- Professor of Palaeobiology, University of Leicester
I received my undergraduate degree (BSc) in Geology (1994) as well as his Master degree in Geology and Paleontology (1996) from Freie Universität Berlin (Germany). In 2000 I obtained my PhD degree (Magna Cum Laude) from Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel (Germany). I have worked in four countries as postdoc and Assistant Professor before joining Leicester as Professor in 2018. I have been awarded over five million Euro in funding for research projects in the UK Germany Australia and the Netherlands committed to carrying out cutting-edge research using quantitative field and laboratory methods for sedimentological paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatological reconstructions of coral reef and island systems as well as land-ocean coupling mechanisms in the Indian Ocean region the tropical Atlantic and Southeast Asia.
My research involves the geochemical study of marine biological (massive corals) and sedimentary archives from the tropical oceans as recorders of environmental and climate change over the past 300 years and during the Holocene. For most of my career I have worked on Indian Ocean coral and sediment records. This work is motivated by the need to produce reliable long-term baseline data of sea surface temperature ocean currents and the hydrological cycle over the tropical/subtropical oceans and how they shape patterns of biodiversity in our oceans and adjacent coasts. My current aspiration is to establish an international research group focussed on tropical paleoclimate research around flagship research areas where climate variability and change is of global and regional significance with the impetus on gaining more robust research output for the benefit of society. A Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship, a NERC Discovery Grant and a German DFG research grant awarded between 2018 and 2021 support my current Professorship at the University of Leicester.
Experience
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–presentResearch Assistant Professor, UWA Oceans Institute
Education
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2000Christian-Albrechts-University Kiel, PhD
Publications
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2013Confounding effects of coral growth and high SST variability on skeletal Sr/Ca: Implications for coral paleothermometry, Geochem., Geophys. Geosyst.
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2013Human deforestation outweighs future climate change impacts of sedimentation on coral reefs, Nature Communications
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2013Madagascar corals reveal multidecadal modulation of rainfall since 1708., Climate of the Past
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2012Linking coral river runoff proxies with climate variability, hudrology and land-use in Madagascar catchments, Marine Pollution Bulletin
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2012Spectral luminescence and geochemistry of coral aragonite: effects of whole-core chemical treatments, Chemical Geology
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2012Social-ecological problems forcing unprecedented change on the latitudinal margins of coral reefs: the case of southwest Madagascar. , Ecology and Society
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2012Spatial linkages between coral proxies of terrestrial runoff across a large embayment in Madagascar, Biogeosciences
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2011On the role of the Agulhas system in ocean circulation and climate, Nature
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2011Dodo mass-mortality during megadrought ca. 4200 years ago: will insular vertebrates cope with future climatic extremes? , The Holocene
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2011Comment on ’A snapshot of climate variability at Tahiti at 9.5 ka using a fossil coral from IODP Expedition 310, Geochem., Geophys. Geosyst.
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2010Contrasting seasonal fluxes ofplanktonic foraminifera and impacts on paleothermometry in the Mozambique Channel upstream of the Agulhas Current, Paleoceanography
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2010River runoff reconstructions from novel spectral luminescence scanning of massive coral skeletons, Coral Reefs
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2009Western Indian Ocean marine and terrestrial records of climate variability: a review and new concepts on land-ocean interaction since A.D. 1660, International Journal of Earth Sciences
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2009Dominant Pacific SLP and SST variability recorded in Indian Ocean corals., International Journal of Earth Sciences
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2009Three monthly coral Sr/Ca records from the Chagos Archipelago covering the period of 1950 to 1995.: Reproducibility and implications for quantitative reconstructions of sea surface temperature variations, International Journal of Earth Sciences
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2008Mayotte coral reveales hydrological changes in the western Indian between 1865 to 1994, Geophysical Research Letters
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2008Caribbean Brain coral tracks the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation and Past Hurricane Intensity, Geology
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2005Atmosphere-Ocean dynamics in the western Indian Ocean recorded in corals, Philosophical Transactions Royal Society A
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2004ENSO and subtropical dipole variability is recorded in a coral record off southwest Madagascar for the period 1659 to 1995, Earth and Planetary Science Letters
Grants and Contracts
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2011WIOMSA-MASMA Integrative climate change project
- Role:
- Chief Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association
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2011NWO ALW CLIMATCH
- Role:
- Partner Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Netherlands Science Foundation NWO
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2011UWA/AIMS/CSIRO Fellowship program
- Role:
- Chief investigator
- Funding Source:
- UWA/AIMS/CSIRO Collaborative Agreement
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2010WIOMSA-MASMA Coral Reefs and Global Change
- Role:
- Chief Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Western Indian Ocean Marine Science Association
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2007KNAW Seribu
- Role:
- Partner Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Royal Dutch Academy
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2006NWO ALW SINDOCOM
- Role:
- Chief Investigator
- Funding Source:
- Netherlands Science Foundation NWO
Contact Jens for
- General
- Media request
- Speaking request
- Consulting / Advising
- Research collaboration
- Research supervision
- Article Feed
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