Nathalie Goodkin

Division Chair & Curator, Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Division of Physical Sciences

Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

212 769-5379

Education

Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution Joint Program, Ph.D.

Harvard University, B.A.

Research Interests

Dr. Goodkin’s research is focused on understanding and using coral geochemistry to reconstruct ocean-atmosphere interactions, climate behavior, and pollution histories over the past 500 years. 

Her team uses paleoclimate proxies in coral skeleton (e.g., stable isotopes) to reconstruct the climate of the last 500 years.  The group utilizes coral skeletons as recorders of environmental conditions, providing insights into climate behavior on seasonal to decadal time scales. Dr. Goodkin strives to improve our understanding of the influences biological calcification on chemical fossils to improve the reliability of biogenic carbonate reconstructions.

Dr. Goodkin has focused on understanding how changes to mean sea surface temperature, salinity and circulation interact with the Southeast Asian Monsoon system. As warm water from the Pacific Ocean is pushed through the marginal seas of Southeast Asia towards the Indian Ocean, heat is transferred from the ocean to land driving precipitation patterns. Understanding how these systems have changed and interacted in the past will be critical to predicting climate in the future. 

Related Resources

• Unlocking Climate Change
• What is a Chemical Oceanographer?
• Diving for Corals
• From Sun to Sea Life

Publications

Ong, M. R., Goodkin, N. F., Guppy, R., Hughen, K. A. (2022) Colpophyllia natans from Tobago, a novel paleoclimate archive for reconstructing sea surface temperature in the tropical Atlantic, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology.

Kaushal, N., Tanzil, J. T. I., Zhou, Y., Ong, M. R., Goodkin, N. F., Martin, P. (2022) Environmental calibration of coral luminescence as a proxy for terrigenous dissolved organic carbon concentration in tropical coastal oceans, Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems.

Moynihan, M. A., Amini, S., Oalmann, J., Chua, J. Q. I., Tanzil, J. T. I., Fan, T. Y., Miserez, A., Goodkin, N. F. (2022) Crystal orientation mapping and microindentation reveal anisotropy in Porites skeletons, Acta Biomaterialia. doi: 10.1016/j.actbio.2022.08.012.

Kannad, A., Goodkin, N. F., Samanta, D., Murty, S. A., Ramos, R. D., Smerdon, J. E., Gordon, A. L. (2022) Drivers of Coral Reconstructed Salinity in the South China Sea and Maritime Continent: The Influence of the 1976 Indo-Pacific Climate Shift, Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, 127(6), e2021JC017787. doi: 10.1029/2021JC017787

Jackisch, D., Yeo, B. X., Switzer, A. D., He, S., Cantarero, D. L. M., Siringan, F. P., Goodkin, N. F. (2022) Precipitation stable isotopic signatures of tropical cyclones in Metropolitan Manila, Philippines, show significant negative isotopic excursions, Natural Hazards and Earth System Sciences, 22(1), 213-226. doi: 10.5194/nhess-22-213-2022

Moynihan, M. A., Goodkin, N. F., Morgan, K. M., Kho, P. Y. Y., Dos Santos, A. L., Lauro, F. M., Baker, D. M., Martin, P. (2022) Coral-associated nitrogen fixation rates and diazotrophic diversity on a nutrient-replete equatorial reef, The ISME Journal, 16(1), 233-246. doi:10.1038/s41396-021-01054-1

Goodkin, N. F., Samanta, D., Bolton, A., Ong, M. R., Phan, K. H., Vo, S. T., Karnauskas, K. B., Hughen, K. A. (2021) Natural and Anthropogenic Forcing of Multi-Decadal to Centennial Scale Variability to Sea Surface Temperature in the South China Sea, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 36(10), e2021PA004233. doi: 10.1029/2021PA004233

Samanta, D., Goodkin, N. F., Karnauskas, K. B. (2021) Volume and Heat Transport in the South China Sea and Maritime Continent at present and at the end of the 21st Century, Journal of Geophysical Research – Oceans, 126(9), e2020JC016901. doi: 10.1029/2020JC016901

Umling, N. E., Saad, B., Sikes, E., Goodkin, N. F. (2021) Proximity to Undersaturation and the Influences on G. bulloides Area-density in Southern Indian Ocean Marine Sediments, Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 36(6), e2021PA004249. doi: 10.1029/2021PA004249

Kaushal, N., Sanwlani, N., Tanzil, J. T. I., Cherukuru, N., Sahar, S., Muller, M., Mujahid, A., Lee, J. N., Goodkin, N. F., Martin, P. (2021) Coral Skeletal Luminescence Records Changes in Terrestrial Chromophoric Dissolved Organic Matter (CDOM) in tropical coastal waters, Geophysical Research Letters, 48(8), e2020GL092130. doi: 10.1029/2020GL092130

He, S., Jackisch, D., Kho, P. Y. Y., Liu, G., Wang, X., Goodkin, N. F. (2021) Understanding tropical convection through triple oxygen isotopes of precipitation from the Maritime Continent, Journal of Geophysical Research – Atmosphere, 126(4), e2020JD033418. doi: 10.1029/2020JD033418. 

Moynihan, M. A., Amini, S., Goodkin, N. F., Tanzil, J. T. I., Chua, J. Q. I., Fabbro, G. N., Fan, T. Y., Schmidt, D. N., Miserez, A. (2021) Environmental impact on the mechanical properties of Porites spp. corals, Coral Reefs, 40(3), 701-717. doi:10.1007/s00338-021-02064-3

Teaching Experience

Faculty Appointments

• Adjunct Professor, City University of New York, 2018-present
• Adjunct Associate Research Scientist, Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, 2016-present
• Associate Professor, Nanyang Technological University, 2012-2020
• Assistant Professor, University of Hong Kong, 2008-2012

Courses Taught

Nanyang Technological University (NTU)

• Oceanography
• Environmental Sustainability

University of Hong Kong (HKU)

• Oceanography
• Climate and Climate Change
• Introduction to Environmental Science

Graduate Advisees

• Ross Ong, Columbia University
• Taufiq Mohtar, NTU
• Molly Moynihan, NTU
• Riovie Ramos, NTU
• Sujata Murty, NTU
• Teng Teng Yang, HKU