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News-Archive - K. Doering
03-04-2012: Welcome, Kristin
The working group Marine Climate Research welcomes Kristin Doering, a new PhD student. Kristin obtained her Diploma in Geology/Paleontology at the Christian-Albrechts-University (CAU) Kiel, Germany. She previously worked on geochemical proxies from planktonic and benthic foraminifera concerning hydrographic variations during the deglaciation and Holocene. Within her PhD, Kristin will study the diatom-bound changes in nitrogen and silicon cycling offshore Peru during the Holocene, supervised jointly by Ralph Schneider and Martin Frank. Her work will contribute to the Collaborative Research Center SFB 754.
 - Dr. Xue-Gang Chen
03-1-2012: Welcome, Xue-Gang
The working group Marine Climate Research welcomes a new visiting postdoctoral scholar in the ICP-MS-lab: Xue-Gang Chen, a researcher from the Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University. He gained his PhD from Zhejiang University with a subject of geology and now participates in a project on shallow seafloor hydrothermal systems at Kueishantao area NE Taiwan. During his stay, he will try to investigate the temporal and spatial geochemical characteristics of shallow seafloor hydrothermal systems as well as their impact on local marine organisms.
9-12-2011: Open PhD Position within SFB 754 - Modeling the spatio-temporal variability of oxygen minimum zones (OMZs) during the Holocene and Anthropocene
The Institute of Geosciences offers a PhD position to start on July 1st, 2012, within the Collaborative Research Center (SFB 754). Please find the full job advertisement below. Please send your letter of application, curriculum vitae, and (certified) copies of key documents (such as master degree) including contact information for two potential referees as a single PDF document to: bschneider[@]gpi.uni-kiel.de. Applications will be accepted until March 31st, 2012, or until the position has been filled.
Full position announcement download: [pdf]
2-11-2011: New publication - Regional Impacts of Climate Change and Atmospheric CO2 on Future Ocean Carbon Uptake: A Multimodel Linear Feedback Analysis
Birgit Schneider contributed to a model study with colleagues from Bern University, MPI, the Bergen Geophysical Institute and other reknowned climate science institutions which simulated the future oceanic CO2 uptake using an ensemble of coupled climate carbon cycle models. The study showed that in key anthropogenic CO2 uptake regions, the climate-induced component offsets the CO2-induced component at a constant proportion up until the end of this century. This amounts to approximately 50% in the northern extratropics and 25% in the southern extratropics and equatorial regions. Consequently, the detection of climate change impacts on anthropogenic CO2 uptake may be difficult without monitoring additional tracers, such as oxygen.
To read the full article published in the Journal of Climate please go here.
15-8-2011: New publication - Pliocene aridification of Australia caused by tectonically induced weakening of the Indonesian throughflow
Uta Krebs, Wonsun Park and Birgit Schneider published a model study using the Kiel Climate Model to simulate the tectonic constriction of the Indonesian passages during the Pliocene. They found that with the constriction the transport through the passages reduces. Furthermore, the constriction induces an anomalous Indo-Pacific precipitation dipole. Consistent with observations, they found strongly reduced rainfall over Australia, but no strong impact on African climate.
To read the full article published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology please go here.
1-7-2011: Film: Ocean acidification - Connecting science, industry, policy and public
A new 12-minute film titled "Ocean acidification: Connecting science, industry, policy and public", was launched in order to increase awareness among these groups of the challenges - especially with respect to cooperation - related to ocean acidification. Birgit Schneider is a PI in the German national ocean acidification project BioAcid, led by IFM-GEOMAR and working on improvements in ocean carbon cycle modeling.
You can find the film here.
 1-6-2011: New publication - Causes of early Holocene desertification in arid central Asia
Liya Jin together with colleagues from CIRES and NOAA published a study which investigates the spatial differences in climate response over mid-latitude central Asia and monsoonal Asia we conducted a series of simulations with the Community Climate System Model version 3 coupled climate model for the early, middle and late Holocene. The simulations test the climatic impact of all important forcings for the early Holocene, including changes in orbital parameters, the presence of the remnant Laurentide ice sheet and deglacial freshening of the North Atlantic. Model results clearly show the early Holocene patterns indicated by proxy records, including both the decreased effective moisture in arid central Asia, which occurs in the model primarily during the winter months, and the increase in summer monsoon precipitation in south and east Asia. The model results suggest that dry conditions in the early Holocene in central Asia are closely related to decreased water vapor advection due to reduced westerly wind speed and less evaporation upstream from the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas in boreal winter.
To read the full article at Climate Dynamics please go here.
