Prof James Rae

Director of Impact

Professor

Researcher profile

Phone

+44 (0)1334 46 3910

Email

jwbr@st-andrews.ac.uk

 

Research areas

My research focuses on reconstructing past climate change and its causes.  I'm particularly interested in the cause of recent glacial-interglacial cycles, and climate changes over the Cenozoic.  To study these questions I use geochemical measurements on fossils, sediments, water and ice, with a special focus on the boron isotope proxy for pH.  I interpret these data with the help of a variety of numerical models.  I'm also fascinated by biomineralisation processes in corals and foraminifera, and the insights that geochemistry offers into calcification and ocean acidification. You can find out more about my work at my website: www.jameswbrae.com

PhD supervision

• Alyssa Kovalski
• Aoife N? Bhuachalla
• Lucinda Palmer
• Megan Pelly
• Alexander Rain
• Mauricio Santos-Andrade
• Zhekai Tang

Selected publications

• Open access

  A century of change in the California Current: upwelling system amplifies acidification

  Stoll, M. M. V., Deutsch, C. A., Jurikova, H., Rae, J. W. B., Frenzel, H., Gothmann, A. M., Alin, S. R. & Gagnon, A. C., 13 Nov 2025, In: Nature Communications. 16, 11 p., 9661.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Brachiopods as archives of intrannual, annual, and interannual environmental variations

  Crippa, G., Jurikova, H., Leng, M. J., Zanchi, M., Harper, E. M., Rae, J. W. B., Savickaite, K., Viaretti, M. & Angiolini, L., 1 Jun 2025, In: Limnology and Oceanography Letters. 10, 3, p. 390-402 13 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Letter › peer-review

• Open access

  Evaluating glacial CO₂ system reconstructions from benthic proxies in Earth system simulations

  Adloff, M., Jeltsch-Thömmes, A., Rae, J. W. B., Pöppelmeier, F., Trudgill, M., Stocker, T. F. & Joos, F., 2 Oct 2025, In: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 40, 10, 24 p., e2025PA005125.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Ice core evidence for the Los Chocoyos supereruption disputes millennial-scale climate impact

  Innes, H., Hutchison, W., Sigl, M., Crick, L., Abbott, P. M., Bigler, M., Chellman, N. J., Davies, S. M., Kutterolf, S., McConnell, J. R., Severi, M., Sparks, R. S. J., Svensson, A., Wolff, E. W., Rae, J. W. B. & Burke, A., 22 Feb 2025, In: Communications Earth & Environment. 6, 11 p., 137.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Limited decrease of Southern Ocean sulfur productivity across the penultimate termination

  Fischer, H., Burke, A., Rae, J. W. B., Sugden, P. J., Erhardt, T., Twarloh, B., Hörhold, M., Freitag, J., Markle, B., Severi, M., Hansson, M., Savarino, J., Pryer, H., Doyle, E. & Wolff, E., 3 Jan 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature Geoscience. Online, 10 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Multi‐proxy estimates of sea surface temperature and CO₂ in the Western Atlantic during the Late Miocene

  Tanner, T., Rae, J., Hernández-Almeida, I., Zhang, H., Jaggi, M., Dumont, M., Jurikova, H., Bernasconi, S. M. & Stoll, H., 23 Sept 2025, In: Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. 40, 9, 23 p., e2025PA005142.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Planktonic foraminifera regulate calcification according to ocean density

  Zarkogiannis, S. D., Rae, J. W. B., Shipley, B. R. & Mortyn, P. G., 31 Jul 2025, In: Communications Earth & Environment. 6, p. 1-12 12 p., 605.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Pulses of ocean acidification at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary

  Trudgill, M., Rae, J. W. B., Whiteford, R., Adloff, M., Crumpton-Banks, J., Van Mourik, M., Burke, A., Cuperus, M., Corsetti, F., Doherty, D., Gray, W., Greenop, R., Hong, W.-L., Lepland, A., McIntyre, A., Neiroukh, N., Rose, C. V., Ruhl, M., Saunders, D. & Siri, M. M. F. R. & 5 others, Steele, R. C. J., Stüeken, E. E., West, A. J., Ziegler, M. & Greene, S. E., 14 Jul 2025, In: Nature Communications. 16, 11 p., 6471.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Rapid rise in atmospheric CO₂ marked the end of the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age

  Jurikova, H., Garbelli, C., Whiteford, R., Reeves, T., Laker, G., Liebetrau, V., Gutjahr, M., Eisenhauer, A., Savickaite, K., Leng, M. J., Iurino, D. A., Viaretti, M., Tomašových, A., Zhang, Y., Wang, W.-Q., Shi, G. R., Shen, S.-Z., Rae, J. W. B. & Angiolini, L., 6 Jan 2025, (E-pub ahead of print) In: Nature Geoscience. Latest articles, 8 p.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

• Open access

  Southern Ocean CO₂ outgassing and nutrient load reduced by a well-ventilated glacial North Pacific

  Shankle, M. G., MacGilchrist, G. A., Gray, W. R., de Lavergne, C., Menviel, L. C., Burke, A. & Rae, J. W. B., 17 Sept 2025, In: Nature Communications. 16, 13 p., 8279.

  Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

 

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