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Biography Latest news
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From Jan to March 2010 I will be participating on IODP expedition 318 to Wilkes Land, Antarctica. See the official video trailer
and follow the blog.
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People in the new Glasgow Molecular Organic Geochemistry Laboratory (G-MOL)
 Dr Supriyo Das Swedish VR Research Fellow, project: "High-resolution palaeoclimate reconstruction using biomarkers from a Loch Sunart sediment core, North West Scotland."
 Heiko Moossen SAGES PhD student, project: "Palaeoclimate reconstructions from Arctic and Nordic shelf seas: development and application of multiple proxies."
 Paula Sankelo Kone Foundation (Finland) PhD student, project: "Mapping inputs of plant biomarkers to glacial ice archives: A novel tool for paleoclimatology."
 Huiling Sun China Scholarship Council funded visiting PhD student (PR China), project: "Biomarker records of environmental change from lake Guan Shan in the monsoon marginal zone in northwest China."
 Christopher Gallagher G-MOL Technician.
 Allison DeYoung (summer 2009) Fieldwork assistant and laboratory volunteer, projects: " Hokkaido Lakes (Japan) 2009 expedition and a biomarker pilot study of Lake Toyoni."
Robert Jamieson Nuffield Bursary Undergraduate Student, project: "Application of multiple biomarkers to constrain dietary sources of Arctic zooplankton."
Summer fieldwork 2008-2009:
July 2009: Long coring of Hokkaido Lakes (Japan). It's back to beautiful Hokkaido for myself, Dr Andrew Henderson (Glasgow) and Dr Osamu Seki (Hokkaido) and Ms Allison DeYoung (McGill intern). The primary objectives are to drill long sediment cores from lakes Abashiri and Toyoni. The work is supported by grants from Royal Society (International Joint Projects), the RGS-IBG EPSRC, the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland and a grant-in-kind from All Nippon Airways (ANA).
July 23rd - August 23rd 2008: 'ICE CHASER' Arctic research expedition on the RRS James Clark Ross. The cruise received significant media coverage including on BBC Newsnight.
June 2008: A Biomarker Survey of Hokkaido Lakes. In June myself, Dr Andrew Henderson (Glasgow) and Dr Osamu Seki (Hokkaido) along with two GU undergraduates collected sediment cores and water samples from eight lakes in Hokkaido, Japan. The trip was made possible by collaboration with various Japanese colleagues, especially Dr Osamu Seki and Prof Kimitaka Kawamura (Hokkaido University) and was supported by grants from the Sasakawa Foundation, the RGS-IBG EPSRC and the Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland.
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On August 1st 2007 I started a SAGES lectureship in High Resolution Palaeoclimatology in the Department of Geographical and Earth Sciences, University of Glasgow. A new organic geochemistry laboratory is being installed in the department and at SUERC and, upon completion, students, researchers and collaborators will have access to a wide range of organic geochemical techniques.
East Greenland Current, ARCICE cruise, RRS James Clark Ross, 2000
In 1999 I obtained my MSc in Quaternary Science, from Royal Holloway University of London (RHUL) and University College London (UCL). My dissertation was supervised my Professor Mark Maslin.
I was awarded my PhD from Durham University in 2003, supervised by Dr Antoni Rosell-Mele (now at ICTA, Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona)and Professor Ian Shennan. The NERC funded project was entitled “Palaeoceanography of the Holocene N.E. Atlantic: Development and Application of Biomarker Proxies of Environmental Change”. The unifying theme was the application of biomarkers for palaeoenvironmental work in the marginal environments of the N.E. Atlantic.
Alkenones are molecular fossils, they can be extracted from sediment cores and used to reconstruct past changes in sea surface temperature over millions of years
Subsequently, I was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship Tenable in a Foreign Country – in partnership with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS). From 2003 to 2005 I worked at Hokkaido University, Japan, hosted by the laboratory of Professor Kimitaka Kawamura in the Institute of Low Temperature Science. The project was entitled: “Mapping inputs of Land-Derived Lipid Biomarkers to the Aerosols and Sediments of the North Pacific: Constraining Modern and Past Environmental Variables”. The aim of the project is to improve scientific understanding of the modern and past carbon cycle by using the molecular and isotopic distributions of higher plant lipid compounds present in aerosols and sediments.
Hokkaido University, Japan
From 2005 to 2007 I worked as a PDRA on an Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) thematic project in the Organic Geochemistry Unit (OGU), School of Chemisty, University of Bristol. The project was entitled “The use of bacterial and higher plant biomarkers to track changes in wetland extent since the Last Glacial period” (PIs: Dr Richard Pancost, Dr Mark Maslin) and aims to refine the use of bacterial biomarker proxies for past tropical wetland extent and use them to reconstruct variations in Amazon basin wetlands since the Last Glacial Maximum in order to understand one of the major controls on atmospheric methane. We also used recently developed indices based on glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers (GDGTs) that predict changes in: the relative fluvial input of terrestrial organic material (BIT index); mean annual air temperature (MAT) and soil pH.
