Oceanography
Geochemistry
Paleoclimate
Adi Torfstein is an associate professor at the Institute of Earth Sciences in the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (HUJI), where he is head of the Oceanography Program, and is a resident scientist at the Interuniversity Institute of Marine Sciences of Eilat.
The lab specializes in geochemistry, oceanography, and paleoclimate.
Our research focuses on the signal transfer between the modern atmosphere and oceans to the geological record, the impact of abrupt events on primary and export production in the oceans, trace element cycles, and reconstruction of Quaternary paleoclimate from lacustrine and marine archives. We combine between time series of modern marine and terrigenous particulate fluxes, coeval seawater compositions, and biogeochemical cycles in the oceans (see the REDMAST project). Some of the main projects are listed below:
Oceanography
- Trace element cycles in the oceans, with a focus on short term perturbations (dust storms, floods)
- Marine productivity and export production efficiency
- Dust sources, temporal patterns and impact on marine biogeochemistry
- Planktonic foraminifera seasonality and daily dynamics
- Biomonitoring in the marine environment
Paleoceanography, paleoclimate
- Late Quaternary history of the Red Sea and Gulf of Aqaba
- The Late Quaternary history of the Dead Sea basin lacustrine bodies (e.g., Kinneret deep drilling)
- The chemostratigraphy of Miocene deposits in the East Mediterranean Levant Basin
- Holocene history of Eilat coral reefs
Geochemistry
- Provenance and weathering patterns of sediments and dust
- U-series disequilibrium in fine terrigenous material
- U-Th dating systematics of “dirty carbonates”