 13-5-2011: New publication - Millennial variability of diatom production in EEP during last glacial cycle
Guillaume Leduc contributed to the study "Millennial variability and long-term changes of the diatom production in the eastern equatorial Pacific during the last glacial cycle" recently published in Paleoceanography in which the authors present evidences for rapid diatom productivity changes in the northeastern tropical Pacific warm pool synchronously with the rapid Heinrich/Dansgaard-Oeschger during the last glacial period. These features highlight how global climate changes under glacial boundary conditions interfere with regional hydrological patterns and ultimately modulate changes in surface water productivity. Those results can help to better understand the complex interactions existing between the atmospheric circulation and the nutrient cycle in the studied region where both seasonal and interannual climate variability interact.
To read the full article at Paleoceanography please go here.
4-4-2011: New DFG-Project “Climate impact on marine plankton dynamics during interglacials”
The working group "Biogeochemical Oceanography and Climate" received funding to carry out transient model simulations for the investigation of interactions between climate and marine biogeochemical cycles during warm climate intervals. These interactions may have implications for the interpretation of paleo proxy records, the evaluation of climate model performance, and the assessment of past (natural) variability of the extent of oxygen minimum zones. The project started on April 1st, 2011 and will run for a period of two years. For further information please contact Birgit Schneider.
15-2-2011: Open PhD Position-
To Reconstruct 14C Ventilation Ages in the Deglacial Ocean
In the framework of a three-year DFG project at the Institute of Geosciences and the Leibniz Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Isotope Research at the University of Kiel, Germany, we announce a position in the fields of paleoceanography and marine climate research for a PhD-student.
For this highly interesting study a background (Diploma or M.Sci.) in marine geosciences and some knowledge in related fields of oceanography and in isotope biochemistry are welcome, moreover experiences regarding the depositional regime of marine sediments. Good oral and written communication skills and the interest to work in a highly competetive and interdisciplinary international study team are expected. Starting dates are as soon as possible. The University of Kiel is an equal opportunity employer and encourages female scientists and scientists with disabilities to apply.
The full description of the position can be found here.
Please send your application documents by March 25th, 2011 to:
Prof. Michael Sarnthein
Institute of Geosciences
University of Kiel
Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10
24098 Kiel, Germany
24-11-2010: New publication - Disentangling seasonal signals in Holocene climate trends by satellite-model-proxy integration
Birgit Schneider and Guillaume Leduc together with a colleague of IfM-GEOMAR published a study which shows that careful multiproxy approaches can actually resolve seasonality. The authors combined Holocene SST trends derived from U37K′ and Mg/Ca ratios with results from idealized climate model simulations forced by changes in the orbital configuration, which result in different seasonal cycles. Using satellite data for SST and productivity, a seasonality index (SI) was calculated to link modeled SST trends with proxy data. Seasonal productivity peaks of the phytoplankton-based U37K′ result in a preferential registering of the warm (cold) season in high (low) latitudes, while the spatial pattern of potential seasonal biases in zooplankton-based Mg/Ca derived SST-trends is less clear.
To read the full article at Paleoceanography please go here.
 27-10-2010: New publication - Contrasting evolution of sea surface temperature in the Benguela upwelling system under natural and anthropogenic climate forcings
Guillaume Leduc, Thomas Blanz and Ralph Schneider together with colleagues from University of Cape Town and University of Bordeaux published new sea surface temperature records from the Benguela upwelling system that cover the last 3 ka and the last decades. They found that sea surface temperature changes were in phase with historical warm and cold periods identified in the northern mid-latitudes such as e.g. the Medieval Warm Period and the Little Ice Age. The Benguela upwelling temperature record is however out of phase with sea surface temperatures from the Moroccan upwelling region as well as with air temperature from Antarctica. These results suggest that local sea surface temperature in eastern boundary upwelling systems are very sensitive to regional climate evolution in a counter-intuitive manner, which involves land-sea differential heating that triggers the intensity of trade winds blowing along the coastline and ultimately modulate the upwelling intensity. An interhemispheric temperature seesaw can account for the out-of-phase northern and southern upwelling system in the tropical Atlantic system over the last millennia. However, the in-phase acceleration of sea surface temperature decreases observed in both northern and southern tropical upwelling systems suggest that the anthropogenic global warming is likely involved in the recent upwelling acceleration recorded in both hemispheres.
To read the full article at Earth and Planetary Science Letters, please go here.
 18-10-2010: New publication - Response of the hydrological cycle to orbital and greenhouse gas forcing
Slava Khon and Birgit Schneider together with colleagues from IfM-GEOMAR and the Obukhov Institute of Atmospheric Physics published a new modelling study using the fully coupled atmosphere-ocean-sea ice general circulation model, Kiel Climate Model (KCM). An orbitally-induced intensification of the summer monsoon circulation during the Holocene and Eemian drives enhanced water vapor advection into the Northern Hemisphere, thereby enhancing the rate of water vapor changes by about 30% relative to the rate given by the Clausius-Clapeyron Equation, assuming constant relative humidity. Orbitally-induced changes in hemispheric-mean precipitation are fully attributed to inter-hemispheric water vapor exchange in contrast to a GHG forced warming, where enhanced precipitation is caused by increased both the moisture advection and evaporation. When considering the future climate on millennial time scales, both forcings combined are expected to exert a strong effect.
