Kerstin Braun
Kerstin Braun is a paleoclimatologist and stable isotope geochemist. She has been at ASU as a postdoctoral researcher since late 2014.
Kerstin’s main research interest is the paleoclimate of Southern Africa on glacial-interglacial timescales. This includes the monitoring of present day rainfall stable isotopic composition to better understand the relations between stable isotopes, temperature and synoptic conditions causing rainfall. Kerstin applies the findings about the present day relationships to the stable isotope record measured on speleothem samples from caves in the south coastal region of South Africa. The cave sites are located in different climates within the region, including coastal and inland sites as well as different rainfall regimes (year-round rainfall and Mediterranean-type winter rainfall).
PhD, Geology, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, 2014
Diploma, Geosciences, Eberhart Karls University Tuebingen, Germany, 2009
Paleoclimatology, stable isotope geochemistry, speleothems
Braun, K., Bar-Matthews, M., Matthews, A., Ayalon, A., Zilberman, T., Cowling, R.M., Fisher, E.C., Herries, A.I.R., Brink, J.S. and Marean, C.W. 2020. Comparison of climate and environment on the edge of the Palaeo-Agulhas Plain to the Little Karoo (South Africa) in Marine Isotope Stage 5 – 3 as indicated by speleothems. Quaternary Science Reviews, 235, 105803. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.025
Braun, K., Nehme, C., Pickering, R., Rogerson, M., Scroxton, N., 2019. A Window into Africa’s Past Hydroclimates: The SISAL_v1 Database Contribution. Quaternary, 2 (1), 4. doi:10.3390/quat2010004
Braun, K., Bar-Matthews, M., Matthews, A., Ayalon, A., Cowling, R. M., Karkanas, P., Fisher, E. C., Dyez, K. A., Zilberman, T., Marean, C. W. 2019. Late Pleistocene records of speleothem stable isotopic compositions from Pinnacle Point on the South African south coast show close climate connection with rainfall in the interior. Quaternary Research 91 (1), 265-288. doi:10.1017/qua.2018.61
Atsawawaranunt, K.,Comas-Bru, L.,Amirnezhad Mozhdehi, S.,Deininger, M.,Harrison, S. P., Baker, A., Boyd, M., Kaushal, N.,Ahmad, S. M., Ait Brahim, Y., Arienzo, M., Bajo, P., Braun, K., Burstyn, Y., Chawchai, S., Duan, W., Hatvani, I. G., Hu, J., Kern, Z., Labuhn, I., Lachniet, M., Lechleiter, F. A., Lorrey, A., Pérez-Mejías, C., Pickering, R., Scroxton, N. 2018. The SISAL database: a global resource to document oxygen and carbon isotope records from speleothems. Earth System Science Data Discussions 1–64 (2018). doi:10.5194/essd-2018-17
Braun, K., Bar-Matthews, M., Ayalon, A., Matthews, A., Zilberman, T. and 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 Journal of Geology, 120 (3), 323-340. doi:10.25131/gssajg.120.3.323
Kuosmanen, N., Gowen, E.J. and Braun, K. 2017. Insight about funding, communication and data sharing for early-career scientists. Past Global Changes Magazine, 25, 106.
Marean, C.W., Anderson, R.J., Bar-Matthews, M., Braun, K., Cawthra, H.C., Cowling, R.M., Engelbrecht, F.A., Esler, K.J., Fisher, E.C., Franklin, J., Hill, K., Janssen, M., Potts, A.J. and Zahn, R. 2015. A new research strategy for integrating studies of paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and paleoanthropology. Evolutionary Anthropology, 24, 62–72. doi: 10.1002/evan.21443
Deininger, M., Winterhalder, S., Boyd, M., Braun, K., Burstyn, Y., Comas-Bru, L. and Häusselmann, A.-M. 2014. 1 st Summer School on Speleothem Science. PAGES Magazine, 22, 2014.
Rohling, E.J., Braun, K., Grant, K.M., Kucera, M., Roberts, A.P., Siddall, M. and Trommer, G. 2010. Comparison between Holocene and Marine Isotope Stage-11 sea-level histories. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 291, 97–105. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2009.12.054
American Geophysical Union
Member of the PAGES (http://pastglobalchanges.org/) workgroup SISAL (http://pastglobalchanges.org/ini/wg/sisal/intro) as regional coordinator for Africa