Aaron Diefendorf
Assistant Professor
Department of Geology
University of Cincinnati
United States of America
Biography
Earth’s climate is warming at a pace and magnitude unprecedented in recent times, with profound consequences for terrestrial ecology and hydrology. My research aims to contribute to our understanding of future global change by examining Cenozoic changes in climate, ecology, and the carbon cycle. Fossil chemical signatures—biomarkers—and their carbon isotope ratios integrate and track the ancient carbon cycle and provide unique paleoecological information in sediments where other proxies are not often preserved. The combination of biomarkers and carbon isotopes provides new insights into the feedbacks between global change, terrestrial ecology, and the carbon cycle.
Research Interest
My research uses stable isotope and organic biogeochemical tools to solve critical questions in the areas of global climate change, carbon cycling, Earth’s climate sensitivity, paleoclimatology, and paleoecology.
Publications
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Clyde, W.C., Gingerich, P.D., Wing, S.L., Röhl, U., Westerhold, T., Bowen, G., Johnson, K., Baczynski, A.A., Diefendorf, A.F, McInerney, F., Schnurrenberger, D., Noren, A., Brady, K., and the BBCP Science Team, 2013. Bighorn Basin Coring Project (BBCP): a continental perspective on early Paleogene hyperthermals. Scientific Drilling, 16, 21–31.
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Marin-Spiotta, E., Chaopricha, N.T., Plante, A., Diefendorf, A.F., Muller, C.W., Grandy, S., Mason, J.A., 2014. Rapid climate change leads to stabilization of soil carbon by fire and burial. Nature Geoscience 7, 428-432.
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Diefendorf, A.F., Freeman, K.H., Wing, S.L., 2014. A comparison of terpenoid and leaf fossil vegetation proxies in Paleocene and Eocene Bighorn Basin sediments. Organic Geochemistry 71, 30-42.
