​Professor van Buchem studies the dynamics and architecture of carbonate and organic-rich depositional systems in space and time to understand their significance as archives ofpast climate change, sea level fluctuations and the global biogeochemical cycles, with aparticular focus on the Mesozoic deposits of the Arabian Plate. This work improves ourprediction of the subsurface and understanding of the Earth System. He is also involved ingeoarchaeological research with an international team of geoscientists and archaeologistsfocusing on the recent (Holocene and Pleistocene) climate change of the Arabian Plateand its impact on human settlement and migration. ​