To read the full article at Geophysical Research Letters, please go here.
 6-10-2010: New publication - Changes in Eastern Pacific ocean ventilation at intermediate depth over the last 150 kyr BP
Guillaume Leduc has recently published with colleagues from CEREGE one article in Earth and Planetary Science Letters focused on past changes in deep water mass movements in the eastern equatorial Pacific over the last glacial-interglacial cycle. They jointly used the oxygen and carbon isotopic signatures of benthic foraminifera from one sediment core to reconstruct the ambiant water mass chemistry at coring site. They were able to identify past changes in the origin of water together with the corresponding water mass signature in terms of temperature and/or salinity. The new and original methodology together with the sharp regional contrasts existing in the deep Pacific Ocean water chemistry led the authors to remotely detect changes in the water density gradients that existed in the Pacific Ocean during the last glacial period. Such parameters are crucial to characterize the modes of deep water formation at high-latitude and the deep ocean density fields that define the water motion of the Ocean at a global scale.
To read the full article at Earth and Planetary Science Letters, please go here.
 16-7-2010: New publication - Intensification of the Walker and Hadley atmospheric circulations during the Pliocene–Pleistocene climate transition
Results from a new study of CAU graduate Johan Etourneau together with Ralph Schneider, Thomas Blanz and Philippe Martinez of Bordeaux University give evidence contradicting the prevailing assumptions that the intensification of atmospheric circulation in the tropics and subtropics significantly contributed to the initiation of ice sheet expansion at high latitudes during the Pliocene-Pleistocene climate transition (ca. the last 3.5 million years (Ma)). When comparing new sea surface temperature (SST) records between the western and eastern equatorial Pacific spanning the last 3.2 Ma, they found that the zonal temperature gradient over the entire tropical Pacific irreversibly increased by 3 to 4 °C from 2.2 to 2.0 Ma, thus suggesting that the atmospheric circulation increased considerably from a weak to a strong zonal Walker circulation (WC) during the early Pleistocene. Evidence from other oceanic areas also indicates a strengthening in the meridional Hadley circulation (HC) during the same time period. Instead of the prevailing assumption, the authors suggest that the development of stronger WC and HC 2.2–2.0 Ma ago could have in turn significantly contributed to the Plio–Pleistocene climate cooling.
To read the full article at Earth and Planetary Science Letters, please go here.
12-7-2010: PhD position available in paleoclimate research
The working group Marine Climate Research offers a fellowship in palaeoclimate research (3 years) for Early-Stage Researchers (ESR) at the PhD student level within as part of the Marie Curie Initial Training Network “GATEWAYS” (see FP7 project GATEWAYS). The application deadline is August 30th, 2010. More information about the project and the call for applications can be found here.
 - B. Reiner
11-7-2010: Welcome, Birgit Reiner
The working group Marine Climate Change welcomes Birgit Reiner, who joined the working group paleoceanography as the project coordinator in July. She will be responsible for various projects, including IMAGES and GATEWAYS, and will give support to SFB 754 and the Stearing Group Marine and Geosciences (Steuerungsgruppe Meeres- und Geowissenschaften). During the last two years, Birgit worked at the Leibniz Institute of Marine Sciences IFM-GEOMAR assisting the Directorate, Public Relations Department and the Office of Corporate Counsel. For several years, Birgit has worked abroad as a project consultant for Goethe Institute and Robert Bosch Foundation, building up language centers, cultural programmes and advanced training programmes for teachers.
2-6-2010: New publication - More humid interglacials in Ecuador during the past 500 kyr
Thomas Blanz and Guillaume Leduc contributed to the study "More humid interglacials in Ecuador during the past 500 kyr linked to latitudinal shifts of the equatorial front and the Intertropical Convergence Zone in the eastern tropical Pacific" in which the author team presents a multiproxy record of terrigenous input from marine sediments collected off the Ecuadorian coast spanning the last 500 kyr es well as estimates of sea surface temperatures (SST) derived from alkenone paleothermometry. A summary can be found at the Research Highlights at Nature Geoscience 3, 302 (2010).
To read the full article at Paleoceanography, VOL. 25, PA2210, 15 PP., 2010, please go here.
27-5-2010: 10th European Laser Ablation Workshop in Kiel in June
The European Workshop on Laser Ablation (EWLA) is a biennial event for the exchange of ideas and recent research between scientists interested in analytical applications of LA-based methods (LA-ICP-MS, LA-ICP-OES, LIBS) in all fields of elemental and isotopic analysis. We welcome your contribution from topics in e.g., geochemistry, biogeochemistry, material sciences, archeometry, forensics, from your research on fundamentals of laser-matter Interaction, particle formation & transport phenomena, and about new developments and instrumentation. Late and last-minute poster abstracts will be accepted. Registration is open until May 31st - and beyond. Find more information here.
