Roxana Sierra-Hernández
Senior Research Associate and Principal Investigator
111 Scott Hall
1090 Carmack Rd
Columbus OH, 43210
Areas of Expertise
- Environmental and Atmospheric Chemistry
- Atmospheric Pollution
- Climate Change
- Ice Core Paleoclimatology
- Analytical Chemistry
Education
- Ph.D., Environmental Sciences, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University
- M.Sc., Environmental Sciences, Department of Chemistry, The Ohio State University
- B.S., Chemistry, Escuela Nacional de Ciencias Biologicas, IPN, Mexico
Since joining the ICPRG I worked in the reconstruction of the trace elements history recorded in ice cores from Tibet (Guliya and Dunde ice cores) and the Himalayas (Dasuopu and Naimona’nyi ice cores) using inductively coupled plasma sector field mass spectrometry (ICP-SFMS). In addition, with the new Guliya ice core extracted in 2015, I extended the trace element history to 2015. This study showed that current anthropogenic emissions from Central Asia and China have reached remote and high-altitude paces such as the Guliya ice cap at 6200 m asl during the 21st century. Building up on the extensive trace element work I did with ice cores from Tibet and the Himalayas I am developing a project to study the anthropogenic impact on the geochemical cycle of lead (Pb) using Pb isotope ratios (206Pb /207Pb and 206Pb /208Pb). Another line of investigation that I am pursuing is the reconstruction of Alaska’s fire history using black carbon. Also, I am currently part of the Huascarán working group. The Huascarán ice cores were extracted in 2019. We are currently working on different studies that will provide information about the climatic and environmental history of the Andes and of the Amazon Basin.
Select Publications
Sierra-Hernández M. R., E. Beaudon, S. E. Porter, E. Mosley-Thompson, L. G. Thompson. (2022). Increased Fire Activity in Alaska since the 1980s: Evidence from an Ice Core-derived Black Carbon Record. J. Geophys. Res.-Atmos. 127, 2.
Sierra-Hernández, M.R., Beaudon, E., Gabrielli, P., and Thompson, L. G. (2019). 21st-Century Asian air pollution impacts glacier in northwestern Tibet. Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 15533–15544.
Sierra-Hernández, M.R., Gabrielli, P., Beaudon, E., Wegner, A., and Thompson, L. G. (2018). Atmospheric Depositions of Natural and Anthropogenic Trace Elements on the Guliya Ice Cap (Northwestern Tibetan Plateau) during the last 340 years. Atmos. Environ., 176, 91-102.
Beaudon, E., Gabrielli, P., Sierra-Hernández, M.R., Wegner, A., and Thompson, L. (2017). Central Tibetan Plateau atmospheric trace metals contamination: a 500-year record from the Puruogangri ice core. Sci. Total Environ., 601–602, 1349–1363.
Sierra-Hernández, M. R. and H. C. Allen. (2010). Mixed monolayers of long chain fatty acids and alkyl halide compounds at the air-water interface. Langmuir, 26, 18806-18816.
Levering, L. M., Sierra-Hernández, M. R. and Allen. H. C. (2007). Observation of hydronium anions at the air-aqueous acid interface: Vibrational spectroscopic studies of aqueous HCl, HBr, and HI. J. Phys. Chem. C, 111, 8814-8826.