Dr Kirsty Edgar PhD

Dr Kirsty Edgar

School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
Senior Lecturer in Micropalaeontology

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 414 6163
Email
k.m.edgar@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@KirstyMEdgar
View my research portal
Address
School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Kirsty is a micropalaeontologist and palaeoceanographer, specialising in planktic foraminifer and foraminifer-based geochemical records. She is interested in understanding the timing and nature of the interaction between global climate, geochemical cycling, and biota during the Cenozoic. A major research focus is elucidating the dynamics and consequences of transient climate events in the geological record.

ORCID: 0000-0001-7587-9951

Qualifications

  • 2009 – PhD University of Southampton
  • 2004 – MSci (First Class) Royal Holloway, University of London

Biography

2019- Senior Lecturer in Micropalaeontology, University of Birmingham

2017- Lecturer in Micropalaeontology, University of Birmingham

2016– Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow and Proleptic Lecturer in Micropalaeontology, University of Birmingham

2014-2016 – Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow, University of Bristol

2011-2014 – NERC Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Cardiff University

2008-2011 – NERC Research Associate, University of Southampton (Advisor: Prof. Heiko Pälike)

2009 – Ph.D, University of Southampton (Advisor: Prof. Paul Wilson)

2008 (June – August), WUN International Research Fellow, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, San Diego (Advisors: Prof. Dick Norris & Dr Philip Sexton)

2004 – MSci (First Class Hons), Royal Holloway, University of London

Teaching

Kirsty teaches on the following topics:

  • Applied and Industrial Micropalaeontology
  • Palaeoclimates
  • Research and field skills

Postgraduate supervision

Kirsty Edgar is interested in understanding the timing and nature of the interaction between global climate, geochemical cycling, and biota during the Cenozoic. A major research focus is elucidating the dynamics and consequences of transient climate events in the geological record and the evolution of planktic foraminifera.

If you are interested in exploring opportunities to join the Micropalaeontology group here at Birmingham as a graduate student, postdoc or if you looking for somewhere new for a research visit or sabbatical then please get in touch.

Research

Kirsty specializes in planktic foraminiferal micropalaeontology and geochemistry. The overall goal of her research is to unravel the complex interplay between life and climate ranging from the modern day back through millions of years. Much of her research to date has focused on constraining climatic and biotic (e.g., ecological and evolutionary) responses to short-lived environmental perturbations over the past 65 million years of Earth’s history. Focal events include the transient global warming event, the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (MECO) ~40 million years ago and other ‘hyperthermals’. The geochemistry of foraminiferal tests is one of the main means used to reconstruct both fossil foraminifera ecology and past environments. As such she is actively involved in evaluating the fidelity of key geochemical proxies (e.g., d11B, d13C and d18O values) in fossil and modern foraminiferal carbonate with the view to improving confidence in our palaeoreconstructions.

Kirsty’s research interests at a glance are:

1) Biotic responses and sensitivity to environmental change in our past, present and future oceans

2) Cenozoic (particularly Eocene) environmental change

3) The fidelity of geochemical and biotic proxies for reconstructing past ecology and environments

 

Other activities

  • 2017 - Planktic foraminiferal biostratigrapher on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 369: Australia Cretaceous climates and tectonics (26 Sep-26 Nov.).
  • 2017- Advisory board member of Mikrotax (http://mikrotax.org/)
  • 2017- International member of the Joides Resolution Science Operator Geology Laboratory Working Group
  • 2016 - Planktic Foraminiferal Editor for the Journal of Micropalaeontology
  • 2014-2016 - The Micropalaeontological Society (TMS) Events Secretary
  • 2012-2014 - TMS Foraminifera Group Secretary
  • 2009 - Planktic foraminiferal biostratigrapher on Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP) Expedition 320:Pacific Equatorial Age Transect (5 March-5 May)
  • Member of The Micropalaeontological Society (2004- ), Geologists Association (2017- ), The Paleontological Association (2014- ), The Cushman Foundation (2014- ), Geological Society of America (2015- ) and The American Geophysical Union (2006- )

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Expedition 369 Scientific Participants 2020, 'A lower to middle Eocene astrochronology for the Mentelle Basin (Australia) and its implications for the geologic time scale', Earth and Planetary Science Letters, vol. 529, 115865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2019.115865

