Institute at Brown for Environment and Society

Lina C. Pérez-Angel

Voss Postdoctoral Research Associate in Environment and Society

Biography

Lina C. Pérez-Angel’s research in paleoclimatology has contemporary relevance. During the Pliocene, between 5 and 2.5 million years ago, Earth’s atmosphere had about 400 parts per million of carbon dioxide—pretty similar to what we have now. She uses bacterial lipids and other biomarkers on rocks to see how ancient rains, droughts, and temperatures affected the environment then and compares the results to recent data to see how these processes were different from what is happening now.

Selected publications

  • Pérez-Angel, L.C., Sepúlveda, J., Montes, C., Smith, J.J., Molnar, P., González-Arango, C., Snell, K., Dildar, N. (2022). Mixed Signals from the Stable Isotope composition of Precipitation and Plant Waxes in the Northern Tropical Andes. Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, 127, e2022JG006932. https://doi.org/10.1029/2022JG006932
  • Goldman, A. E., S. R. Emani, L. C. Pérez-Angel, J. A. Rodríguez-Ramos, and J. C. Stegen. (2021). Integrated, Coordinated, Open, and Networked (ICON) Science to Advance the Geosciences: Introduction and Synthesis of a Special Collection of Commentary Articles. Earth and Space Science. https://doi.org/10.1029/2021EA002099
  • Molnar, P. & Pérez-Angel, L. C., (2021). Constraints on the paleo-elevation history of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia from its palynological record. Geosphere, 17(4), pp.1333-1352. https://doi.org/10.1130/GES02328.1.
  • Pérez-Angel, L.C. (2020). Measuring past terrestrial temperatures with bacterial lipids. Nature Reviews Earth & Environmenthttps://doi.org/10.1038/s43017-020-0098-y (invited)
  • Pérez‐Angel, L. C., Sepúlveda, J., Molnar, P., Montes, C., Rajagopalan, B., Snell, K., Gonzalez-Arango, C., Dildar, N., (2020). Soil and air temperature calibrations using branched GDGTs for the Tropical Andes of Colombia: Toward a pan‐tropical calibration. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 21, e2020GC008941. https://doi.org/10.1029/2020GC008941
  • Pérez‐Angel, L. C., & Molnar, P. (2017). Sea surface temperatures in the eastern equatorial Pacific and surface temperatures in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia during El Niño: Implications for Pliocene conditions. Paleoceanography, 32, 1309– 1314. https://doi.org/10.1002/2017PA003182
  • Montes, C. Cardona, A., Jaramillo, C. Pardo, A. Silva, J.C., Valencia, V., Ayala, C, Pérez-Angel, L.C., Rodriguez-Parra, L.A., Ramirez, V., Niño, H., 2015, Middle Miocene closure of the Central American Seaway, Science, v. 348, pp. 226-229. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aaa2815