Isla S. Castañeda	ROYAL NETHERLANDS INSTITUTE FOR SEA RESEARCH (NIOZ)   Postal address: P.O. Box 59, NL-1790 AB Den Burg (Texel) The Netherlands   Visiting address: Landsdiep 4 NL-1797 SZ ’t Horntje (Texel) The Netherlands Room: C10-09   Phone (reception): (+31) (0)222-369300 Fax: (+31) (0)222-319674
E-mail: isla.castaneda@nioz.nl   Direct Phone: (+31) (0)222-369568

 

General
2007-present:	Post-doctoral Research Associate, Department of Marine Organic Biogeochemistry, Royal NIOZ.
2002 - 2007:	Large Lakes Observatory, University of Minnesota.  Ph.D. in Geology.  Thesis: “Paleoenvironmental variability in the southeast African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum: Molecular and isotopic records from Lake Malawi”.
1999 - 2001:	University of Colorado at Boulder.  M.Sc. in Geology. Thesis: “Holocene paleoceanographic and climatic variations of the inner North Iceland continental shelf, Reykjarfjordur area”.
1995 - 1999:	Syracuse University.  B.S. with honors in Geology.
Research Interests
My research interests lie in utilizing molecular and isotopic proxies to examine past environments. My main research interests include: paleoclimate, paleoceanography, organic biogeochemistry, paleolimnology and limnology, stable isotope geochemistry, biogeochemical cycles, anthropogenic impacts on the environment, climate variability and hominin evolution.   To learn more about my research and organic geochemical proxies please visit my homepage.
Current  Project
Assessment of tropical environmental change and its teleconnections for the last deglaciation by means of high resolution biomarker analysis (2007-2010)   People involved:  Dr. I.S. Castañeda (post-doc), Dr. S. Schouten (PI), Prof. Dr. J.S. Sinninghe Damsté, Dr. G-J. Brummer (GEO), Dr. E. Schefuß (University of Bremen), Dr. S. Mulitza (University of Bremen), Dr. J. Pätzold (University of Bremen).   Key research sites:   1. Millennial-scale sea surface temperature changes in the Eastern Mediterranean (Nile River Delta Region) over the last 27,000 years (http://www.islacastaneda.info/)   2. Influence of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) on vegetation and human migration patterns in North Africa (http://www.islacastaneda.info/)   3. A comparison of organic (Uk’37 and TEX86) and inorganic (Mg/Ca, d18O) sea surface temperature proxies from sediment trap samples in the Mozambique Channel. (http://www.islacastaneda.info/)           PhD Research: Thesis: Paleoenvironmental variability in the southeast African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum: molecular and isotopic records from Lake Malawi  (http://www.islacastaneda.info/)
Funding: NEBROC-2
Publications
Castañeda I.S., Werne J.P., Johnson, T.C., and Oberem, L.P. (in press). Organic geochemical records from Lake Malawi (East Africa) of the last 700 years, part II: biomarker evidence for recent changes in primary productivity. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Oberem, L.P., Werne, J.P., Castañeda I.S., Johnson, T.C., Hopmans, E.C., Sinninghe Damsté, J.S., and Schouten, S. (in review). Organic geochemical records from Lake Malawi (East Africa) of the last 700 years, part 1: the TEX86 temperature record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. Castañeda I.S., Mulitza, S., Schefuß, E., Lopes dos Santos, R.A., Sinninghe Damsté, J.S., and Schouten, S. (2009). Wet phases in the Sahara/Sahel region and human migration patterns in North Africa. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106, 20159–20163. Castañeda I.S., Werne J.P. and Johnson, T.C. (2009). Influence of climate change on algal community structure and primary productivity of Lake Malawi (East Africa) from the Last Glacial Maximum to present. Limnology and Oceanography 54, 2431–2447. Castañeda I.S., Werne J.P., Johnson, T.C., and Filey, T.R. (2009). Late Quaternary vegetation history of southeast Africa: the molecular isotopic record from Lake Malawi. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 275, 100-112. Castañeda I.S., Werne, J.P., and Johnson, T.C. (2007). Wet and arid phases in the southeast African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum. Geology 35, 823-826. Scholz, C.A., Johnson, T.C., Cohen, A.S., King, J.W., Peck, J.A., Overpeck, J.T., Talbot, M.R., Brown, E.T., Kalindekafe, L., Amoako, P.Y.O., Lyons, R.P., Shanahan, T.M., Castañeda I.S., Heil, C.W., Forman, S.L., McHargue, L.R., Beuning, K.R., Gomez, J., and Pierson, J. (2007). East African megadroughts between 135 and 75 thousand years ago and bearing on early-modern human origins. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104, 16416–16421.   Powers L.A., Johnson T.C., Werne J.P., Castañeda I.S., Hopmans E.C., Sinninghe Damsté J.S., and Schouten S. (2005) Large temperature variability in the southern African tropics since the Last Glacial Maximum. Geophysical Research Letters 32, L08706. Smith L.M., Andrews J.T., Castañeda I.S., Kristjansdottir G.B., Jennings A.E., Sveinbjornsdottir A.E. (2005) Temperature reconstructions for SW and N Iceland waters over the last 10,000 cal yr B.P. based on d18O records from planktic and benthic foraminifera. Quaternary Science Reviews 24, 1723-1740. Castañeda, I.S., Smith, L.M., Kristjansdottir, G.B., and Andrews, J.T. (2004) Temporal changes in Holocene d18O records from the northwest and central North Iceland Shelf. Journal of Quaternary Science 19, 321-334.