Mikis, A, Hendry, KR, Pike, J, Schmidt, DN, Edgar, K, Peck, V, Peeters, FJC, Leng, MJ, Meredith, MP, Todd, CL, Stammerjohn, S & Ducklow, H 2019, 'Temporal variability in foraminiferal morphology and geochemistry at the West Antarctic Peninsula: a sediment trap study', Biogeosciences, vol. 16, pp. 3267–3282. https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-16-3267-2019

Hollis, CJ, Dunkley Jones, T, Anagnostou, E, Bijl, PK, Cramwinckel, MJ, Cui, Y, Dickens, GR, Edgar, KM, Eley, Y, Evans, D, Foster, GL, Frieling, J, Inglis, GN, Kennedy, EM, Kozdon, R, Lauretano, V, Lear, CH, Littler, K, Meckler, N, Naafs, BDA, Pälike, H, Pancost, RD, Pearson, P, Royer, DL, Salzmann, U, Schubert, B, Seebeck, H, Sluijs, A, Speijer, R, Stassen, P, Tierney, J, Tripati, A, Wade, B, Westerhold, T, Witkowski, C, Zachos, JC, Zhang, YG, Huber, M & Lunt, DJ 2019, 'The DeepMIP contribution to PMIP4: methodologies for selection, compilation and analysis of latest Paleocene and early Eocene climate proxy data, incorporating version 0.1 of the DeepMIP database', Geoscientific Model Development, vol. 12, pp. 3149-3206. https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-12-3149-2019

Hsiang, A, Brombacher, A, Rillo, M, Mleneck-Vautravers, M, Conn, S, Lordsmith, S, Jentzen, A, Henehan, M, Metcalfe, B, Fenton, I, Wade, B, Fox, L, Meilland, J, Davis, C, Baranowski, U, Groeneveld, J, Edgar, K, Movellan, A, Aze, T, Dowsett, H, Miller, G, Rios, N & Hull, P 2019, 'Endless Forams: >34,000 modern planktonic foraminiferal images for taxonomic training and automated species recognition using convolutional neural networks', Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003612

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Expedition 369 methods', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 102. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.102.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Expedition 369 summary', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 101. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.101.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Site U1512', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 103. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.103.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Site U1513', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 104. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.104.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Site U1514', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 105. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.105.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Site U1515', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 106. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.106.2019

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, H-J, Guerra, RDM, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Tejada, MLG, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, Y-X, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O’Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2019, 'Site U1516', Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, vol. 369, 107. https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.369.107.2019

Edgar, K, Hull, P & Ezard, T 2017, 'Evolutionary history biases inferences of ecology and environment from δ13C but not δ18O values', Nature Communications, vol. 8, 1106. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-017-01154-7

Waterson, A, Edgar, K, Schmidt, DN & Valdes, PJ 2017, 'Quantifying the stability of planktic foraminiferal physical niches between the Holocene and Last Glacial Maximum', Paleoceanography, vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 74-89. https://doi.org/10.1002/2016PA002964

Chapter

Wade, B, Olsson, R, Pearson, P, Edgar, K & Premoli Silva, I 2018, Taxonomy, biostratigraphy, and phylogeny of Oligocene Subbotina. in BS Wade, RK Olsson, PN Pearson, BT Huber & WA Berggren (eds), Atlas of Oligocene Planktonic Foraminifera. Special Publications, vol. 46, Cushman Foundation, pp. 307-330.

Review article

Huber, BT, Hobbs, RW, Bogus, KA, Batenburg, SJ, Brumsack, HJ, Do Monte Guerra, R, Edgar, KM, Edvardsen, T, Harry, DL, Hasegawa, T, Haynes, SJ, Jiang, T, Jones, MM, Kuroda, J, Lee, EY, Li, YX, MacLeod, KG, Maritati, A, Martinez, M, O'Connor, LK, Petrizzo, MR, Quan, TM, Richter, C, Riquier, L, Tagliaro, GT, Tejada, MLG, Wainman, CC, Watkins, DK, White, LT, Wolfgring, E & Xu, Z 2018, 'Australia Cretaceous Climate and Tectonics: Tectonic, paleoclimate, and paleoceanographic history of high-latitude southern margins of Australia during the Cretaceous', Integrated Ocean Drilling Program: Preliminary Reports, vol. 369, pp. 1-39. https://doi.org/10.14379/​iodp.pr.369.2018

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