I study how the climate changed over the past 2000 years - particularly the part of that time before humans started regularly writing down weather observations. Understanding how the climate behaved in the centuries before the Industrial Revolution helps us to understand how and why Earth’s climate is changing today as a result of human activities. I study climate variability on time scales from monthly to centennial.
I am particularly interested in the water cycle, from regional to global scales. One of the main tools I use to understand the water cycle is the isotopic composition of water. That is, the ratio of 18O to 16O in rain, snow, lake water, river water, ice, and seawater. I study how this varies in the modern day, as well as using proxy data for the isotopic composition of water in the past - for example, from corals, tree rings, and ice cores.
I am currently a postdoctoral fellow in the Research School of Earth Sciences at the Australian National University. Here, I spend my time trying to understand the dynamics and characteristics of Australian drought. Particularly whether the droughts that we have experienced in the past 100 yeasr or so are ‘unusual’ relative to the past 1000 years. This research is supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Climate Extremes.
Before starting at ANU, I was a postdoctoral research associate in the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Washington University in St. Louis. There I investigated controls on modern spatial and temporal variability in the stable isotopic composition of precipitation, as well as using water isotope proxy records to investigate changes in tropical ocean-atmosphere circulation over the past millennium.
Prior to starting my academic career, I worked as various things, including as a marine scientist for the Australian government.
Aside from climate science, my interests are many and varied: some edited highlights include swimming, cross country and downhill skiing, camping, reading fantasy novels, taking bad photos with old film cameras, using the Oxford comma, and playing guitar & violin.
I am combining information from modern observational data, palaeoclimate proxy data, and model simulations to better understand the dynamics and drivers of Australian drought.
Previous Affiliation
Postdoctoral research associate
Washington University in St. Louis
Reconstructing changes in the strength in the Pacific Walker Circulation during the past 800 years, using a recently compiled
database of water isotope proxy records. I also used globally-distributed measurements of the stable isotopic composition of precipitation to investigate drivers of spatial and temporal variability in the global water cycle.
Education
PhD (awarded April 2019)
The University of Adelaide, Australia
Advisors: Dr Jonathan Tyler, Dr John Tibby
Thesis title: Reconstructing Australia’s late Quaternary climates
from the geochemistry of lake sediments and snail shells.
Awarded Dean’s Commendation for Doctoral Thesis Excellence
Conceptual flow diagram summarising the research components of my PhD thesis
Treasurer of the Australasian Quaternary Association (2016-2019)
Research
Published Journal Articles
Churakova-Sidorova, O., V. Myglan, M. Fonti, O. Naumova, A. Kirdyanov, I. Kalugin, V. Babich, G. Falster, et al. 2022. “Modern aridity in the Altai-Sayan mountain range derived from multiple millennial proxies.” Scientific Reports 12(1): 1-10. Link to publication.
Falster, G., B. Konecky, M. Madhavan, S. Coats, S. Stevenson. 2021. “Imprint of the Pacific Walker circulation in global precipitation δ18O”. Journal of Climate 34(21): 8579-8597. Link to publication.
Konecky, B., N. McKay, O. Churakova (Sidorova), L. Comas-Bru, E. Dassié, K. DeLong, G. Falster, et al. 2020. “The Iso2k Database: A Global Compilation of Paleo-δ18O and δ2H Records to Aid Understanding of Common Era Climate.” Earth System Science Data, February. Link to publication.
Falster, G., S. Delean, J. Tyler. 2018. “Hydrogen Peroxide Treatment of Natural Lake Sediment Prior to Carbon and Oxygen Stable Isotope Analysis of Calcium Carbonate.” Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 19(9): 3583–95. Link to publication.
Falster, G., J. Tyler, K. Grant, J. Tibby, C. Turney, S. Löhr, G. Jacobsen, A. P. Kershaw. 2018. “Millennial-Scale Variability in South-East Australian Hydroclimate between 30,000 and 10,000 Years Ago.” Quaternary Science Reviews 192 (July): 106–22. Link to publication.
Collins, Alan., S. Patranabis-Deb, E. Alexander, C. Bertram, G. Falster, R. Gore, J. Mackintosh, et al. 2015. “Detrital Mineral Age, Radiogenic Isotopic Stratigraphy and Tectonic Significance of the Cuddapah Basin, India.” Gondwana Research 28(4): 1294–1309. Link to publication.
In the works
G. Falster, B. Konecky, S. Coats, S. Stevenson. “Forced changes in the Pacific Walker Circulation over the past millennium”. In review at Nature.
Konecky, B., N. McKay, G. Falster, S. Stevenson, M. Fischer, A. Atwood, D. Thompson, M. Jones, K. DeLong, J. Tyler, B. Martrat, E. Thomas, J. Conroy, S. Dee. L. Jonkers, O. Curakova (Sidorova), Z. Kern, T. Opel, H. Sayani, Iso2k Project Members. “Temperature-driven changes in the global water cycle during the Common Era”. In review at Nature Geoscience.
Conference Proceedings
You can read a filtered version of this in my CV if you’re interested
