Julie Richey, Ph.D.
Julie Richey is a Research Geologist at the St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center.
Paleoclimate and Environmental Change
Establishing a baseline of natural climate variability over the past 2,000 years is essential to accurately predicting regional responses to anthropogenic climate change. My research focus is reconstructing temperature and hydroclimatic variability in the Gulf of Mexico/Subtropical Atlantic Ocean using a broad range of different paleoclimate archives. In addition to generating proxy-based paleoclimate records, I am working on proxy development and calibration studies to improve our ability to quantify past changes in temperature, salinity and precipitation in both terrestrial and marine environments.
Coral Paleoclimate
Research Interests
- Using stable isotopes and trace elements to reconstruct climate from coral skeletons
- Investigating the effect of water quality and coral ecology on geochemical proxies
Field Sites
- US Virgin Islands
- Dry Tortugas National Park
- Florida Keys Reef Tract
Project web page: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/spcmsc/science/coral-reef-ecosystem-studies-crest
Holocene Paleoclimate in the Gulf of Mexico
Project web page: https://www.usgs.gov/centers/spcmsc/science/climate-and-environmental-change-gulf-mexico-and-caribbean
Research Interests
- Paleoclimate Reconstruction from Marine and Lake Sediments
- Coral Reefs as Climate Archives
- Paleoceanographic Proxy Calibration
Field Sites
- Garrison Basin (Gulf of Mexico)
- Fisk Basin (Gulf of Mexico)
- Pigmy Basin (Gulf of Mexico)
- Sediment Trap Site (Gulf of Mexico)
Professional Experience
U.S. Geological Survey, Research Geologist, St. Petersburg Florida, 2012-present
NOAA/UCAR Climate and Global Change Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Washington, School of Oceanography, Seattle, WA, 2010–2012
Education and Certifications
Ph. D. - Marine Geology (2010), Univ. of South Florida, College of Marine Science
M.S. - Marine Geology (2007), Univ. of South Florida, College of Marine Science
B.S. - Geological Sciences/Biological Sciences (2004), The Ohio State Univ.
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
Data for evaluating the Sr/Ca temperature proxy with in-situ temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea
Massive corals are used as environmental recorders throughout the tropics and subtropics to study environmental variability during time periods preceding ocean-observing instrumentation. However, careful testing of paleoproxies is necessary to validate the environmental-proxy record throughout a range of conditions experienced by the recording organisms. As part of the USGS Coral Reef...
Multi-species Coral Sr/Ca Based Sea-Surface Temperature Reconstruction Data Using Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea from Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
New sub annual and mean annual Sr/Ca records from two species of massive coral, Orbicella faveolata (coral B3) and Siderastrea siderea (coral CG2), from the Dry Tortugas National Park, FL (DRTO). Both corals have well-constrained chronologies, with coral B3 ranging from 1893-2008 and coral CG2 ranging from 1837-2012. We combine these new records with published Sr/Ca data from three...
Filter Total Items: 34
Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata
The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is critical to quantifying uncertainties...
Authors
Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Lauren Toth, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Richard Z. Poore
Environmental controls on the geochemistry of Globorotalia truncatulinoides in the Gulf of Mexico: Implications for paleoceanographic reconstructions
Modern observations of planktic foraminifera from sediment trap studies help to constrain the regional ecology of paleoceanographically valuable species. Results from a weekly-resolved sediment trap time series (2008–2014) in the northern Gulf of Mexico demonstrate that 92% of Globorotalia truncatulinoides flux occurs in winter (January, February, and March), and that encrusted and non...
Authors
Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey, Jennifer S. Fehrenbacher, Brad E. Rosenheim, Howard J. Spero
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Pronounced centennial-scale Atlantic Ocean climate variability correlated with Western Hemisphere hydroclimate
Surface-ocean circulation in the northern Atlantic Ocean influences Northern Hemisphere climate. Century-scale circulation variability in the Atlantic Ocean, however, is poorly constrained due to insufficiently-resolved paleoceanographic records. Here we present a replicated reconstruction of sea-surface temperature and salinity from a site sensitive to North Atlantic circulation in the...
