AG Micropaleontology - Paleoceanography

Research

Our research focusses on the following topics

Biology of Foraminifera

Combining molecular genetics, laboratory experiments and field observations, our research helps understand factors that govern the distribution, diversity and physiology of living foraminifera. This knowledge is and essential prerequisite for the interpretation of their fossil record and evolutionary history .

Marine Palynology

Dinoflagellates, pollen and spores in marine sediments are excellent markers that register (past) environmental change induced by climate change, human activities or evolutionary processes. Our research uses (palaeo)ecological, organic-geochemical, isotopic and trace element analyses to obtain insight into the factors that steer the distribution, diversity and degradation of marine palynomorphs as well as influence their isotopic, molecular and elemental composition.

Paleoceanography

Fossil foraminifera provide a unique archive of past climate change and biotic response to global forcing. In our research, we develop new methods to reconstruct past ocean properties from the composition of foraminifera assemblages and physical and chemical properties of their shells and apply these to unravel how ocean temperatures, currents and plankton productivity changed on orbital to centennial time scales.