Dr. Verena E. Foerster

CURRICULUM VITAE

Contact

University of Cologne
Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences
Institute of Geography Education
Gronewaldstr. 2
D-50931 Cologne, Germany
http://geodidaktik.uni-koeln.de/foerster.html
V.Foerster@uni-koeln.de

Short profile
> Physical Geographer (Dr. rer. nat.), working in an interdisciplinary geoscientific context
> Currently: Speaker for the cross-faculty HESCOR project; principal investigator of TP5 with an interdisciplinary-didactic focus
> Research Focus: climate reconstruction | establishment of climate proxies | human-environment interaction | geogr. system expertise

Education and Academic Work

since 12/2016 Postdoc | University of Cologne | Full Researcher and Lecturer at Institute of Geography Education | Permanent Position (01/2019) | Part of COPA (Cologne Palaeoecology) Working Group (F. Schäbitz) | HSPDP team member | Associated member of the Collaborative Research Center CRC 806 Our Way to Europe

2014 - 2016 Postdoc | University of Potsdam | Institute of Earth and Environmental Science | Part of the Paleoclimate Dynamics Research Group (M. Trauth)

2013 - 2014 Postdoc | University of Cologne COPA Cologne Paleoecology Research Group | Chew Bahir Deep Drilling Project (HSPDP)

2010 - 2014 PhD student | University of Cologne | ICDP pre-study to HSPDProject

2009 - 2010 Graduate Researcher | University of Cologne | Department of Geography | Chew Bahir pilot core splitting, sampling, processing, Initial Core Description.

2007 - 2010 Junior Researcher | University of Cologne | Department of Geography Education

2004 - 2009 Studies in Geography and English at the University of Cologne | Empirical Thesis in Physical Geography (Palynology) | State Examination in Geography

Research & Projects

since 2023 Speaker, co-applicant HESCOR Project: Cultural Evolution in Changing Climate: Human and Earth System Coupled Research (MKW NRW), UoC; Principal Investigator in sub-project 5: GACD with interdisciplinary-didactic reference

proposed 01/2024 Principal Investigator - Deep Chew Bahir Project: Getting to the bottom of the Quaternary; International Scientific Deep Drilling Project: Ethiopia

since 2019 Deep Drilling Turkana Project: Exploring The Link Between Environmental Factors And Hominin Evolution (DDTB) [Co-PI]

since 2019 Lake Tanganyika Scientific Drilling Project [Team member]

since 03/2018 Deciphering climate information from authigenic mineral transformations in the Chew Bahir sediment cores: Towards a continuous half-million year climate record from the Southern Ethiopian Rift | ICDP funded to V. Foerster |

since 2013 Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project | Chew Bahir site [Team member]

2013 - 2017 ICDP Project: The Chew Bahir Drilling Project: A Half-Million Year Climate Record from the Southern Ethiopian Rift, Crucible of Human Evolution [Team]

2010 - 2013 ICDP-pilot Project: Climate-vegetation feedbacks in the Chew Bahir during the last 50 kyrs in the Southern Ethiopian Rift [Team member, doctoral student]; DFG-funded: Ethiopian lakes – Palaeoenvironmental reconstruction in the source region of modern man [Team member]

2009 - 2010 Potrok Aike Maar Lake Sediment Archive Drilling Project (PASADO) ICDP-deep drilling project, southern Patagonia [undergrad.]

Field & Laboratory Campaigns, Training Workshops

2018 | 1 week: Southern Ethiopian Rift | modern analogues: Chew Bahir catchment and end-member sampling: proxy formation and catchment analysis | Field campaign

2018 | 10-days: Atlanta (Georgia) | Clay mineral identification and XRD data processing (Georgia State University) | Laboratory campaign

2014 | 6 weeks: Southern Ethiopia, Chew Bahir basin | deep drilling campaign - international deep drilling project: Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project | DIS | preparation, logistics, team communication & scientific organization at field site

2012 | 5 days: LacCore, Minneapolis, USA | ICDP Training Course on Lake Drilling |
Course on all relevant aspects in scientific coring in lakes and paleolakes.