Authors
Kaustubh Thirumalai, Terrence M. Quinn, Yuko Okumura, Julie N. Richey, Judson W. Partin, Richard Z. Poore, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro
Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial scale; however, the sources of variability...
Authors
Lauren Toth, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Erica L. Ashe, Julie N. Richey
Fidelity of the Sr/Ca proxy in recording ocean temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea
Massive corals provide a useful archive of environmental variability, but careful testing of geochemical proxies in corals is necessary to validate the relationship between each proxy and environmental parameter throughout the full range of conditions experienced by the recording organisms. Here we use samples from a coral-growth study to test the hypothesis that Sr/Ca in the coral...
Authors
Ilsa B. Kuffner, Kelsey E. Roberts, Jennifer A. Flannery, Jennifer M. Morrison, Julie N. Richey
GDGT and alkenone flux in the northern Gulf of Mexico: Implications for the TEX86 and UK137 paleothermometers
The TEX86 and molecular biomarker proxies have been broadly applied in down-core marine sediments to reconstruct past sea surface temperature (SST). Although both TEX86 and have been interpreted as proxies for mean annual SST throughout the global ocean, regional studies of GDGTs and alkenones in sinking particles are required to understand the influence of seasonality, depth...
Authors
Julie N. Richey, Jessica E. Tierney
Multi-species coral Sr/Ca-based sea-surface temperature reconstruction using Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea from the Florida Straits
We present new, monthly-resolved Sr/Ca-based sea-surface temperature (SST) records from two species of massive coral, Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea, from the Dry Tortugas National Park, FL, USA (DTNP). We combine these new records with published data from three additional S. siderea coral colonies to generate a 278-year long multi-species stacked Sr/Ca-SST record from DTNP...
Authors
Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Richard Z. Poore, Kristine L DeLong
Precipitation changes in the western tropical Pacific over the past millennium
Modern seasonal and inter-annual precipitation variability in Palau is linked to both meridional movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and changes in the Pacific Walker Circula- tion (PWC) associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Thus, Palau’s hydroclimate should be sensitive to mean shifts in the ITCZ and PWC on decadal to centennial time scales. Using compound...
Authors
Julie N. Richey, Julian P. Sachs
Seasonal flux and assemblage composition of planktic foraminifera from the northern Gulf of Mexico, 2008–14
The U.S. Geological Survey anchored a sediment trap in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January 2008 to collect seasonal time-series data on the flux and assemblage composition of live planktic foraminifers. This report provides an update of the previous time-series data to include continuous results from January 2013 through May 2014. Ten taxa constituted ~95 percent of both the 2013 and...
Authors
Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey
The relationship between the ratio of strontium to calcium and sea-surface temperature in a modern Porites astreoides coral: Implications for using P. astreoides as a paleoclimate archive
An inverse relationship has been demonstrated between water temperature and the ratio of strontium to calcium (Sr/Ca) in coral aragonite for a number of Pacific species of the genus Porites. This empirically determined relationship has been used to reconstruct past sea-surface temperature (SST) from modern and Holocene age coral archives. A study was conducted to investigate this...
Authors
Tess E. Busch, Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Anastasios Stathakopoulos
USGS research on Atlantic coral reef ecosystems
Overview Coral reefs are massive, biomineralized structures that protect coastal communities by acting as barriers to hazards such as hurricanes and tsunamis. They provide sand for beaches through the natural process of erosion, support tourism and recreational industries, and provide essential habitat for fisheries. The continuing global degradation of coral reef ecosystems is well...
Authors
Ilsa B. Kuffner, Kimberly K. Yates, David G Zawada, Julie N. Richey, Christina A. Kellogg, Lauren Toth
Non-USGS Publications**
Richey J.N., Hollander, D.J., Flower, B.P. and Eglinton, T.I., 2011, Merging late Holocene Molecular Organic and Foraminiferal-Based Geochemical Records of SST in the Gulf of Mexico: Paleoceanography, doi:10.1029/2010PA002000.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Filter Total Items: 13
Science and Products
Filter Total Items: 14
Data for evaluating the Sr/Ca temperature proxy with in-situ temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea
Massive corals are used as environmental recorders throughout the tropics and subtropics to study environmental variability during time periods preceding ocean-observing instrumentation. However, careful testing of paleoproxies is necessary to validate the environmental-proxy record throughout a range of conditions experienced by the recording organisms. As part of the USGS Coral Reef...
