Project groups

• A1 | Patterns and Processes of Cenozoic Diversification: Integration of Phylogeny and Paleoclimate Change
  • Prof. Dr. Annette Klussmann-Kolb
  • Prof. Dr. Jens O. Herrle
  • Prof. Dr. Alexandra N. Muellner-Riehl
• A2 | Cenozoic Bio-Geo-Atmosphere Dynamics: The Long Journey into the Pleistocene Icehouse
  • Prof. Dr. Andreas Mulch
  • Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Oschmann
  • Prof. Dr. Georg Zizka (SGN)
• A3 | Rapid Climate Change as Trigger of Long-term Biodiversity and Ecosystem Changes
  • Prof. Dr. André Freiwald
  • Prof. Dr. Eberhard Gischler
  • Prof. Dr. Jörg Pross

A2.14 | SAVANNA DEVELOPMENT

Our research focuses on the development of African savannas in the Plio-Pleistocene. As a tool we work among other things with the analysis of stable isotopes from pedogenic archives to reconstruct the development of C4-grasslands as a result of changing atmospheric CO2-concentration, seasonality and distribution of precipitation, and retreat of tree cover. The southeast African savanna is here particularly interesting since the vegetation pattern can be correlated with paleontological data of the evolution and migration of the early hominids. 

Team

Tina Lüdecke, Ph.D. student