Researchers

Palaeoenvironment Studies Group Leaders

Valery Terwilliger, Adjunct Professor

Faculty of Environment, Department of Archaeology

Simon Fraser University, Canada

Zewdu Eshetu, Associate Professor

Paleoanthropology and Paleoenvironment program unit, College of Natural and Computational Sciences

Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia

Major Recent Members

Mitchell Power, Curator of the Garrett Herbarium, Utah Museum of Natural History

Professor, Geography Department, University of Utah, USA

Marilyn Fogel 

Distinguished Professor of Geoecology (Emerita), Earth and Planetary Sciences

University of California, Riverside, USA

Jérémy Jacob 

Directeur de recherche au Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l’Environnement, Gif-sur-Yvette, France

Tsegay Kahsay Gebrekidan 

Lecturer, Adigrat University, Ethiopia

Selected Relevant Publications

Kahsay T., Z. Eshetu, M. Argaw, M. J. Power, J. Jacob, M. L. Fogel, Y. Lin, C. Le Milbeau, A. C. D’Andrea, V. Terwilliger.  Rainfall and fire-affected plant cover contexts during the phases of Mezber; a rural area within a major center for cultural development in the Horn of Africa. In prep for Quaternary International.

Terwilliger V. J., J. Jacob. 2013.  Introduction: Hydrogen isotopes as environmental recorders.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 111:1-4.

Terwilliger V. J., Z. Eshetu, J. R. Disnar, J. Jacob J, W. P. Adderley, Y. Huang, M. Alexandre, M. L. Fogel. 2013. Environmental changes and the rise and fall of civilizations in the northern Horn of Africa: an approach combining δD analyses of land-plant derived fatty acids with multiple proxies in soil.  Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 111:140-161.

Daniau A. L., P.J. Bartlein, S.P. Harrison, I.C. Prentice, S. Brewer, P. Friedlingstein, T. I. Harrison-Prentice, J. Inoue, K. Izumi, J.R. Marlon, S. Mooney, M.J. Power, J. Stevenson, W. Tinner, M. Andrič, J. Atanassova, H. Behling, M. Black, O. Blarquez, K. J. Brown, C. Carcaillet, E. Colhoun, D. Colombaroli, B. A. S. Davis, D. D’Costa, J. Dodson, L.  Dupont, Z. Eshetu, D. G. Gavin, A. Genries, S. Haberle, D. J. Hallett, S. P. Horn, G. Hope, T. Kassa, F. Katamura, L. Kennedy, P. Kershaw, S. Krivonogov, C. Long, D. Magri, E. Marinova, G. M. McKenzie, P. I. Moreno, P. Moss, F. H. Neumann, E. Norström, C. Paitre, D. Rius, N. Roberts, G. Robinson, N. Sasaki, L. Scott, H. Takahara, V. Terwilliger, F. Thevenon, R. B. Turner, V. G. Valsecchi, B. Vannière, M. Walsh, N. Williams, and Y. Zhang. 2012. Predictability of biomass burning in response to climate changes.  Global Biogeochemical Cycles 26: GB4007, doi:10.1029/2011GB004249.

Terwilliger, V. J., Z. Eshetu, M. Alexandre, Y. Huang, M. Umer, and T. Gebru.  2011. Local variation in climate and land use during the time of the major kingdoms of the Tigray Plateau of Ethiopia and Eritrea.  Catena 85: 130-143.

Gebru, T., Z. Eshetu, Y. Huang, T. Woldemariam, N. Strong, M. Umer, M. DiBlasi and V. J. Terwilliger.  2009.  Holocene palaeovegetation of the Tigray Plateau in northern Ethiopia from charcoal and stable organic carbon isotopic analyses of gully sediments.  Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, and Palaeoecology 282: 67-80.

Terwilliger, V. J., Z. Eshetu, A. Colman, T. Bekele, A. Gezahgne, and M. L. Fogel.  2008. Reconstructing palaeoenvironment from δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N values of soil organic matter: a calibration from arid and wetter elevation transects in Ethiopia. Geoderma 147 :197-210.

Student Theses Supported

Elizabeth Looby, University of Utah, Master’s degree, Geography, 2019. Thesis: Late Holocene climate change in the Tigray Plateau, Ethiopia.

Tsegay Kahsay Gebrekidan, Addis Ababa University, Master’s degree, Environmental Science, 2018. Thesis: Reconstruction of Paleovegetation and Paleoclimate in Eastern Tigray, Gulo-Mekeda District,

Tsige Gebru Kassa, Addis Ababa University, Master’s degree, Environmental Science, 2007. Thesis: Vegetation history and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction from buried wood charcoal in Northern Ethiopia (Tigray).