20-5-2010: XRF Core Scanning workshop in September 2010 at NIOZ
With a growing number of XRF core scanning labs and users, also the interest in sharing and exchanging knowledge and experience increases. Therefore, we are currently planning to organize a workshop for labs and users at the NIOZ (Texel, NL) from September 8 to 10, 2010 addressing the following topics:
• Technical aspects of XRF core scanning
• Processing, handling, and calibration of XRF data
• Application of XRF data in geosciences
• Application of non‐destructive line scanning data
• Integrating non‐destructive scanning data
• Future developments of XRF core scanning
The aim of this meeting is to share experience and set standard approaches to processing and handling XRF data. Find more information here.
17-5-2010: New publication - Workshop Report "Pliocene Climate"
Nabil Khélifi and Johan Etourneau give a summary report on the workshop "Pliocene Climate" organised in Bordeaux (France) on October 23rd-25th 2009 in the current issue of Scientific Drilling. Further information about the program, talks and posters can be obtained from the workshop homepage: http://www.plioclimworkshop.com.
Read the full contribution on page 52 ff here.
14-5-2010: Congratulations, Nabil Khélifi
We congratulate Nabil Khélifi who has recently accomplished his PhD in the working group "Paleoceanography". Under the supervision of Michael Sarnthein and Ralph Schneider, he worked on "Variations in Mediterranean Outflow Water and its salt discharge versus Pliocene changes in North Atlantic thermohaline circulation prior and during the onset of major Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, 3.7 – 2.6 Ma".
Nabil publically presented and successfully defended his thesis on Wednesday, the 12th of May, 2010.
The working group Marine Climate Research wishes him all the best in continuing his research. If you would like to contact Nabil, please write to nk[@]gpi.uni-kiel.de.
23-4-2010: PhD defense of Nabil Khélifi on Wednesday, May 12th, 2010 at 14:00 h
Nabil Khélifi, PhD student in the working group Marine Climate Research at IfG and DAAD scholar, has completed his work on "Variations in Mediterranean Outflow Water and its salt discharge versus Pliocene changes in North Atlantic thermohaline circulation prior and during the onset of major Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, 3.7 – 2.6 Ma".He will publically present and defend his thesis in the large lecture hall #7 at Ludewig-Meyn-Str. 10
on Wednesday, 12th of May from 14:00 to 15:30 h.
Interested scientists and students are welcome.
22-4-2010: New publication - ENSO & modes of eastern equatorial Pacific thermocline variability
Guillaume Leduc and colleagues from CNRS Université Paul Cézanne, Collège de France, analysed the implications of eastern Pacific thermocline variability for ENSO variability over the last glacial period. Repeated isotopic analyses of single specimen of the thermocline - dwelling planktonic foraminifer
Neogloboquadrina dutertrei provide snapshots of past changes in the amplitude and frequency of El Niño and La Niña.
Read the full contribution to Pages News, Vol. 18, No. 1, here.
20-4-2010: ISOS lecture "Can proxies be believed?" by Guillaume Leduc on April 22nd in IFM-GEOMAR
ISOS Lecture Series Summer Semester 2010: ‘The BIG Questions‘ - Experts on topics of the ‘Future Ocean‘ inform and stimulate discussion on what they see as the key issues in their field.
Can Proxies be believed? by Dr. Guillaume Leduc (Institute for Geosciences)
Time: Thursday, April 22nd, 16:15 hrs
Place: IFM-GEOMAR westshore building, large conference room
Find more ISOS dates here.
6-4-2010: Guest lecture about ocean acidification by Reidun Gangstoe on April 12th at 17h in LMS 12
The Geokolloquium of the Institute of Geosciences, is happy to host a guest lecture by Reidun Gangstoe from the Institute of Climate and Envrionmental Physic of the University of Bern, Switzerland. Reidun will present latest research results concerning "Sensitivity of the marine carbonate cycle to atmospheric CO2" using the Bern3D/PISCES models under a range of IPCC CO2 scenarios. We encourage you to join the lecture as this will be an excellent chance for knowledge exchange and discussion. Please have a look at the full announcement and the abstract here.
 - E. Khadun
18-3-2010: Welcome, Emma Khadun
The working group Marine Climate Change welcomes a new PhD student: Emma Khadun obtained her MSc in Quaternary Sciences at Royal Holloway, University London, UK and University College London, UK. She has previously worked on geochemical proxies from foraminifera during periods of rapid climatic change in the Quaternary and Eocene. Emma will be starting a PhD in marine palaeoclimatology, focusing on the input of terrigenous sediments into the southeast Africa continental margin, supervised by Ralph Schneider. Her work will contribute to the Marie Curie intial training network GATEWAYS, an interdisciplinary programme focusing on ocean-climate dynamics.
