Kontinentales Paläoklima

Terrestrial paleoclimate archives harbor enormous potential to understand how precipitation and temperature have changed during Earth’s history. Novel geochemical tools such as clumped isotope ( Δ47) geochemistry and biomarker analysis allow us to study such changes in great detail -from high-resolution drill cores to continent-scale patterns of long-term climate change. Our current research projects focus on ocean-continent climate connections in Central and Eastern Europe, North America, the Mediterranean region, Central Asia and South America.

Externally funded Projects

LOEWE priority program ‘VeWA” – Project B2 “Kontinentale Paläoklima- & Biodiversitätsentwicklung’

DFG Project LU 2199/1: Early hominin (plant-based) dietary adaptation in the southern East African Rift (Tina Lüdecke)

Key publications

Ardenghi, N., Mulch, A., Koutsodendris, A., Pross, J., Kahmen, A., Niedermeyer, E. (2019) Temperature and moisture variability in the Eastern Mediterranean region during Marine Isotope Stages 11–10 based on biomarker analysis of the Tenaghi Philippon peat deposit. Quaternary Science Reviews, 225, 105977. 

Vasiliev, I., Reichart, G-J., Krijgsman, W., Mulch, A. (2019) Black Sea rivers capture drastic change in catchment-wide mean annual temperature and soil pH during the Miocene-to-Pliocene transition. Global and Planetary Change, 172, 428-439 

Lüdecke, T., Kullmer, O., Wacker, U., Sandrock, O., Fiebig, J., Schrenk, F., Mulch, A. (2018) Dietary versatility of early Pleistocene hominins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115, 52, 13330-13335. 

Methner, K., Mulch, A., Fiebig, J., Wacker, U., Gerdes, A., Graham, S.A., Chamberlain, C.P., (2016) Rapid Middle Eocene temperature change in western North America. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 450, 132-139.

Vasiliev, I., Mezger, E.M., Lugli, S., Reichart, G.J., Manzi, V., Roveri, M. (2017) How dry was the Mediterranean during the Messinian salinity crisis? Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 471, 120-133