Dr Monika Markowska

Senior Research Fellow

School: Geography and Natural Sciences

Research Themes and Scholarly Interests

I use geological archives, such as cave deposits, to provide insights into past climate variability by utilising a variety of geochemical tools. My research takes me to places such as Arabia, Australia and Ethiopia to name a few.

I am leading a Royal Society University Research Fellowship project investigating precipitation changes in dryland areas across the world. A particular focus is broadening our understanding of dryland hydroclimate by comparing and evaluating climate proxy and instrumental data, proxy-system modelling, developing novel techniques in quantitative temperature and rainfall reconstructions, and generating chronological methodologies across timescales from the modern to the Miocene. In this project we are investigating previous 'warmer worlds', like the Pliocene, to gain insights on the controlling mechanisms responsible for precipitation changes. I am particularly passionate about improving our understanding on how fragile and vulnerable dryland landscapes will respond to future climate change.

Key Publications

Please visit the Pure Research Information Portal for further information
Recurrent humid phases in Arabia over the past 8 million years, Markowska, M., Vonhof, H., Groucutt, H., Breeze, P., Drake, N., Stewart, M., Albert, R., Andrieux, E., Blinkhorn, J., Boivin, N., Budsky, A., Clark-Wilson, R., Fleitmann, D., Gerdes, A., Martin, A., Martínez-García, A., Nicholson, S., Price, G., Scerri, E., Scholz, D., Vanwezer, N., Weber, M., Alsharekh, A., Al Omari, A., Al-Mufarreh, Y., Al-Jibreen, F., Alqahtani, M., Al-Shanti, M., Zalmout, I., Petraglia, M., Haug, G. 24 Apr 2025, In: Nature