate of the Past, 15(2): 661–684.

Rigual-Hernández, A. S., Sánchez-Santos, J. M., Eriksen, R., Moy, A. D., Sierro, F. J., Flores, J. A., Abrantes, F., Bostock, H., Nodder, S. D., González-Lanchas, A., & Trull, T. W., 2020. Limited variability in the phytoplankton Emiliania huxleyi since the pre-industrial era in the Subantarctic Southern Ocean, Anthropocene, 31: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2020.100254.

Roberts, J., Plummer, C., Vance, T., van Ommen, T., Moy, A., Poynter, S., Treverrow, A., Curran, M., & George, S., 2015. A 2000-year annual record of snow accumulation rates for Law Dome, East Antarctica, Climate of the Past, 11(5): 697-707.

Servettaz, A. P. M., Orsi, A. J., Curran, M. A. J., Moy, A. D., Landais, A., Agosta, C., Winton, V. H. L., Touzeau, A., McConnell, J. R., Werner, M., & Baroni, M., 2020. Snowfall and Water Stable Isotope Variability in East Antarctica Controlled by Warm Synoptic Events, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 125(17): e2020JD032863. https://doi.org/032810.031029/032020JD032863.

Vance, T. R., Kiem, A. S., Jong, L. M., Roberts, J. L., Plummer, C. T., Moy, A. D., Curran, M. A. J., & van Ommen, T. D., 2022. Pacific decadal variability over the last 2000 years and implications for climatic risk, Communications Earth & Environment, 3(1): 33 (https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-43022-00359-z).

Zheng, Y., Jong, L. M., Phipps, S. J., Roberts, J. L., Moy, A. D., Curran, M. A. J., & van Ommen, T. D., 2021. Extending and understanding the South West Western Australian rainfall record using a snowfall reconstruction from Law Dome, East Antarctica, Climate of the Past, 17(5): 1973-1987.

See more of Dr Moy’s publications on Google Scholar.

This content was last updated 3 years ago on 13 May 2022.