Research Interests and Projects

- Morphological changes in foraminifera, e.g. porosity, related to changing environmental conditions like dissolved oxygen using synchrotron Projection X-ray Microscopy.

- Reconstructing past conditions in the Arctic using calcareous and agglutinated foraminifera.

- Reconstruction of oceanic paleo-oxygen conditions in the Pacific since the Pliocene ( DePac  project) and the Arabian Sea using the Mn/Ca ratio in deeper-dwelling planktonic foraminifera.

- Development and application of trace metal/Ca proxies in benthic foraminifera in shallow marine/coastal environments like the Baltic Sea Basin and around Taiwan (e.g. Bitou) and their relationship to current environmental change, especially Mn/Ca (hypoxia) and Ba/Ca (salinity).

- Determination of proxy uncertainties from variability in geochemical signatures in individual foraminifera from the same time slice to reproducibility of downcore records; characterization of background scatter in relation to analytical and laboratory procedures.

- Reconstructing Pliocene changes in climate and oceanography in the Atlantic, Caribbean and Pacific, including the closure of the Isthmus of Panama, the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, permanent El Niño like climate, and development of the Indonesian Gateway.

- Ongoing development of Mg/Ca (paleo-thermometry) and other trace metal/Ca ratios (eg Mn/Ca, Ba/Ca, B/Ca) as proxies to reconstruct past changes in water column/bottom conditions (eg temperature, salinity, oxygen content) on (planktonic and benthic) foraminifera including geochemical signatures in single foraminifera.