Nina Wichern

SSP Stratigraphy, Sedimentology and Palaeontology

The 2022 Outstanding Student and PhD candidate Presentation (OSPP) Award is awarded to Nina Wichern for the poster/PICO entitled:

The bivalve Angulus benedeni benedeni as a climate archive for Pliocene seasonality (Wichern, N. M. A.; de Winter, N. J.; Johnson, A. L. A.; Hamers, M. F.; Goolaerts, S.; Wesselingh, F.; Kaskes, P.; Claeys, P.; Ziegler, M.)

Click here to download the poster/PICO file.

Nina Wichern is currently a PhD candidate at the Institute of Geology and Paleontology at the Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität (WWU) in Münster, Germany. She studies the influence of astronomical forcing on the timing and cause of Late Devonian carbon cycle perturbations, together with Prof. David De Vleeschouwer.
The research presented at EGU 2022 concerned that of her Master’s project at Utrecht University, the Netherlands, under the supervision of Dr. Niels de Winter and Dr. Martin Ziegler. Using a combination of oxygen and clumped isotopes, this study showed that the extinct bivalve species Angulus benedeni benedeni can be used to reconstruct seasonal sea water temperatures of the southern North Sea basin during the middle Pliocene. As global temperature estimates for the middle Pliocene are similar to those predicted for 2100 as a result of anthropogenic-induced climate change, this finding makes A. benedeni benedeni a valuable addition to our geological climate archive repertoire.

Publication resulting from the award

Wichern, N. M. A., de Winter, N. J., Johnson, A. L. A., Goolaerts, S., Wesselingh, F., Hamers, M. F., Kaskes, P., Claeys, P., and Ziegler, M.: The fossil bivalve Angulus benedeni benedeni: a potential seasonally resolved stable-isotope-based climate archive to investigate Pliocene temperatures in the southern North Sea basin, Biogeosciences, 20, 2317–2345, https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-20-2317-2023, 2023.