Ulrike Baranowski

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Doctoral Researcher

Contact details

Email
ukb407@bham.ac.uk
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Science
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Ulrike’s doctoral research is focused on palaeoclimate and environmental reconstructions across the Early Eocene Climate Optimum (EECO). Therefore she is investigating assemblage and geochemistry variability of microfossils within a sediment core (16/28 Sb-01) from the eastern side of the Rockall Trough, which is part of the North Atlantic and the Irish continental shelf.

Previously Ulrike mainly worked on the morphology and ultrastructure of recent planktonic foraminifera to infer cladistic analysis and to elucidate the importance of the different morphologic characters for fossil-based phylogeny.

A second focus of her work was palaeocirculation reconstruction based on planktonic foraminiferal assemblage data in the Pleistocene (during the warm MIS 5e approximately 120 kyr ago) of the Red Sea.

Qualifications

Dipl.-Geol. (equivalent to an MSc) - University of Tübingen - 2013

Biography

Previously Ulrike did a masters degree in Geosciences specialising in marine micropalaeontology at the Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (Germany). As part of her studies she did an internship at the Natural History Museum in Chemnitz, there she was a participant in the scientific palaeontological excavation of an exceptionally well preserved silicified forest from the Permian.

Doctoral research

PhD title
Early Eocene palaeoenvironmental and tectonic reconstruction of the Rockall Trough
Supervisors Dr Tom Dunkley Jones, Dr Kirsty Edgar and Dr James Bendle

Research

Research interests

Ulrike is fascinated by the idea of using warm climate states in Earth history to inform our understanding of future climate. She is especially interested in the early Eocene Climate Optimum.

Using the morphologic species concept combined with geochemistry of planktonic foraminifera as proxies for palaeoclimate research is in particular one of her passions. That planktonic microfossils preserve the palaeoenvironment within their calcitic tests is fascinating for her.

Besides her PhD she is interested in understanding controlled biomineralization processes. 

Publications

Trommer, G., Siccha, M., Rohling, E.J., Grant, K., van der Meer, M.T.J., Schouten, S., Baranowski, U., Kucera, M.: Sensitivity of Red Sea circulation to sea level and insolation forcing during the last interglacial. Climate of the Past 7: 941-955.