Dr Vance develops high resolution palaeoclimate records with a view to understanding long-term climate change. She has a particular interest in developing rainfall and drought records for Australia and the SE Pacific region over the last 2000 years, and in understanding the underlying climate processes that cause rainfall variability
She has worked for the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Cooperative Research Centre in a research capacity since mid-2010.
Current research involves a co-funded project with the University of Newcastle using palaeoclimate records of rainfall and drought to reconstruct catchment inflows for eastern Australia. This project will provide sounder statistics for extreme events for eastern Australian water catchment authorities.
Comprehensive publications list: University of Tasmania WARP
Media interview: Antarctic ice core study reveals Australia’s 39 year mega drought, The World Today, ABC Radio,
ABC’s Felicity Ogilvie interviews Dr Vance about how ice cores are helping scientists to plan for future droughts.
Media interview: Antarctic ice confirms we’ve had a dry spell – for a century, The Country Hour, ABC Radio
ABC’s Sally Dakis interviews Dr Vance about ice core records revealing a long term dry spell for Australia.
Vance, T., J. Roberts, C. Plummer, A. Kiem, T. van Ommen, (2014): Interdecadal Pacific variability and Australian mega-droughts over the last millennium. Geophysical Research Letters, doi: 10.1002/2014GL062447
Neukom, R., J. Gergis, D. Karoly, H. Wanner, M. Curran, J. Elbert, F. Gonzalez-Rouco, B. Linsley, A. Moy, I. Mundo, C. Raible, E. Steig, T. van Ommen, T. Vance, R. Villalba. J. Zinke, D. Frank, (2014): Inter-hemispheric temperature variability over the past millennium. Nature Climate Change, doi: 10.1038/NCLIMATE2174
Vance, T., A. Davidson, P. Thomson, M. Levasseur, M. Lizotte, M. Curran, G. Jones, (2013): Rapid DMSP production by an Antarctic phytoplankton community exposed to natural surface irradiances in late spring. Aquatic Microbial Ecology, doi: 10.3354/ame01670
Vance, T., T. van Ommen, M. Curran, C. Plummer, and A. Moy, (2013): A millennial proxy record of ENSO and eastern Australian rainfall from the Law Dome ice core, East Antarctica. Journal of Climate. doi:10.1175/JCLI-D-12-00003.1
Plummer C. T., M. A. J. Curran, T. D. van Ommen, S. O. Rasmussen, A. D. Moy, T. R. Vance, H. B. Clausen, B. M. Vinther, P. A. Mayewski, (2012): An independently dated 2000-yr volcanic record from Law Dome, East Antarctica, including a new perspective on the dating of the 1450s CE eruption of Kuwae, Vanuatu. Climate of the Past, 8, 1929-1940, doi: 10.5194/cp-8-1929-2012