2010 | 4 weeks: Ethiopia, Chew Bahir basin and Lake Chamo | scientific coring campaign and pre-study: core catcher analysis, core description, preparation of the field campaign, shipping and export

2008 | 4 weeks: Southern Patagonia (Argentina) | ICDP Deep drilling campaign - International coring project: PASADO | Coring Laguna Potrok Aike | student assistant for field- and on-site analyses

Publications [peer-reviewed]

Foerster, V. Asrat, A., Bronk Ramsey, C., Brown, E.T., Chapot, M.S., Deino, A., Duesing, W., Grove, M., Hahn, A., Junginger, A., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Lane, C.S., Opitz, S., Noren, A., Roberts, H.M., Stockhecke, M., Tiedemann, R., Vidal, C.M., Vogelsang, R., Cohen, A.S., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., 2022. Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution. Nature Geoscience. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41561-022-01032-y

Foerster V., Zeeden C. and Junginger A. 2022. Editorial: Integrating Paleoclimate, Stratigraphy, Sedimentology, and Paleontology in Human Evolution and Dispersal Studies—from Early Hominins to the Holocene. Frontiers in Earth Science 10, 10:892664.doi: 10.3389/feart.2022.892664.

Cohen, A. S., Campisano, C. J., Arrowsmith, J. R., Asrat, A., Beck, C. C., Behrensmeyer, A. K., Deino, A.L., Feibel, C.S., Foerster, V., Kingston, J.D., Lamb, H.F., LOwenstein, T.K., Lupien, R.L., Muiruri, V., Olago, D.O., Owen, R.B., Potts, R., Russel, J.M., Schaebitz, F., Stone, J.R., Trauth, M.H., Yost, C. L., 2022. Reconstructing the Environmental Context of Human Origins in Eastern Africa Through Scientific Drilling. Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, 50.

Lupien, R.L., Russell, J.M., Pearson, E.J., Castañeda, I.S., Asrat, A., Foerster, V., Lamb, H.F., Roberts, H.M., Schäbitz, F., Trauth, M.H., Beck, C.C., Feibel, C.S., Cohen, A.S., 2022. Orbital controls on eastern African hydroclimate in the Pleistocene. Science Reports 12, 3170.

Duesing, W., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Asrat, A., Cohen, A.S., Foerster, V., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., Viehberg, F. 2021. Changes in the cyclicity and variability of the eastern African paleoclimate over the last 620 kyrs. Quaternary Science Reviews 273, 107219. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107219.

Trauth, M.H., Asrat, A., Berner, N., Bibi, F., Foerster, V., Grove, M., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Maslin, M.A., Mudelsee, M., Schäbitz, F., 2021. Northern Hemisphere Glaciation, African climate and human evolution. Quaternary Science Reviews 268, 107095, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107095.

Schaebitz, F., Lamb, H., Asrat, A., Trauth, M.H., Vogelsang, R., Viehberg, F.A., Foerster, V. (2021). Ethiopian lakes as paleoenvironmental and paleoclimate archives. In: Litt, T., Richter, J., and Schäbitz, F. (Eds.), The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe. Culture-Environmental Interaction and Mobility. Schweizerbart Science Publishers, Stuttgart, pp. 14–21.

Maier, V. und Foerster, V., 2021. Studierende gestalten Erklärvideos. Bodenprofile didaktisch reduzieren und videografisch aufbereiten. In: Jeannine Wintzer, Ivo Mossig, Angela Hof (Hrsg.): Prinzipien, Strukturen und Praktiken geographischer Hochschullehre. UTB Verlag, Bern.

Krueger, J., Foerster, V., Trauth, M.H., Hofreiter, M., Tiedemann, R., 2021. Exploring the Past Biosphere of Chew Bahir/Southern Ethiopia: Cross- Species Hybridization Capture of Ancient Sedimentary DNA from a Deep Drill Core. Front. Earth Sci. 9:683010. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.683010.

Schaebitz, F., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Cohen, A.S., Foerster, V., Duesing, W., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Opitz, S., Viehberg, F.A., Vogelsang, R., Dean, J., Leng, M.J., Junginger, A., Bronk Ramsey, C., Chapot, M.S., Deino, A., Lane, C.S., Roberts, H.., Vidal, C., Tiedemann, R., Trauth, M.H., 2021. Hydroclimate changes in eastern Africa over the past 200,000 years may have influenced early human dispersal. Nature Communications Earth and Environment, (2021)2:123 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-021-00195-7.

