Environmental archives

High-resolution (sub-annual) environmental data are of special interest for climate models. However, instrumental are limited to approx. the last two centuries. Palaeoenvironmental proxy studies with sub-annual resolution provide the opportunity to extend these datasets further back in time. Up to date the main focus organisms as proxy carrier were tropical shallow-water organisms with high growth rates, primarily zooxanthellate corals. However, modern sampling techniques allow a spatial sample resolution of less than 100 μm and provide the opportunity to generate sub-seasonal proxy records from relatively slow growing organisms, such as many bivalves. As intra-annual climate variations are better pronounced in temperate regions than in tropical waters and bivalves present a common faunal element in these environments, bivalves present still underexplored archives for mid-latitude environmental conditions.

My main research interest is the evaluation of bivalves as proxy carrier and their application to the fossil record. Thereby, high resolution oxygen and stable carbon isotopes, as well as element/Ca proxy records are investigated.

Publications

Seuss B, Titschack J, Seifert S, Neubauer J, Nützel A (2012) Oxygen and carbon stable isotopes from a nautiloid from the middle Pennsylvanian (Late Carboniferous) impregnation Lagerstätte ‘Buckhorn Asphalt Quarry’ - primary paleo-environmental signals versus diagenesis. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 319/320: 1-15

Titschack J, Zuschin M, Spötl C, Baal C (2010) The giant oyster Hyotissa hyotis from the northern Red Sea as a decadal-scale archive for seasonal environmental fluctuations in coral reef habitats. Coral Reefs 29: 1061-1075.

Maier E, Titschack J (2010) Spondylus gaederopus: a new Mediterranean climate archive - based on high-resolution oxygen and carbon isotope analysis. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 291: 228 - 238.

Titschack J, Radtke U, Freiwald A (2009) Dating and characterizing polymorphic transformation of aragonite to calcite in Pleistocene bivalves from Rhodes (Greece) by combined shell microstructure, stable isotope and electron spin resonance study. J Sed Res 79, 332-346.