Multi-species Coral Sr/Ca Based Sea-Surface Temperature Reconstruction Data Using Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea from Dry Tortugas National Park, Florida
New sub annual and mean annual Sr/Ca records from two species of massive coral, Orbicella faveolata (coral B3) and Siderastrea siderea (coral CG2), from the Dry Tortugas National Park, FL (DRTO). Both corals have well-constrained chronologies, with coral B3 ranging from 1893-2008 and coral CG2 ranging from 1837-2012. We combine these new records with published Sr/Ca data from three...
Filter Total Items: 34
Quantifying uncertainty in Sr/Ca-based estimates of SST from the coral Orbicella faveolata
The strontium to calcium ratio (Sr/Ca) in aragonitic skeletons of massive corals provides a proxy for sea surface temperature (SST) that can be used to reconstruct paleoclimates across decades, centuries, and, potentially, millennia. Determining the reproducibility of Sr/Ca records among contemporaneous coral colonies from the same region is critical to quantifying uncertainties...
Authors
Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Lauren Toth, Ilsa B. Kuffner, Richard Z. Poore
Environmental controls on the geochemistry of Globorotalia truncatulinoides in the Gulf of Mexico: Implications for paleoceanographic reconstructions
Modern observations of planktic foraminifera from sediment trap studies help to constrain the regional ecology of paleoceanographically valuable species. Results from a weekly-resolved sediment trap time series (2008–2014) in the northern Gulf of Mexico demonstrate that 92% of Globorotalia truncatulinoides flux occurs in winter (January, February, and March), and that encrusted and non...
Authors
Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey, Jennifer S. Fehrenbacher, Brad E. Rosenheim, Howard J. Spero
A North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) of the Common Era
This study presents a synthesis of century-scale hydroclimate variations in North America for the Common Era (last 2000 years) using new age models of previously published multiple proxy-based paleoclimate data. This North American Hydroclimate Synthesis (NAHS) examines regional hydroclimate patterns and related environmental indicators, including vegetation, lake water elevation, stream...
Authors
Jessica R. Rodysill, Lesleigh Anderson, Thomas M. Cronin, Miriam C. Jones, Robert S. Thompson, David B. Wahl, Debra A. Willard, Jason A. Addison, Jay R. Alder, Katherine H. Anderson, Lysanna Anderson, John A. Barron, Christopher E. Bernhardt, Steven W. Hostetler, Natalie M. Kehrwald, Nicole Khan, Julie N. Richey, Scott W. Starratt, Laura E. Strickland, Michael Toomey, Claire C. Treat, G. Lynn Wingard
By
Water Resources Mission Area, Ecosystems Land Change Science Program, Energy Resources Program, Groundwater and Streamflow Information Program, Mineral Resources Program, National Laboratories Program, Science and Decisions Center, Florence Bascom Geoscience Center, Geology, Minerals, Energy, and Geophysics Science Center, Geosciences and Environmental Change Science Center, St. Petersburg Coastal and Marine Science Center
Pronounced centennial-scale Atlantic Ocean climate variability correlated with Western Hemisphere hydroclimate
Surface-ocean circulation in the northern Atlantic Ocean influences Northern Hemisphere climate. Century-scale circulation variability in the Atlantic Ocean, however, is poorly constrained due to insufficiently-resolved paleoceanographic records. Here we present a replicated reconstruction of sea-surface temperature and salinity from a site sensitive to North Atlantic circulation in the...
Authors
Kaustubh Thirumalai, Terrence M. Quinn, Yuko Okumura, Julie N. Richey, Judson W. Partin, Richard Z. Poore, Eduardo Moreno-Chamarro
Millennial-scale variability in the local radiocarbon reservoir age of south Florida during the Holocene
A growing body of research suggests that the marine environments of south Florida provide a critical link between the tropical and high-latitude Atlantic. Changes in the characteristics of water masses off south Florida may therefore have important implications for our understanding of climatic and oceanographic variability over a broad spatial scale; however, the sources of variability...