11-3-2010: New publication - Projected 21st century decrease in marine productivity: a multi-model analysis
Birgit Schneider contributed to a study in which changes in marine net primary productivity (PP) and export of particulate organic carbon (EP) are projected over the 21st century with four global coupled carbon cycle-climate models. All four models show a decrease in global mean PP and EP between 2 and 20% by 2100 relative to preindustrial conditions, for the SRES A2 emission scenario. Two different regimes for productivity changes are consistently identified in all models: A decrease in PP and EP in the low- and mid-latitude ocean and in the North Atlantic and an increase in the Southern Ocean. Regional model skill metrics are proposed to generate multi-model mean fields that show an improved skill in representing observation-based estimates compared to a simple multi-model average.
Read the full article at Biogeosciences, Vol. 7.
 24-2-2010: New publication - Holocene and Eemian sea surface temperature trends as revealed by alkenone and Mg/Ca paleothermometry
In this study, Guillaume Leduc, Ralph Schneider and other colleagues review a global set of alkenone- (GHOST database) and foraminiferal Mg/Ca- (new data compilation) derived sea surface temperatures (SST) records from the Holocene and compare them with a suite of published Eemian SST records based on the same approach. The alkenone data set not only confirms the SST changes previously described but also documents the Holocene temperature evolution in new oceanic regions. A comparison of Holocene SST records stemming from the two commonly applied paleothermometry methods reveals contrasting – sometimes divergent – SST evolution. This may be explained by a strong contrast in the ecological responses of coccolithophores and planktonic foraminifera to winter and summer oceanographic conditions. The Holocene-Eemian comparison reveals SST changes of a similar sign, but with higher magnitudes during the Eemian as compared to the Holocene. This observation suggests that the ecological mechanism shaping SST trends during the Holocene was comparable during the penultimate interglacial period.
Read the full article at Quaternary Science Reviews.
18-1-2010: Friday Seminar dates online
The working group's scientific seminar "Marine Paleo Climate Research" is held biweekly on Fridays from 11:30 to 12:30 in room 115 at LMS10. It aims at PhDs, Postdocs and senior scientists, but also at students interested in paleo climate research. You can follow the dates and topics or suggest a presentation for one of the upcoming dates and join the meeting following the link below.
More information
11-1-2010: New publication - Organic-rich mud on the western margin of southern Africa: Nutrient source to the Southern Ocean?
In a new study, Ralph Schneider and colleagues assessed the present-day interglacial (Holocene) reservoirs and fluxes of organic carbon and terrigenous mud on the western margin of southern Africa in order to estimate the potential supply of iron to the Southern Ocean. Iron supply controls the biological pump which plays a major role in the transfer of CO2 from the atmosphere to the deep Southern Ocean. The authors propose that the lateral advection of iron by south flowing intermediate waters along the southern African margin may sustain high-productivity blooms of the Subtropical Convergence Zone (SCZ) between 10 and 70°E.
Read the full article at Global Biogeochemical Cycles.
5-1-2010: New publication - Global warmth with little extra CO2
In the current issue of Nature Geoscience, Birgit Schneider and Ralph Schneider comment on three independent studies of Pliocene climate recently published in Nature Geoscience and Science. The studies using both reconstruction and model approaches show that climate sensitivity as applied by the IPCC is possibly underestimated. A substantial amplification of climate change must be expected already within the next 100 years due to positive feedbacks of the glocal carbon cycle. Among these feedback mechanisms are a reduced carbon storage in terrestrial vegetation and the ocean.
Read the full comment at Nature Geoscience 3,6-7 (2010) or the press release (pdf in German)
30-11-2009: Guest scientist Christian Ethé (LSCE) visiting IfG
For one week, the working group Marine Climate Change welcomes a guest scientist, Christian Ethé from the Laboratoires de Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement (LSCE), Paris, France. He is visiting to exchange experience in biogeochemical climate modelling with the working group.
Christian is a specialist in model development and has previously worked with sea-ice representation, high latitude climate processes and CaCO3 production under rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations. As a member of the system group of the Nucleus for European Modelling (NEMO), Christian participates in the development of and new model component integration into the NEMO model framework.
 - L. Bordelon
 - C. Butruille
2-11-2009: Welcome, Laura Bordelon & Camille Butruille
With the new study term just starting, the working group Marine Climate Change welcomes two new PhD students.
Laura Bordelon obtained her MSc in Geology at the Southern Illinois University, USA. She has previously worked on seasonal variations of benthic foraminifera and long-term integration of hydrogeological data. Within her PhD, Laura will work in the field of biogeochemical modeling, supervised by Birgit Schneider. Laura's work will contribute to BioAcid, a BMBF funded joint project of 19 German research institutes and coordinated by IfM-GEOMAR.
Camille Butruille holds an MSc in Geosciences of the Environment from Lille University, France, and has focused her previous work on different aspects of sedimentology. She will carry out her PhD project "Mid Holocene climate variability in northern Germany and adjacent ocean" within the graduate school "Human Development in Landscapes", supervised jointly by Mara Weinelt and Ralph Schneider. Her research work will contribute to the DFG funded SPP "Frühe Monumentalität und soziale Differenzierung".
