My research focuses on the detection of abrupt shifts and trends in the climate system and carbon cycle. Ultimately, my goal is to develop a better understanding of climate change by detecting and analyzing observations and model output using statistical methods. I am also interested in developing flexible and useful statistical tools suitable to study and monitor climate change.

Over the past few years my work primarily involved the development, performance analysis and application of change point detection techniques. Recently, I have used change point detection to identify abrupt shifts in the terrestrial carbon cycle. We found a major abrupt shift in the land uptake of carbon around 1988/1989 and now I participate in a multidisciplinary effort to identify the mechanisms that drive abrupt shifts in the terrestrial carbon cycle. Additionally, I started a project to investigate the potential to predict abrupt shifts in the Earth’s climate system and in ecosystems.