Kerstin Braun
4 Hillel St.
Apartment 10
94581 Jerusalem, Israel
Curriculum Vitae
Kerstin Braun
Phone: +1480-431-3320
Address: 1728 N Camellia St, Tempe, AZ 85281, USA
E-mail:
______Education and Employment______
Since November 2014 Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, USA
October 2014 PhD, Hebrew University of Jerusalem in collaboration with the Geological Survey of Israel.
2009Diploma in Geosciences (equivalent to M.Sc.) at Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen,Germany
______Research______
Paleoclimate of southern South Africa
Monitoring of present-day stable isotopic composition of rainfall: a 4-year data set of stable isotopic compositions of rainfall from Mossel Bay on the South Africa south coast attested a distinct seasonality. I was able to link this seasonality to shifts in the synoptic conditions causing rainfall.
Analyzing stable isotopic composition of speleothems to reconstruct past climate and environments: High present-day climatic gradients in southwestern South Africa are likely to also have been present in past climates. The stable isotopic composition of speleothem from various areas around southwestern South Africa help me to shed light on these spatial differences and temporal variability or stability of climatic conditions. The winter rainfall dominated southwestern tip of South Africa appears to have had a very stable climate allowing for the evolution of the highly diverse flora of the Cape Floristic Region by minimizing extinction of old taxa. The central south coast has a similar vegetation, but under year-round rainfall. This region exhibits a more variable past climatic history with strong shifts of contributions from summer and winter rainfall. However a consistent humid climate allowed early anatomically modern humans to settle in this region and find refuge during interval when climates in the interior were more arid and hostile.
______Publications______
Braun, K., Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Matthews, A., Zilberman, T., Marean, C.W., 2017. Rainfall isotopic variability at the intersection between winter and summer rainfall regimes in coastal South Africa (Mossel Bay, Western Cape Province). South African J. Geol. in press.
Marean, C. W., Anderson, R. J., Bar-Matthews, M., Braun, K., Cawthra, H., Cowling, R. M., Engelbrecht, F., Esler, K. J., Fisher, E., Franklin, J., Hill, K., Janssen, M., Potts, A. J., Zahn, R., 2015. A New Research Strategy for Integrating Studies of Paleoclimate, Paleoenvironment, and Paleoanthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 24, pp. 62 – 72. DOI: 10.1002/evan.21443
Rohling, E. J., Braun, K., Grant, K., Kucera, M., Roberts, A.P.,Siddall, M. and Trommer, G., 2010. Comparison betweenHolocene and Marine Isotope Stage-11 sea-level histories. Earth and Planetary Science Letters291, pp.97 – 105.DOI: 10.1016/j.epls.2009.12.054
______Professional service, affiliations and memberships_____
PAGES workgroup SISAL regional coordinator for Africa
Centre for Costal Paleosciences, Nelson Mandela University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa
American Geophysical Union Membership