29-10-2009: NEW PUBLICATION - Stable isotopes in chitinous fossils of aquatic invertebrates (Yiming Wang)
Yiming Wang contributed to a study which points out that current stable isotope techniques permit the development of new approaches for reconstructing past climate and aquatic food webs based on chitinous invertebrate fossils from lake sediments. The study was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University, The Netherlands and the Alaska Stable Isotope Facility, University of Alaska Fairbanks, USA.
You can access the article published in PagesNEWS here.
 26-10-2009: ESF-Workshop on Pliocene Climate - outcomes
Nabil Khélifi and Johan Etourneau of the Kiel working group "Marine Climate Change" organised an "ESF-Workshop on Pliocene Climate" at Novotel Hotel Bordeaux, France, on 23-25 October 2009. The workshop steering committee, among them Ralph Schneider, set the objective to bring experts, together with PhD students and early career scientists, working on Pliocene climate, for the first time after the last meeting about 10 years ago, in order to make an inventory of current knowledge and discuss the new directions in Pliocene climate research. The debate focused on the main causes/consequences of the switch from the warm and stable Pliocene period towards global cooling, 3.0 Ma ago.
Altogether, 67 scientists from the worldwide community of pliocene climate research participated. Next to presentations, eight discussion groups were held focusing on global impact of gateways (Panama & Indonesia Seaways), changes in atmospheric CO2 across the Plio-Pleistocene, biogeochemical cycles, sea surface temperature gradients & pliocene atmospheric circulation, precipitation & monsoon activity during the Pliocene, near future drilling targets and modeling the Pliocene climate. The organizers of the Workshop on Pliocene Climate would like to thank Prof. Gerald Haug for his valuable financial contribution to the workshop through the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (German Research Foundation) as well as several other sponsors.
You can find details about the ESF-Workshop on Pliocene Climate at the workshop website, the programme and in the abstract book.
A comment entitled "Paleoclimate - Global warmth with little extra CO2" was published in Nature Geoscience by Schneider and Schneider following up the workshop.
 15-10-2009: NEW PUBLICATION - Pliocene–Pleistocene variability of upwelling activity, productivity, and nutrient cycling in the Benguela region (Johan Etourneau, Thomas Blanz, Ralph Schneider)
Johan Etourneau, most recent PhD graduate of the working group "marine climate change", together with his supervisors, has published part of his PhD research in the October issue of Geology. In this study the authors present combined high-resolution records of sea surface temperature (SST), phytoplankton productivity, and nutrient cycling in the Benguela Upwelling System (BUS) for the past 3.5 Ma. The records provide evidence that upwelling activity off Namibia mainly intensified ca. 2.4-2.0 Ma ago in response to the cooling of the Southern Ocean and the strengthening of regional trade winds, resulting in a major transition of the local biological productivity. Their results also suggest that oceanic reorganization in the Benguela 2.4-2.0 Ma ago was accompanied by pronounced nutrient source changes likely tied to the Intermediate Water formation in the Southern Ocean, which may have, in turn, strongly affected the global ocean nitrogen cycle and part of nutrient availability in the low-latitudes controlling biological production.
You can access the article published in Geology here.
 13-10-2009: Michael Sarnthein receives Gustav-Steinmann Medal 2009
The German Geological Society has awarded Prof. Dr. Michael Sarnthein the Gustav Steinmann Medal 2009 thus dignifying his lifetime achievements in paleo oceanography of the Atlantic Ocean. His scientific work has substantially enhanced our knowledge about the development of the ocean/climate system in the late neogenic. Some of his major accomplishments were pioneering work in multiproxy analyses for high resolution climate constructions in the North Atlantic, milestone research in the coupling of climate changes and the oceanic productivity and dust based reconstructions of the atmospheric circulation during the past millenia. His interdisciplinary thinking and his outstanding commitment have shaped marine geology and paleo climate research as we know it today.
For more than 20 years, Michael Sarnthein taught at Kiel University and expanded the paleo climate research location of Kiel. Among his main accomplishments was the establishment of the Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research in 1994 and the coordination of the DFG funded Research Unit Ocean Gateways from 2001 until 2005.
Please find more information in German at the website of the Geological Society.
12-10-2009: NEW PUBLICATION - Perspectives of Northern Sea Route and Northwest Passage in the twenty-first century (Vyacheslav Khon)
Slava Khon and colleagues from the IfM-GEOMAR and the Obukhov Institute of
Atmospheric Physics project a prolongation of the Arctic summer season with a free passage for the Northern Sea Route of 3 to 6 months and from 2 to 4 months for the Northwest Passage by the end of twenty-first century. This suggests that transit through the Northern Sea Route from Western Europe to the Far East may be up to 15% more profitable in comparison to Suez Canal transit by the end of the twenty-first century. Their conclusions are drawn from A1B climate projections for the 21st century based on Kiel Climate Model results and CMIP3 data validated with satellite ice cover observations.
