MALAIZE Bruno

Bruno Malaizé has been a lecturer at the Université de Bordeaux since September 1998 (UMR 5805 Environnements et Paléoenvironnements Océaniques et Continentaux). By virtue of his training, he is a geologist, geochemist and paleo-climatologist. He works more particularly on the reconstruction of variations in the water balance (evaporation/precipitation), mainly in tropical to sub-tropical areas, at time scales ranging from several million years to the last centuries. These reconstructions are made thanks to the analysis of the stable isotope composition (18O and 13C) of several fossil carbonate archives, of marine origin (tests of foraminifera, corals), lake (tests of ostracods), or continental (speleothems). Over large time scales (several hundred thousand years, including Pleistocene glacial/interglacial cycles), he works mainly on the relationship between tropical monsoons and intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ) migration. For more recent periods (Holocene period and the last few millennia), it focuses on reconstructing the water balance of certain populated areas to assess the impact of these changes on the development of certain ancient civilizations, such as the Maya, Saladoïdes, pre-Incaic civilizations, or more recently on the settlement of Easter Island.