William Rush
Ph.D., 2022, University of California, Santa Cruz
M.S., 2016, University of Oklahoma
B.S., 2013, Sewanee: The University of the South
Uniformitarianism states that the present is the key to understanding the past. In my research I believe the past is the key to understanding the future. We are currently engaged in a global-scale experiment as to how the climate system responds to anthropogenic emissions. However, the only constant in Earth’s history is change, and that includes the Earth’s climate. Our planet has seen crocodiles at the poles as well as ice-covered waters in the tropics.
While the rate of contemporary anthropogenic CO2 emissions and resulting warming are unprecedented in the geologic record, delving into past periods of climate transition can provide valuable insight into what our future world may look like. Climate models offer predictions on regional responses to global warming, yet it is imperative to have some form of ground-truthing to ensure their validity. Therefore, my research centers on how we can use Earth’s history as a natural laboratory to integrate and compare sedimentological and geochemical records of past climate change against our climate models, with a particular emphasis on how hydroclimate changes on regional scales.
Students working in my lab can expect to get hands-on experience collecting sediment samples out in the field, analyzing those samples with geochemical techniques, as well as learning how to perform big-data analysis of climate model output utilizing high-performance computing systems. The techniques that we use are of broad application in industry as well as academia, allowing for multiple career pathways moving forward. In the classroom, I pull upon multiple areas of Earth Science, highlighting the interconnectivity of the atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and biosphere, and the impacts that humans have on these systems.
Publications
J. M. Lora, C. B. Skinner, W. D. Rush, S. H. Baek, “The Hydrologic Cycle and Atmospheric Rivers in CESM2 Simulations of the Last Glacial Maximum,” Geophysical Research Letters. 2023
Kiara J. Gomez, Swapan K. Sahoo, Eleni Panteli, Lorena Moscardelli, Erik Anthonissen, Toti E. Larson, Aaron Howie, and William D. Rush, Partial paleobathymetric restriction from the local North Sea Dome in the Viking Corridor during the Early-Middle Jurassic. Global and Planetary Change. 2023
William Davis Rush, Jean Self-Trail, Yang Zhang, Appy Sluijs, Henk Brinkhuis, James Zachos, James Ogg, Marci Robinson, “Assessing Environmental Change Associated with Early Eocene Hyperthermals in the Atlantic Coastal Plain, USA,” Climates of the Past. 2023
Mingsong Li, Timothy J. Bralower, Lee R. Kump, Jean M. Self-Trail, James C. Zachos, William D. Rush, & Marci M. Robinson. “Astrochronology of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum on the Atlantic Coastal Plain,” Nature Communications. 2022
William D. Rush, James C. Zachos, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, Christine A. Shields. “Increased frequency of extreme precipitation events in the North Atlantic during the PETM: Observations and theory,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 2021
Christine A. Shields, Jeffrey T. Kiehl, William Rush, Mathew Rothstein, Mark A. Snyder. “Atmospheric rivers in high-resolution simulations of the Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM),” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 2021
Timothy J. Bralower, Lee R. Kump, Marci M. Robinson, Jean M. Self-Trail, Tali Babila, Edward Balleron, Katherine Freeman, Elizabeth Hajek, Shelby Lyons, William Rush, James C. Zachos. “Shelf Acidification during the Onset of the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum,” Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 2018