You can access the article published in Climatic Change here.
 10-10-2009: NEW PUBLICATION - Phase relationship between sea level and abrupt climate change (PROMESS team, Ralph Schneider)
Ralph Schneider contributed to a study in which an innovative method was applied that opens a new perspective for inter-hemispheric synchronization of marine climate records. Direct traces of past sea levels based on the elevation of old coral reefs at times of sea level highstand are discontinuous and cannot be easily correlated with climate records from ice cores. In this study the authors show a new approach to recognizing the imprint of sea level changes in continuous sediment records taken from the continental slope at locations that were continuously submerged. During the last glacial period five flooding events were observed at the onset of the warmest Greenland interstadials and were generated by pronounced melting of the Northern Hemisphere ice sheets. This publication is an outcome of the EU project PROMESS.
You can access the article published in Quaternary Science Reviews here.
 - Anke Dürkop
16-9-2009: Welcome, Anke Dürkop
The working group Marine Climate Change welcomes a new Postdoc to support the climate modelers.
Anke Dürkop has a background in meteorology and wrote her diploma thesis about ENSO variability under the supervision of Mojib Latif at the IfM-GEOMAR. In her PhD project, she studied "Climate Variability in the Eastern Indian Ocean during Marine Isotope Stage 3: High-Resolution Proxy Studies from the Timor Sea" in the Marine Micropaleontology working group of Wolfgang Kuhnt at the Institute of Geosciences. Within her work for the junior research group led by Birgit Schneider, she will be engaged with biogeochemical paleo climate modeling.
10-9-2009: Friday Seminar restarts on September 25th
The Friday seminar held biweekly by the working group Marine Climate Research is starting into the winter semester 2009/2010 on September 25th at 11:30 in room 115. Rik Tjallingi will give an introduction to: "Calibration and application of XRF core scanner data". The seminar is aimed at Phds, Postdocs and senior scientists, but also at students interested in paleo climate research. You can follow the dates and topics or suggest a presentation for one of the upcoming dates and join the meeting following the link below.
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6-9-2009: Workshop Marine Climate Research
In a two-day workshop on marine paleo climate research 25 scientists from Kiel University, IfM-GEOMAR and the Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating met at the Otto-Bagge-Kolleg, Sehlendorf, on September 4th and 5th 2009. The aim of the workshop was to foster existing and to establish new links between the six working groups involved, with a special focus on the integration of paleo proxy data with results from state-of-the-art climate modeling.
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2-9-2009: NEW PUBLICATION: A major and long-term Pliocene intensification of the Mediterranean outflow, 3.5–3.3 Ma ago (Nabil Khélifi)
Nabil Khélifi and colleagues from our institute, IfM-GEOMAR, and the Leibniz-Laboratory for Radiometric Dating and Stable Isotope Research found evidence of an intensification of the Mediterranean outflow water from 3.5 to 3.3 million years ago. The enhanced Mediterranean salt discharge has possibly contributed to an increased formation of upper North Atlantic deep water and strength of the global conveyor belt, thus possibly promoting the onset of major northern hemisphere glaciation.
You can access the article published in Geology here.
Pliocene climate will be the issue of a workshop convened by Khélifi and colleagues in October 2009 in Bordeaux, France. You can still register for participation.
1-9-2009: NEW PROJECT "BioAcid"
The working group climate modelling is participating in the collaborative research project BioAcid funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. 20 German research institutes are working together to answer questions related to acidification of the ocean: What are the effects of ocean acidification on marine organisms and their habitat, what are the underlying mechanisms of responses and possible adaptations on the level of populations and communities, how are they modulated by other environmental stressors, and what are the consequences for marine ecosystems, ocean biogeochemical cycles, and possible feedbacks to the climate system? The project started on September 1, 2009 with a duration of three years and a budget of almost 9 mio. €.
Read the project summary or go to the project website.
27-8-2009: NEW PROJECT "GATEWAYS"
The working group marine climate research participates in a new EU Marie Curie Initial Training Network financed (ITN) within the EU FP7. In cooperation with Barcelona's Institute of Environmental Science and Technology, the School of Earth, Ocean and Planetary Sciences at Cardiff, the Kiel IfM-GEOMAR and five other partners, the Institute for Geosciences will carry out an interdisciplinary training programme covering ocean observations and processes, ocean and climate reconstructions, and climate modelling. GATEWAYS carries out research into an ocean current system that influences the climate of southern Africa and the strength of ocean currents in the Atlantic Ocean: the Agulhas Current around South Africa, and the water flow from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic.
Read more about the scientific programme and two PhD fellowships at IfG.