Research interests 
Organic Geochemistry: we use molecular biomarkers (in red) to study modern and past environmental processes and conditions
Organic carbon compounds are ubiquitous, abundant and sometimes overlooked components of oceans, lakes, sedimentary rocks and even atmospheric aerosols. Directly, or indirectly, they fuel all biogeochemical processes. As a paleoceanographer/paleoclimatologist, trained in molecular biogeochemistry, I am interested in the source, structure, and distribution of such naturally occurring compounds (biomarkers). My research is focused on the development of biomarker proxies of environmental parameters (e.g. terrestrial and sea-surface temperatures, relative humidity, C3/C4 plant distribution, wetland extent) and their application to answer important questions concerning processes or environmental conditions in ancient and modern environments. Current research High resolution palaeoceanography and palaeolimnology. Development and application of GDGT lipid proxies for paleoclimatology. Application of compound specific 14C dating to improve biomarker chronologies and constrain changes in the carbon cycle. Mapping inputs of Lipid Biomarkers to the Aerosols and Sediments of the North Pacific. Development of biomarker proxies for sea-level change in coastal environments. Biomarkers in ice archives.
The RRS James Clark Ross north of Svalbard in the Arctic. I was a participant on the 2008 'ICE CHASER' Arctic research expedition
Recent publications | View all publications >> Bendle, J.A.; Pancost, R.D.; Weijers, J.W.; Maslin, M.A.; Sinninghe Damsté, J.S.; Schouten, S.; Hopmans, E.C.; Boot, C.; 2009, Major changes in Last Glacial and Holocene Terrestrial temperatures and sources of organic carbon recorded in the Amazon fan by the MBT/CBT continental paleothermometer. Submitted to Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems (G-cubed). Dickson, A.J., Beer, C.J., Dempsey, C., Maslin, M.A., Bendle, J.A., McClymont, E.L., Pancost, R.D., (2009) Oceanic Forcing of the Marine Isotope Stage 11 interglacial, Nature Geoscience, 2, 428-433 (24 May 2009) doi:10.1038/ngeo527
View abstract >> Bendle, J.A., Rosell-Melé, A., Cox, N.J., 2009, Shennan, I., Alkenones, alkenoates and organic matter in coastal environments of N.W. Scotland: assessment of potential application for sea-level reconstruction., Geochemistry, Geophysics and Geosystems (G-cubed), 10, Q12003, doi:10.1029/2009GC002603. View abstract >> Bendle, J. A.; Kawamura, K.; Yamazaki, K.; Niwai, T., 2007, Latitudinal distribution of terrestrial lipid biomarkers and n-alkane compound specific stable carbon isotope ratios in the atmosphere over the western Pacific and Southern Ocean, Geochimica Cosmochimica Acta, 71, pp5934-5955, doi:10.1016/j.gca.2007.09.029 View abstract >> Bendle, J.A. & Rosell-Melé, A., 2007, High resolution alkenone sea surface temperature variability on the North Icelandic Shelf: implications for Nordic Seas paleoclimatic development during the Holocene, The Holocene, 17 (1), pp 19-24. View abstract >> Recent research grants | View all grants >> Bendle, J. 2009, £10,956, Staff time for participation on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 318, Wilkes Land, Antarctica. Bendle, J. 2009, £1260, Undergraduate bursary for Robert Jamieson "Application of multiple biomarkers to constrain dietary sources of arctic zooplankton". The Nuffield Foundation. Bendle, J.; 2009, £2,500, "Monitoring seasonal biomarker and isotopic signals in Lake Kuttara, Japan: application for an automated time-series sediment trap" EPSRC Geographical Research Grant. Bendle, J.; Henderson, A.; 2009, £12,000, Multi-proxy, high resolution palaeoclimate records from Hokkaido lake sediments. A Royal Society International Joint Project Grant (with Professor Kawamura and Dr Seki, Hokkaido University, Japan). Bendle, J.; Howe, J. (SAMS); Fallick, A.E. (SUERC); Austin, W.E.A. (St Andrews); 2009, £35,000, "BIOSUN: Biomarker Reconstructions of Marine and Terrestrial Climate Signals in a High-Resolution Sediment Core from Loch Sunart, N.W. Scotland." Carnegie Trust for the Universities of Scotland. Teaching responsibilities Palaeoclimates 1 (Level 3&4 honours option course) Environmental Change (Level 2 option course) Arran Field Course (Level 2 core course)
Geochemistry (Level 3 core course)
L3 & L4 seminars (Level 3 & 4 core courses) Current postgraduate students
Heiko Moossen (PhD candidate)
Paula Sankelo (PhD candidate)
Huiling Sun (PhD candidate)
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