{"id":26,"date":"2025-10-07T18:45:56","date_gmt":"2025-10-07T18:45:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/?page_id=26"},"modified":"2026-03-07T03:45:57","modified_gmt":"2026-03-07T03:45:57","slug":"photo-gallery","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/?page_id=26","title":{"rendered":"Undergraduate Research"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>During my time at the University of Mary Washington I participated in undergraduate research under Dr. Pamela Grothe using corals as paleoclimate proxies. I used the geochemistry of corals , both \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O and Sr\/Ca, to understand and analyze how corals record past climate especially El Nino Southern Oscillation events. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Below is my abstract that has been accepted to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.agu.org\/ocean-sciences-meeting\">AGU Ocean Sciences 2026<\/a> meeting in Glasgow, Scotland: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Investigating the viability of coral species <em>Dipsastraea speciosa<\/em> and <em>Hydnophora microconos <\/em>as reliable archives of central tropical Pacific climate change using Sr\/Ca and \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Calleigh E. Keeley, Edmund E. Gable, Jessica F. Oberlies, Pamela R. Grothe, Ainsley Lord, Kelly H. Kilbourne, Chandler A. Morris, Kim M. Cobb<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sr\/Ca and \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O data from coral skeletal material provide historical records of climate where instrumental records are nonexistent. In the central tropical Pacific (CTP), paleoclimate records rely on <em>Porites sp.<\/em>, due to their fast growth rate, dense skeletal structure, and concentric growth bands. However, the spatial and temporal distribution of <em>Porites <\/em>corals can be a limiting factor in paleoclimate reconstruction in the CTP, a region heavily influenced by El Ni\u00f1o Southern Oscillation. Work with large skeletal architectural corals in the Caribbean suggests that similar types of corals in the CTP may be used as recorders of climate, providing an expanded archive of coral genera used for paleoclimate reconstruction. Both <em>Dipsastraea speciosa <\/em>and <em>Hydnophora microconos <\/em>were collected from the reef on Kiritimati Island (1.8\u00b0N, 157.4\u00b0W). The \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O and Sr\/Ca of the coral skeletal material were analyzed along the main growth axis and compared with instrumental sea surface temperature (SST) and sea surface salinity (SSS) data. First, samples were taken from different features of the coral skeleton, the thecal wall and the septal tissue, to determine if geochemical differences exist in different parts of the skeletal material. Results suggest that in <em>Dipsastraea s.,<\/em> the \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O of the thecal wall produces a more reliable timeseries of SST than the septal material. Then, we compared duplicate Sr\/Ca and \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O time series in single corals of <em>Dipsastraea s.<\/em> and <em>Hydnophora m.<\/em> as well as across multiple coral colonies. We find consistent variability in \u03b4<sup>18<\/sup>O timeseries in both <em>Dipsastraea s.<\/em> and <em>Hydnophora m.. <\/em>However, Sr\/Ca timeseries show more variability, both in the single coral and multi-coral reproducibility tests, suggesting the incorporation of Sr and Ca is more sensitive based on the type of skeletal material. We conclude that <em>Dipsastraea<\/em> <em>s. <\/em>and <em>Hydnophora<\/em> <em>m.<\/em> may be used as paleoclimate proxies if sampling is carefully limited to the densest skeletal feature.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>AGU Ocean Sciences 2026 Poster<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div data-wp-interactive=\"core\/file\" class=\"wp-block-file\"><object data-wp-bind--hidden=\"!state.hasPdfPreview\" hidden class=\"wp-block-file__embed\" data=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Final-Keeley-AGU-Poster_PG.pdf\" type=\"application\/pdf\" style=\"width:100%;height:600px\" aria-label=\"Embed of Final Keeley AGU Poster_PG.\"><\/object><a id=\"wp-block-file--media-95a0c650-6abe-49a0-9720-70a36e0b2cc1\" href=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Final-Keeley-AGU-Poster_PG.pdf\">Final Keeley AGU Poster_PG<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Final-Keeley-AGU-Poster_PG.pdf\" class=\"wp-block-file__button wp-element-button\" download aria-describedby=\"wp-block-file--media-95a0c650-6abe-49a0-9720-70a36e0b2cc1\">Download<\/a><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><em>I created this poster highlighting the Sr\/Ca results for both DS and HM corals and co-presented it with my colleague at the AGU conference. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"742\" height=\"983\" src=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Me-presenting.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-123\" srcset=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Me-presenting.png 742w, https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Me-presenting-226x300.png 226w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 742px) 100vw, 742px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>My colleague and I presenting the poster I created at the AGU Meeting during our poster session. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Some Images and Videos of Sampling:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-video\"><video height=\"1080\" style=\"aspect-ratio: 1920 \/ 1080;\" width=\"1920\" controls src=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Video.mov\"><\/video><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Timelapse video of me sampling for Sr\/Ca at the University of Maryland Chesapeake Bay Research Site<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"768\" height=\"1024\" src=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-768x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-91\" srcset=\"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-768x1024.jpg 768w, https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-1152x1536.jpg 1152w, https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-1536x2048.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/Sampling-Image-scaled.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 768px) 100vw, 768px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image of Dipsastraea S. prepared for sampling Sr\/Ca. <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>During my time at the University of Mary Washington I participated in undergraduate research under Dr. Pamela Grothe using corals as paleoclimate proxies. I used the geochemistry of corals , both \u03b418O and Sr\/Ca, to understand and analyze how corals record past climate especially El Nino Southern Oscillation events. Below is my abstract that has [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-26","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":124,"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/26\/revisions\/124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calleighkeeley.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}