focussed on understanding of the processes that govern the Earth's carbon cycle from the molecular level to the global scale, and on the legacy of past biological activity and environmental conditions contained in organic signatures preserved in the geologic record.[10]
Eglinton has revolutionised studies of Earth's carbon cycle.[11] By developing an entirely new means of tracing the pathways of organic carbon in surface environments, ranging from eroding landforms to rivers, floodplains, the oceanic water column, microbial communities and marine sediments, he has replaced countless estimates and assumptions with accurately known transport times and carbon budgets.[11] His findings have illuminated and reconciled formerly discrepant paleoclimatic records, revealed new forms of microbial life, demonstrated that microorganisms can attack and remobilise billion-year-old organic material, and traced the pathways of petroleum-derived carbon in surface environments.[11]
^Goñi, Miguel A.; Ruttenberg, Kathleen C.; Eglinton, Timothy I. (1997). "Sources and contribution of terrigenous organic carbon to surface sediments in the Gulf of Mexico". Nature. 389 (6648): 275–278. Bibcode:1997Natur.389..275G. doi:10.1038/38477. S2CID4413505.
^Goñi, Miguel A.; Ruttenberg, Kathleen C.; Eglinton, Timothy I. (1998). "A reassessment of the sources and importance of land-derived organic matter in surface sediments from the Gulf of Mexico". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 62 (18): 3055–3075. Bibcode:1998GeCoA..62.3055G. doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(98)00217-8.
^Sauer, Peter E.; Eglinton, Timothy I.; Hayes, John M.; Schimmelmann, Arndt; Sessions, Alex L. (2001). "Compound-specific D/H ratios of lipid biomarkers from sediments as a proxy for environmental and climatic conditions". Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 65 (2): 213–222. Bibcode:2001GeCoA..65..213S. doi:10.1016/S0016-7037(00)00520-2.