Dr. Rainer Gersonde

For further information see personal webpage (external).

Scientific Interests:

• Antarctic diatom paleoecology and diatom particle flux
• Cenozoic diatom taxonomy and biostratigraphy
• Cretaceous diatom taxonomy and evolution
• Neogene diatom paleoceanography in southern high latitudes
• High-resolution Pleistocene-Holocene paleoceanography and paleoclimatology in southern high latitudes, link between marine and ice core archives
• Documentation and reconstruction of the late Pliocene Eltanin asteroid impact into the Southern Ocean

Other Duties:

• Speaker of AWI-MARCOPOLI Work package POL6 “Earth climate variability since the Pliocene”
  POL6 addresses:
  • mechanisms of climate change on a variety of time-scales
  • inter-hemispheric connections
  • the role of the cryosphere in climate variations
  • physical and biological processes that regulate atmospheric CO2
  Information is collected and analysed from documentations in continental ice, permafrost and marine sediment cores, which present unique archives of the phase and amplitude of climatic change on seasonal to millennial time scales.
• Lead Scientist of 6th EU FP Project EPICA-MIS (“Enhanced palaeoreconstruction and integrated climate analysis through marine and ice core studies”) Work Package 8 “Carbon Cycle and Paleoproductivity”
• Coordinator of International Polar Year 2007/08 core project 130 “Bipolar Climate Machinery” (BIPOMAC)
• Member of German IPY 07/08 Committee

Publications:

For a complete publication list see external webpage at AWI.

Expeditions:

• 9 German expeditions to the Southern Ocean with RV Polarstern (5 as chief scientist)
• 2 ODP expeditions with drillship Joides Resolution (Leg 113, as diatom stratigrapher, Leg 177 as co-chief scientist)