27-8-2009: NEW PUBLICATION: Modeling sensitivity study of the possible impact of snow and glaciers developing over Tibetan Plateau on Holocene African-Asian summer monsoon climate (Li-Ya Jin)
Li-Ya Jin and colleagues from PIK and Lanzhou University have published a climate modelling study in the current issue of Climate of the Past. The model results attained with the CLIMBER-2 model suggest that the development of snow and ice cover over Tibetan Plateau represents an additional important climate feedback, which amplify orbital forcing and produces a significant synergy with the positive vegetation feedback. Li-Ya has recently picked up his work in the junior research group Climate Modelling and is currently working on climate model-proxy comparisons in the Holocene and Eemian.
You can access the article published in Climate of the Past here.
16-7-2009: Welcome, Li-Ya Jin
The working group Marine Climate Research welcomes a new research scientist in the modeller's division: Liya Jin, a meteorologist and atmosphere scientist, has experience from many years of analysing both climate model and climate proxy data. He gained his PhD from Lanzhou University after carrying out “Modeling studies on Holocene and Last Glacial climate change of the Central and East Asia”. During research visits to the Potsdam Institute for Climate Research (PIK) in Germany and the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, USA, Liya worked with different climate models examining mainly climate processes during the Holocene.
With his experience and knowledge he will especially support the climate modelling group's work within the Cluster of Excellence "Future Ocean" and will contribute to comparisons of paleo proxy and model data to understand the role of the ocean in past climate change.
14-7-2009: Congratulations, Johan Etourneau
We congratulate Johan Etourneau who has recently accomplished his PhD in the working group "Paleoceanography". Under the supervision of Ralph Schneider, Johan worked on "Plio-Pleistocene variability of upwelling activity, productivity and nutrient cycle in the Benguela Upwelling System and the Eastern Equatorial Pacific". He publically presented and defended his thesis on Monday, the 13th of July, 2009.
The working group Marine Climate Research wishes him all the best in continuing his research. If you would like to contact him, please write to je [@] gpi.uni-kiel.de.
1-7-2009: NEW PUBLICATION: Mid-Pliocene shifts in ocean overturning circulation and the onset of Quaternary-style climates (Michael Sarnthein)
Michael Sarnthein et al. have synthesized a large number of new and existing paleoceanographic records with results from several climate models supporting the hypothesis of a link between the gradual closure of the Central American Seaways between 3.2 Ma and 2.7 Ma and the onset of Northern Hemisphere Glaciation. This period in the mid-pliocene was a major tipping point of Earth's history as it marks the onset of major Northern-Hemisphere Glaciation (NHG) and of pronounced, Quaternary-style cycles of glacial-to-interglacial climates, that contrast with more uniform climates over most of the preceding Cenozoic and continue until today. You can access the article published in Climate of the Past here.
 23-6-2009: NEW PUBLICATION: Bremen air quality influenced mainly by long-distance pollution and little by local emissions (Opeyemi Salau)
Opeyemi R. Salau et al. have recently published a new article in which they describe the results of an atmospheric trace gas analysis in Bremen. Supported by colleagues from University of Bremen, UCLA, Harvard University and the University of New Hampshire, Salau measured atmospheric concentrations of various carbon compounds such as C2H2, CO, HCN and C2H6 and compared the results to both in situ and model data. The results suggest that the background air in Bremen is mainly influenced by long-ranged transport of biomass burning products while local pollution plays a minor role. The results will be helpful in validating satellite measurements and improve our understanding of global features of trace gases and the overall tropospheric pollutant loading at Bremen. Additionally, they contribute to the works of the international Network for the Detection of Atmospheric Composition Change (NDACC) and the Total Carbon Column Observing Network (TCCON).
Opeyemi Salau has a background in environmental physics and is currently working on his PhD thesis in the climate modeling group of Birgit Schneider. His thesis deals with climate variability in warm periods of the past, namely the variability of El-Nino Southern Oscillation in the Holocene and Eemian. His work is supported by the German Research Foundation within the Cluster of Excellence Future Ocean.
You can access the full article "Tropospheric trace gases at Bremen measured with FTIR spectrometry".
 10-6-2009: NEW PUBLICATION: Oxygen better suited for climate reconstruction from aquatic insects in lake sediments than hydrogen (Yiming Wang)
Yiming Wang together with collegues from different U.S. institutes has published a new article about climate proxies in fossil aquatic insects in Oecologia. In her work she showed that oxygen isotopes from chironomid chitinous fossils preserved in lake sediments are more reliable proxies than hydrogen isotopes when interpreting past lake water hydrological changes, because 69 % of oxygen in comparison to 31 % of the hydrogen come from the water they live in. This knowledge is important for paleo climate reconstructions, as it needs to be considered when interpreting isotope data from chironomids.
Yiming joined the IfG research group "Paleooceanography and Climate" as a Postdoc in September 2008 and is currently working on reconstructing paleoclimate and paleohydrological changes in Tropical Indian Ocean using compound specific stable isotopic analyses.
You can access the full article here.
Friday Seminar
The Friday seminar held biweekly by the working group Marine Climate Research is documented online now. Follow the dates and topics or suggest a presentation for one of the upcoming dates and join the meeting.
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