Authors
Lauren Toth, Hai Cheng, R. Lawrence Edwards, Erica L. Ashe, Julie N. Richey
Fidelity of the Sr/Ca proxy in recording ocean temperature in the western Atlantic coral Siderastrea siderea
Massive corals provide a useful archive of environmental variability, but careful testing of geochemical proxies in corals is necessary to validate the relationship between each proxy and environmental parameter throughout the full range of conditions experienced by the recording organisms. Here we use samples from a coral-growth study to test the hypothesis that Sr/Ca in the coral...
Authors
Ilsa B. Kuffner, Kelsey E. Roberts, Jennifer A. Flannery, Jennifer M. Morrison, Julie N. Richey
GDGT and alkenone flux in the northern Gulf of Mexico: Implications for the TEX86 and UK137 paleothermometers
The TEX86 and molecular biomarker proxies have been broadly applied in down-core marine sediments to reconstruct past sea surface temperature (SST). Although both TEX86 and have been interpreted as proxies for mean annual SST throughout the global ocean, regional studies of GDGTs and alkenones in sinking particles are required to understand the influence of seasonality, depth...
Authors
Julie N. Richey, Jessica E. Tierney
Multi-species coral Sr/Ca-based sea-surface temperature reconstruction using Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea from the Florida Straits
We present new, monthly-resolved Sr/Ca-based sea-surface temperature (SST) records from two species of massive coral, Orbicella faveolata and Siderastrea siderea, from the Dry Tortugas National Park, FL, USA (DTNP). We combine these new records with published data from three additional S. siderea coral colonies to generate a 278-year long multi-species stacked Sr/Ca-SST record from DTNP...
Authors
Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Kaustubh Thirumalai, Richard Z. Poore, Kristine L DeLong
Precipitation changes in the western tropical Pacific over the past millennium
Modern seasonal and inter-annual precipitation variability in Palau is linked to both meridional movement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and changes in the Pacific Walker Circula- tion (PWC) associated with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation. Thus, Palau’s hydroclimate should be sensitive to mean shifts in the ITCZ and PWC on decadal to centennial time scales. Using compound...
Authors
Julie N. Richey, Julian P. Sachs
Seasonal flux and assemblage composition of planktic foraminifera from the northern Gulf of Mexico, 2008–14
The U.S. Geological Survey anchored a sediment trap in the northern Gulf of Mexico in January 2008 to collect seasonal time-series data on the flux and assemblage composition of live planktic foraminifers. This report provides an update of the previous time-series data to include continuous results from January 2013 through May 2014. Ten taxa constituted ~95 percent of both the 2013 and...
Authors
Caitlin E. Reynolds, Julie N. Richey
The relationship between the ratio of strontium to calcium and sea-surface temperature in a modern Porites astreoides coral: Implications for using P. astreoides as a paleoclimate archive
An inverse relationship has been demonstrated between water temperature and the ratio of strontium to calcium (Sr/Ca) in coral aragonite for a number of Pacific species of the genus Porites. This empirically determined relationship has been used to reconstruct past sea-surface temperature (SST) from modern and Holocene age coral archives. A study was conducted to investigate this...
Authors
Tess E. Busch, Jennifer A. Flannery, Julie N. Richey, Anastasios Stathakopoulos
USGS research on Atlantic coral reef ecosystems
Overview Coral reefs are massive, biomineralized structures that protect coastal communities by acting as barriers to hazards such as hurricanes and tsunamis. They provide sand for beaches through the natural process of erosion, support tourism and recreational industries, and provide essential habitat for fisheries. The continuing global degradation of coral reef ecosystems is well...
Authors
Ilsa B. Kuffner, Kimberly K. Yates, David G Zawada, Julie N. Richey, Christina A. Kellogg, Lauren Toth
Non-USGS Publications**
Richey J.N., Hollander, D.J., Flower, B.P. and Eglinton, T.I., 2011, Merging late Holocene Molecular Organic and Foraminiferal-Based Geochemical Records of SST in the Gulf of Mexico: Paleoceanography, doi:10.1029/2010PA002000.
**Disclaimer: The views expressed in Non-USGS publications are those of the author and do not represent the views of the USGS, Department of the Interior, or the U.S. Government.
Filter Total Items: 13