Prof. Dr. Bernd Zolitschka

Research projects

• Climate, landuse, mining - factors influencing the annually laminated sediment archive of Jues See (Herzberg am Harz): funded by Central Research Funding of the University of Bremen (Funding Line ZF 01 Impulse)
• Suborbital-scale climate variability of the last three glacial/interglacial cycles – high-resolution environmental reconstructions from sediments of the Rodderberg crater (Germany): funded by DFG - project link 
• Holocene Climate Anomalies in Central Europe: funded by Central Research Funding of the University of Bremen (Funding Line ZF 04 Projects for Postdocs - Funding Objective B)
• Environmental and climate reconstruction for Chilean Patagonia - Investigations of lacustrine sediment records from the Chile Chico Plateau and its surrounding area: funded by a doctoral scholarship of the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD)
• Regional reconstruction of water availability to extend instrumental hydroclimatic records into the Late Holocene – a high-resolution investigation of natural archives dated in calendar-years from maar-lake sediments in the Newer Volcanic Province, south-eastern Australia (NVP): funded by DFG - project link

Current peer-reviewed publications (2024-2022)

• Charqueño-Celis, F., Dubois, N., Zolitschka, B., Pérez, L., Mayr, C., Massaferro, J., 2024. Climate and environmental history of Laguna Polo, Santa Cruz, Southern Patagonia (49°S) since 1300 CE. Journal of Paleolimnology. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10933-024-00328-w
• Franco, C., Maldonado, A., Ohlendorf, C., Gebhardt, A. C., de Porras, M. E., Nuevo-Delaunay, A., Méndez, C., Zolitschka, B., 2024. Holocene environmental and climate evolution of central west Patagonia as reconstructed from lacustrine sediments of Meseta Chile Chico (46.5° S, Chile), Climate of the Past, 20, 817-839, https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-20-817-2024. 
• García, M. L., Birlo, S., Zahajská, P., Wienhues, G., Grosjean, M., and Zolitschka, B., 2024. Ecological responses to solar forcing during the Homerian Climate Anomaly recorded by varved sediments from Holzmaar, Germany, The Holocene, https://doi.org/10.1177/09596836241275008.
• Ghafarpour, A., Khormali, F., Tazikeh, H., Kehl, M., Frechen, M., Zolitschka, B., 2024. Loess origin and late Pleistocene environmental reconstruction for northeastern Iran: Multiproxy evidences from the Chenarli loess-paleosol sequence. Quaternary Science Reviews 328. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108545
• Piraquive-Bermúdez, D., Behling, H., Zolitschka, B., Thomas Giesecke, T., 2024. Late Quaternary Araucaria forest and Campos (grasslands) vegetation dynamics inferred from a high-resolution pollen record from Lagoa Dourada in southern Brazil. Quaternary Science Reviews 333. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108685
• Tylmann, W., Pędziszewska, A., Żarczyński, M., Latałowa, M., and Zolitschka, B., 2024. Lake level fluctuations and varve preservation – The sediment record from Lake Suminko (Poland) reflects European paleoclimatic changes, Quaternary Science Reviews, 339, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.108854.
• Zhang, J., Zolitschka, B., Hogrefe, I., Tsukamoto, S., Binot, F., Frechen, M., 2024. High-resolution luminescence-dated sediment record for the last two glacial-interglacial cycles from Rodderberg, Germany. Quaternary Science Reviews 82, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quageo.2024.101535
• Zolitschka, B., Preusser, F., Zhang, J., Hogrefe, I., Froitzheim, N., Böning, P., Schläfli, P., Bittmann, F., Binot, F., Frechen, M., 2024. Stratigraphy and dating of Middle Pleistocene sediments from Rodderberg, Germany, Journal of Quaternary Science, 39, 1011-1030, http://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3654
• Birlo, S., Tylmann, W., Zolitschka, B., 2023. Bayesian age-depth modelling applied to varve and radiometric dating to optimize the transfer of an existing high-resolution chronology to a new composite sediment profile from Holzmaar (West-Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany). Geochronology 5: 65-90. https://doi.org/10.5194/gchron-5-65-2023
• Polgar, I.S., Zolitschka, B., Behling, H., 2023. Human Impact on Vegetation at Lago di Vedana (Northern Italy) during the last seven centuries. Anthropocene 44. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ancene.2023.100401
• Safaierad, R., Matthews, R., Dupont, L., Zolitschka, B., Marinova, E., Djamali, M.,  Vogt, C., Azizi, G., Lahijani, H.A.K., Matthews, W., 2023. Vegetation and climate dynamics at the dawn of human settlement: multiproxy paleoenvironmental evidence from the Hashilan Wetland, western Iran. Journal of Quaternary Science. http://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3557
• Schläfli, P., Gobet, E., Hogrefe, I., Bittmann, F., Schlunegger, F., Zolitschka, B., Tinner, W., 2023. New vegetation history reconstructions suggest a biostratigraphic assignment of the lowermost Rodderberg Interglacial (Germany) to MIS 11. Quaternary Science Reviews 302. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107932
• García, M.L., Birlo, S., Zolitschka, B., 2022. Paleoenvironmental changes of the last 16,000 years based on diatom and geochemical stratigraphies from the varved sediment of Holzmaar (West-Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany). Quaternary Science Reviews, 293. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2022.107691
• Lee, A.-S., Chao, W.-S., Liou, S.Y.H., Tiedemann, R., Zolitschka, B., Lembke-Jene, L., 2022. Quantifying calcium carbonate and organic carbon content in marine sediments from XRF-scanning spectra with a machine learning approach. Scientific Reports, 12: 20860. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-25377-x
• Lee, A.-S., Enters, D., Huang, J.-J.S., Ya Hsuan Liou, S., Zolitschka, B., 2022. An automatic sediment-facies classification approach using machine learning and feature engineering. Communications Earth & Environment, 3: 294. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-022-00631-2
• Reiss, L., Stüwe, C., Einwögerer, T., Händel, M., Maier, A., Meng, S., Pasda, K., Simon, U., Zolitschka, B., Mayr, C., 2022. Evaluation of geochemical proxies and radiocarbon data from a loess record of the Upper Palaeolithic site Kammern-Grubgraben, Lower Austria. E&G Quaternary Science Journal 71: 23-43. https://doi.org/10.5194/egqsj-71-23-2022
• Zolitschka, B., Polgar, I.S., Behling, H., 2022. Created by the Monte Peron rock avalanche: Lago di Vedana (Dolomites, Italy) and its sediment record of landscape evolution after a mass wasting event. Landslides 19: 297-311. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10346-021-01787-2

