From Isotopes to Temperature: Working With A Temperature Equation

Dorien McGee, University of South Florida, Washington Center for Improving Undergraduate Education

In this activity, students will use oxygen isotope values of two species of modern coral to reconstruct ambient water temperature over a four-year period. They use Microsoft Excel, or similar application, to create a spreadsheet of temperature values calculated from the isotope values of the corals by means of an algebraic equation. Students then use correlation and regression techniques to determine whether isotope records can be considered to be good proxies for records of past temperatures.

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Notes from our reviewers

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Forming groups of students (especially pairing students of different level of experiences in Excel) will enhance the effectiveness of the activity. Strong guidance of students is required in order to ensure they don't simply follow the instructions but understand the relevance in terms of paleoclimatology. Include a final discussion on the relevance of what students learned on their understanding of global temperatures.
The dataset and conversion equation used in this module were contrived though are based on actual datasets and conversion equations used for corals. The spreadsheet is based on the PDB standard and the equation given in the presentation uses SMOW standard. Instructors need to clarify the difference between the standards. Comments from expert scientist: The resource is very sound, and despite being fairly fundamental in paleoclimatology it often can confuse students. However, here it is clearly presented and explained, with relevant background and application information.