About

Yair Rosenthal is a professor at Rutgers University within the Department of Marine and Coastal Sciences. His research focuses on marine biology and oceanography, with particular emphasis on understanding the biological and physical processes that influence marine ecosystems. His work involves studying various aspects of marine life, oceanic biogeochemical cycles, and the interactions between biological communities and their environment. As a leading expert in his field, Professor Rosenthal contributes to advancing knowledge on marine systems, supporting sustainable management and conservation efforts. His academic background and research activities position him as a key figure in marine sciences at Rutgers.

Research topics

• Geology
• Geography
• Paleontology
• Oceanography
• Physical geography
• Climatology
• Meteorology
• Environmental science
• History

Selected publications

• Remote and local drivers of Pleistocene South Asian summer monsoon precipitation: A test for future predictions

  Science Advances · 2021 · 138 citations

  • Climatology
  • Environmental science
  • Physical geography

  South Asian precipitation amount and extreme variability are predicted to increase due to thermodynamic effects of increased 21st-century greenhouse gases, accompanied by an increased supply of moisture from the southern hemisphere Indian Ocean. We reconstructed South Asian summer monsoon precipitation and runoff into the Bay of Bengal to assess the extent to which these factors also operated in the Pleistocene, a time of large-scale natural changes in carbon dioxide and ice volume. South Asian precipitation and runoff are strongly coherent with, and lag, atmospheric carbon dioxide changes at Earth's orbital eccentricity, obliquity, and precession bands and are closely tied to cross-equatorial wind strength at the precession band. We find that the projected monsoon response to ongoing, rapid high-latitude ice melt and rising carbon dioxide levels is fully consistent with dynamics of the past 0.9 million years.

  DOI

• Seasonal origin of the thermal maxima at the Holocene and the last interglacial

  Nature · 2021 · 352 citations

  • Climatology
  • Geology
  • Physical geography
  DOI

• Interglacial instability of North Atlantic Deep Water ventilation

  Science · 2020 · 89 citations

  • Geology
  • Oceanography
  • Paleontology

  C records that span the interglacials of the last 0.5 million years to assess the frequency of and the climatic backgrounds capable of triggering large NADW reductions. Episodes of reduced NADW in the deep Atlantic, similar in magnitude to glacial events, have been relatively common and occasionally long-lasting features of interglacials. NADW reductions were triggered across the range of recent interglacial climate backgrounds, which demonstrates that catastrophic freshwater outburst floods were not a prerequisite for large perturbations. Our results argue that large NADW disruptions are more easily achieved than previously appreciated and that they occurred in past climate conditions similar to those we may soon face.

  DOI

Recent grants

• Deep Ocean Sensitivity to, and Role in the Transition from mid-Pliocene Warmth to Northern Hemisphere Glaciation

  NSF · $356k · 2013–2016

• Collaborative Research: High resolution paleoceanography in the heart of the Equatorial Pacific Cold Tongue

  NSF · $245k · 2010–2014

• Global and regional perspectives of Pleistocene paleoceanography in the western Pacific warm pool based on new sites from IODP Expedition 363

  NSF · $536k · 2018–2023

• Site survey and coring of potential IODP drill sites in the Western Pacific Warm Pool

  NSF · $300k · 2013–2016

• Assessing the effects of calcite saturation on the benthic foraminiferal Mg/Ca-temperature relationship using a homothermal depth transect in the Norwegian Sea

  NSF · $260k · 2004–2007

Frequent coauthors

• Braddock K. Linsley

  Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory

  160 shared

• Samantha C. Bova

  San Diego State University

  147 shared

• Luc Beaufort

  Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement

  123 shared

• Ann Holbourn

  Kiel University

  117 shared

• Tali L. Babila

  Case Western Reserve University

  116 shared

• Denise K. Kulhanek

  Kiel University

  113 shared

• Takuya Sagawa

  Kanazawa University

  103 shared

• Haowen Dang

  102 shared

Labs

• Rosenthal LabPI

Education

• PhD, Earth Sciences

  Massachusetts Institute of Technology

  1994

Similar researchers at Rutgers University

• John K-J Lih-153
• Stephen Burleyh-145
• Paul Falkowskih-145
• Joseph DeLucah-119
• Julius Gardinh-117