Dissertations

(year of graduation provided in brackets)

• Baier, Janina (2002)
• Baumgarten, Henrike (2015)
• Bluszcz, Philipp (2008)
• Enters, Dirk (2006)
• Franco-Mora, Carolina (ongoing)
• Haberzettl, Torsten (2006)
• Hahn, Annette (2012)
• Karadas, Özlem (ongoing)
• Kastner, Stephanie (2010)
• Kliem, Pierre (2019)
• Lee, An-Sheng (2022)
• Lüder, Britta (2007)
• Neveceral, Rostislav (2008)
• Profe, Jörn (2018)
• Schmidt, Hannes (2013)

Academic self-government

• Chair of the Academic Planning Committee in Geography (since 2021)
• Coordinator of the international M.Sc. program "Physical Geography: Environmental History" (2015-2021)
• Dean of Faculty 08 (2013-2017)
• Vice-Dean of Faculty 08 (2009-2013)
• Chair of the Doctoral Committee Dr. rer. nat. at Faculty 8 (2003-2022)
• Director of the Institute of Geography (2001-2009)
• Member of the Department Executive Committee of Faculty 08 (2001-2003)
• Chair of the Academic Planning Committee in Geography (2001-2009)

Memberships

• American Geophysical Union (AGU)
• Arbeitskreis Geoarchäologie
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Geomorphologie (AK Geomorphologie)
• Deutsche Gesellschaft für Polarforschung (DGP)
• Deutsche Quartärvereinigung (DEUQUA)
• Deutscher Hochschulverband (DHV)
• European Geosciences Union (EGU)
• Geographische Gesellschaft Bremen
• Gesellschaft für Erdkunde, Berlin (GFE)
• International Association of Limnogeology (IAL)
• International Association of Sedimentologists (IAS)
• Verband der Geographen an Deutschen Hochschulen (VGDH)

Curriculum Vitae

• since 2000: Professor of Physical Geography with a focus on geomorphology and polar research at the University of Bremen
• 1997: Habilitation (Dr. rer. nat. habil.) at the University of Potsdam on „Paleoclimatic significance of laminated lake sediments“
• 1994–2000: Senior scientist at the German GeoForschungsZentrum Potsdam
• 1991–1992: Visiting Professor at the Climate Systems Research Center, Department of Geosciences, University of Massachusetts, USA
• 1990–1994: Postdoctoral scientist at the University of Trier
• 1990: Dissertation (Dr. rer. nat.) at the University of Trier on "Late-Quaternary annually laminated sediments from selected Eifel maar lakes"
• 1986: Diploma in Applied Physical Geography with minors in geology, soil sciences and geobotany at the University of Trier