Fischer, M.L., Bachofer, F., Yost, C., Bludau, I.E., Schepers, C., Foerster, V., Lamb, H.F., Schäbitz, F., Asrat, A., Trauth, M.H., Junginger, A., 2021. A Phytolith supported Biosphere-Hydrosphere Predictive Model for southern Ethiopia: insights into paleoenvironmental changes and human landscape preferences since the Last Glacial Maximum. Geosciences 2021, 11, 418. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11100418.

Kaboth-Bahr, S., Gosling, W.D., Vogelsang, R., Bahr, A., Scerri, E.M.L, Asrat, A., Cohen, A.S., Düsing, W., Foerster, V., Lamb, H.F., Maslin, M.A., Roberts, H.M., Schäbitz, F., Trauth, M.H., 2021. Paleo-ENSO influence on African environments and early modern humans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Jun 2021, 118 (23) e2018277118; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2018277118.

Roberts, H., Bronk Ramsey, C., Chapot M., Deino A., Lane C., Vidal C., Asrat A., Cohen A., Foerster V., Lamb H., Schäbitz F., Trauth, M.H., 2021. Using multiple chronometers to establish a long, directly-dated lacustrine record: constraining >600,000 years of environmental change at Chew Bahir, Ethiopia. Quaternary Science Reviews 266, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2021.107025.

Arnold, G.E., Foerster, V., Trauth, M.H., Lamb, H., Schaebitz, F., Asrat, A., Szczech, C., Günter, C., 2021. Advanced hyperspectral analysis of sediment core samples from the Chew Bahir Basin, Ethiopian Rift, in the spectral range from 0.25 to 17 µm: support for climate proxy interpretation. Frontiers in Earth Science, 9:606588. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.606588.

Gebregiorgis, D., Deocampo, D.M., Foerster, V., Longstaffe, F.J., Schaebitz, F., Junginger, A., Markowska, M., Trauth, M.H., Asrat, A. 2021. Modern sedimentation and authigenic mineral formation in the Chew Bahir Basin, southern Ethiopia: implications for interpretation of Late Quaternary paleoclimate records. Frontiers in Earth Science. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.607695.

Duesing, W., Berner, N., Deino, A.L., Foerster, V., Kraemer, K.H., Marwan, N. and Trauth, M.H., 2021. Multiband Wavelet Age Modeling for a 293 m (600 kyr) Sediment Core From Chew Bahir Basin, Southern Ethiopian Rift. Front. Earth Sci. 9:594047. doi: 10.3389/feart.2021.594047.

Trauth, M.H., Asrat, A., Cohen, A.S., Duesing, W., Foerster, V., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Kraemer K.H., Lamb, H.F., Marwan, N., Maslin, M.A., Schäbitz, F., 2021. Recurring types of variability and transitions in the ∼620 kyr record of climate change from the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, Quaternary Science Reviews, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2020.106777.

Fischer, M.L., Markowska, M., Bachofer, F., Foerster, V., Asrat, A., Zielhofer, C., Trauth, M.H. and Junginger, A., 2020. Determining the Pace and Magnitude of Lake Level Changes in Southern Ethiopia Over the Last 20,000 Years Using Lake Balance Modeling and SEBAL. Frontiers in Earth Science 8:197. doi: 10.3389/feart.2020.00197.

Russel, J., et al., 2020. ICDP workshop on the Lake Tanganyika Scientific Drilling Project: a late Miocene–present record of climate, rifting, and ecosystem evolution from the world’s oldest tropical lake. Sci. Dril., 27, 53–60, 2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/sd-27-53-2020.

Trauth, M.H., Asrat, A., Duesing, W., Foerster, V., Kraemer, K.H., Marwan, N., Maslin, M.A:, Schaebitz, F., 2019. Classifying past climate change in the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, using recurrence quantification analysis. Climate Dynamics, doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-04641-3.

Foerster, V., Deocampo, D.M., Asrat, A., Günter, C., Junginger, A., Kraemer, H., Stroncik, N.A., Trauth, M.H.,2018. Towards an understanding of climate proxy formation in the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopian Rift. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 501, 111-123, doi:10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.04.009.

