Ashish Sinha
Associate Professor

EDUCATION
Ph.D., Earth Science, University of Southern California, 1997
MS., Geology - University of Roorkee, India, 1989
BS, University of Lucknow, India, 1987

PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Dr. Sinha is an Associate Professor in the Earth Sciences Department. He teaches courses in Global Change, World Ocean and Climate science. Dr. Sinha’s research centers on climate change with a particular focus on high-fidelity reconstruction of precipitation patterns in tropical and monsoonal locations over the past several millennia. Dr. Sinha’s research is a central component of a larger collaborative effort among several domestic and international research institutions that seek to quantify earth’s natural climate variability and learn how climate system respond to changes in boundary conditions. To this end, Dr. Sinha and his colleagues use stable isotope geochemistry of cave-calcite deposits (speleothems) to generate instrumentally-calibrated and absolute-dated records from sites across the tropical/subtropical regions. This paleoclimate data provide vital tests for the state-of-the-art climate models, thereby improving confidence in predictions of future climate change. Undergraduate CSUDH students are involved in every aspect of in his research and are supported by the NSF funds.

Publications:

1)  Cheng, H., Sinha, A., & 7 other authors, A. Climate Change Pattern in South America over the Past 250 ky and Tropical Biodiversity, Nature Communications 10.1038/ncomms2415 (2013).

2)  Cheng, H., Sinha, A., and Cruz, F. The Global-Monsoon as seen through Speleothem Records from Asia and South America, Climate Dynamics,1-8 (2012).

3)  Berkelhammer M, Sinha A, Stott L, Cheng, H., et al.  An abrupt shift in the Indian Monsoon 4000 years ago. American Geophysical Union Monograph Series  on Climates, Landscapes and Civilizations (2012).

4)  Sinha, A., Berkelhammer, M., Stott, L.D., Cheng, H., Mudelsee, M., Biswas, J. The Leading Mode of Indian Summer Monsoon Precipitation Variability during the Last Millennium, Geophysical Research Letters 38, L15703, (2011).

5)  Sinha, A., Stott, L.D., Berkelhammer, M., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Buckley, B., Aldenderfer, M., and Mudelsee, M. A Global Context for Megadroughts in Monsoon Asia during the Past Millennium, Quaternary Science Reviews, 30, 42-57 (2011).

6)  Winter, A., Thomas, M.R., Kushnir, Y., Sinha, A., Timmermann, A., Gallup, C., Cheng, H., and Edwards, R.L. Evidence for 800 years of North Atlantic multi-decadal variability from a Puerto Rican Speleothem, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 308, 23-28 (2011).

7)  Berkelhammer, M., Stott. L., Yoshimura, K., Johnson, K. Sinha, A., Synoptic and Mesoscale Controls on the Isotopic Composition of Precipitation in the Southwestern US, Climate Dynamics, 38. 433-454, (2012).

8)  Berkelhammer, M., Sinha, A., Mudelsee, M., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., and Cannariato, K. G. Persistent Multidecadal Power in the Indian Summer Monsoon, Earth.Planet. Scien. Lett., 290, 15166-172 (2009).

9)  Reuter, J., Stott, L. D., Khider, D., Sinha, A., Cheng, H., and Edwards, R. L. A New Perspective on the Hydroclimate Variability in the Northern South America during the Little Ice Age. Geophysical Research Letters, 36, L21706 (2009). 

10) Sinha, A., Cannariato, K. G., Stott, L. D., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., Yadava, M.G., Ramesh, R., and Singh, I. B. A 900 Year (600 to 1500 AD) record of the Indian Summer Monsoon Precipitation from the Core Monsoon Zone of India, Geophysical Research Letters, 34, L1670 (2007).

11) Sinha, A., Cannariato, K. G., Stott, L. D., Li, H.-C., You, C.-F., Cheng, H., Edwards, R. L., and Singh, I. B. Variability of Southwest Indian summer monsoon precipitation during the Bolling-Allerod, Geology, 33, 813-816 (2005).

12) Leavitt, S. W. Idso, S. B., Kimball, B. A., Burns, J. M., Sinha, A., and Stott, L.D.  The effect of long-term atmospheric CO₂ enrichment on the intrinsic water-use efficiency of sour orange trees, Chemosphere, 50, 217-222 (2003).

13) Aubry, M-P., Sinha, A, and 8 other authors. The Upper Paleocene-Lower Eocene San Francisco de Paula Section: Biostratigraphic Synthesis, Micropaleontology, 83-87 (1999).

14) Dupuis, C., Steurbaut, E., De Coninck, J., Riveline, J., Sinha, A. The Paleocene-Eocene boundary interval of the Channel Coast (NW Paris Basin). Main events and stratigraphical interpretation, La limite Paléocène-Eocène en Europe: Evénements et corrélations, 45-47 (1998).

15) Thiry, M., Dupuis, C., Aubry, M-P., Berggren, W.A, Ellison, R.L., Knox, R.W.O., Sinha, A. Stott, L.D. Tentative correlations between continental deposits of the Argiles Plastiques (Paris Basin) and Reading Beds (London Basin) based on chemostratigraphy, Strata, 19, 125-129 (1998).

16) Sinha, A., Aubry, M.-P., Stott, L. D., Thiry, M. and Berggren, W. A. Chemostratigraphy of the “lower” Sparnacian deposits (Argiles plastiques bariolees) of the Paris Basin, Journal of Earth Sciences, Special volume on Paleocene/Eocene boundary events, 44, 223-237(1996).

17) Stott, L.D., Sinha, A., Thiry, M. Aubry, M.-P., Berggren, W. Global d¹³C changes across the Paleocene/Eocene boundary: Criteria for terrestrial-marine correlations, Spec. Pub. Geol. Soc. of London, 381-399 (1996).

18) Aubry, M-P., Bergrgren, W., Stott, L.D., Sinha, A. The upper Paleocene-lower Eocene stratigraphic record and the Paleocene-Eocene boundary carbon isotope excursion: implications for geochronology, Spec. Geol. Soc. Of London. Publication, 101, 353-380 (1996).

19) Hagadorn, J. W., Stott, L. D., Sinha, A., and Rincon, M., Geochemical and sedimentologic variations in inter-annually laminated sediments from Santa Monica Basin, Marine Geology, 125, 111-131(1995).

20) Sinha, A. and Stott, L. D., New atmospheric pCO₂ estimates from paleosols during the late Paleocene/early Eocene global warming interval, Jour. Global and Planet. Change. 9, 297-307 (1994).

21) Sinha, A., and Berkelhammer, M. Emerging proxy evidence for coherent failures of the summer monsoons of Asia during the last millennium, Past Global Changes (PAGES) 18, (2010).

22) Cheng, H.C., Sinha, A., Coleman, S., Global Paleo-Monsoon Variability, Past Global Changes (PAGES) 20, (2012)