Trauth, M.H., Foerster, V., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., 2018. Abrupt or Gradual? Change Point Analysis of the Late Pleistocene-Holocene Climate Record from Chew Bahir, Southern Ethiopia. Quaternary Research (2018), 1-10, doi:10.1017/qua.2018.30.

Foerster, V., Vogelsang, R., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., 2016. Reply to the comment on “Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 129: 333–340”. Quaternary Science Reviews 141, 130–133, 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.003.

Foerster, V., Vogelsang, R., Junginger, A., Asrat, A., Lamb, H.F., Schaebitz, F., Trauth, M.H., 2015. Environmental Change and Human Occupation of Southern Ethiopia and Northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 129, 333–340.

Cohen, A.S., Campisano, C., Arrowsmith,R., Asrat, A., Behrensmeyer, A.K., Deino, A., Feibel, C., Hill†,A., Johnson, R., Kingston, J., Lamb, H., Lowenstein, T., Noren, A., Olago, D., Owen, R.B., Potts, R., Reed, K., Renaut, R., Schäbitz, F., Tiercelin, J.-J., Trauth, M.H., Wynn, J., Ivory, S., Brady, K., O’Grady, R., Rodysill, J., Githiri, J., Russell, J., Foerster, V., Dommain, R., Rucina, S., Deocampo, D., Russell, J., Billingsley, A., Beck, C., Dorenbeck, G., Dullo, L., Feary, D., Garello, D., Gromig, R., Johnson, T., Junginger, A., Karanja, M., Kimburi, E., Mbuthia, A., McCartney, T., McNulty, E., Muiruri, V., Nambiro,E., Negash, E.W., Njagi, D., Wilson, J.N., Rabideaux, N., Raub,T., Sier,M.J., Smith, P., Urban, J., Warren, M., Yadeta, M., Yost, C., Zinaye, B., 2016. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project: Inferring the Environmental Context of Human Evolution from Eastern African Rift Lake Deposits. Scientific Drilling 21, 1-16.

Trauth, M.H., Bergner, A.G.N., Foerster, V., Junginger, A., Maslin, M.A., Schaebitz, F., 2015. Episodes of Environmental Stability and Instability in Late Cenozoic Lake Records of Eastern Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 87, 21–31, doi: 10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.011.

Foerster, V., Junginger, A., Langkamp, O., Gebru, T., Asrat, A., Umer, M., Lamb, H., Wennrich, V., Rethemeyer, J., Nowaczyk, N., Trauth, M.H., Schäbitz, F., 2012. Climatic change recorded in the sediments of the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, during the last 45,000 years, Quaternary International. Special Issue, doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.06.028.

Invited talks

Foerster, V. (28. März 2018). Towards an environmental context of human evolution and dispersal - Deciphering climate information from the Chew Bahir sediment cores (southern Ethiopia). Afternoon Seminar. Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Columbia University (USA).

Foerster, V. (22. März 2018). Walking on sunshine or getting wet feet? New findings on the environmental context of human evolution from the Chew Bahir sediment cores Seminar. Georgia State University (USA).

Foerster, V. (29. Januar 2018). From mud and dust to curves and concepts: New findings on the environmental context of human evolution from the Chew Bahir sediment cores. University of Potsdam.

Foerster, V. and Junginger A. (27. November 2017). The eastern African paleoenvironmental context of human evolution and dispersal. Universität Bochum.

Foerster, V., (9. April 2015). Climate flickers in the crucible of Homo sapiens. Is there a connection between environmental variability and key developments in human history? “Soft Rock Lunch”, University of Minnesota.

Foerster, V., 2015. Chew Bahir: Project - Cores - Tephrochronology. Relevance of volcanic ashes for drilling projects. Session zur Tephrochronologie. Universität Potsdam.

Foerster, V., 2014. Umweltvariabilität im Spätquartär als Motor für kulturelle und technische Innovationen? 34. Jahrestagung der Afrikagruppe deutscher Geowissenschaftler/-innen (AdG) in Köln.

UNIVERSITÄT ZU KÖLN

Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche FakultätInstitut für Geographiedidaktik