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Gisela Winckler

Pronouns: she/her

Professor of Climate,

Affiliated with: Geochemistry, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO)

Comer 139
61 Route 9W
Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory
Palisades, NY 10964

BIOGRAPHY:

Gisela Winckler is a climate scientist and isotope geochemist. Her research focuses on the history and causes of climate variability in the past, present and future. She uses elemental and isotopic analyses to unravel processes of climate and environmental change in the oceans and on continents, on time scales ranging from decades to tens of millions of years. Her research on the interplay of climate change, the carbon cycle and aerosols uses climate archives such as deep-sea sediments, lake sediments and polar ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. She is interested in fostering innovative ways of connecting science, art, journalism, design, climate activism and outreach. Gisela received her PhD in Physics from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. She was elected a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences (AAAS) in 2024

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PROJECTS

Only select projects listed below
Name Start Date End Date
A Study of Atmospheric Dust in the WAIS Divide Ice Core Based on Sr-Nd-Pb-He Isotopes 6/8/11 7/31/17
Collaborative Research: A High-Sensitivity 10Be and Extraterrestrial 3He Record from an Ice Core at South Pole 5/1/16 10/31/20
Collaborative Research: Dust Deposition, Paleo-Export Production, and Migration of the (ITCZ) Through the Last Glacial Cycle in the West-Central Pacific (Line Islands) 2/15/15 4/30/19
Collaborative Research: Examining Linkages Between the Agulhas Leakage and Ocean Overturning in the Last Glacial Cycle and through the Mid-Pleistocene Transition 9/1/18 8/31/22
Collaborative Research: Geological constraints on the disappearance of the Laurentide Ice Sheet 6/1/20 5/31/23
Collaborative Research: Insights into North African climate variability over the last 1.1 million years from dust fluxes and leaf wax isotopes 6/1/15 5/31/19
Collaborative Research: Multidisciplinary Analysis of Antarctic Blue Ice Moraine Formation and their Potential as Climate Archives over Multiple Glacial Cycles 9/1/15 8/31/18
Collaborative Research: Multi-nuclide approach to systematically evaluate the scatter in surface exposure ages in Antarctica and to develop consistent alpine glacier chronologies 5/1/11 8/31/15
Collaborative Research: Plestocene East Antarctic Ice Sheet History as Recorded in Sediment Provence and Chronology of High-Elevation TAM Moraines 6/1/10 5/31/14
Collaborative Research: Terrestrial Geological Context for Glacier Change in the Northeast Antarctic Peninsula 7/1/12 6/30/17
Collaborative Research: Timing and Structure of the Last Glacial Maximum and Termination in Southern Peru: Implications for the Role of the Tropics in Climate Change 10/1/10 9/30/14
Collaborative Research: West Antarctic Ice Sheet stability, Alpine Glaciation, and Climate Variability: a Terrestrial Perspective from Cosmogenic-nuclide Dating in McMurdo Sound 9/15/13 8/31/17
FESD Type: VOICE: Volcano, Ocean, Ice, and Carbon Experiments 10/1/13 8/30/20
Mapping Saharan Dust Fluxes through the Onset and Termination of the African Humid Period in a Transect of African Margin Cores 9/1/10 8/31/14
PIER: International Collaboration for Education, Training, and Research in Ice Core Science (ICE-ICS) 9/1/10 8/31/17
PIRE: Dust simulated drawdown of atmospheric CO2 as a trigger for Northern Hemisphere Glaciation 10/1/15 9/30/21
GreenDrill: The response of the northern Greenland Ice Sheet to Arctic Warmth - Direct constraints from sub-ice bedrock 10/1/20 9/30/24
Collaborative Research: Developing Argon Techniques to Elucidate Earthquake Chronologies (DATEEQ) 9/1/21 8/31/24
Tracking the Movement and Strength of the Northern Hemisphere Westerlies over the Last Glacial Cycle 7/15/21 6/30/23
Deciphering the Subantarctic South Pacific Ocean's Role in Pleistocene Climate Evolution with IODP Expedition 383 Sediments 5/15/23 4/30/26
Collaborative Research: US GEOTRACES GP17-OCE and GP17-ANT: Properties and Processes Impacting Other Trace EIement and Isotope Cycles using Noble Gas and Stable Isotope Tracers 8/1/22 7/31/25
Collaborative Research: GreenDrill: The Response of the Northern Greenland Ice Sheet to Arctic Warmth - Direct Constrains from Sub-Ice Bedrock 10/1/20 9/30/24

12 PUBLICATIONS ON COLUMBIA | ACADEMIC COMMONS

Only select publications listed below
Name Published Date
Highly bioavailable dust-borne iron delivered to the Southern Ocean during glacial periods 2018
High particulate iron(II) content in glacially sourced dusts enhances productivity of a model diatom 2017
Normalized X-ray absorption spectra at the iron (Fe) K-edge for South American sediments and growth curve data for the model diatom Phaeodactylum tricornutum grown with these sediments as the sole Fe source 2017
Repeated storage of respired carbon in the equatorial Pacific Ocean over the last three glacial cycles 2017
Large deglacial shifts of the Pacific Intertropical Convergence Zone 2016
No iron fertilization in the equatorial Pacific Ocean during the last ice age 2016
Hazard potential of volcanic flank collapses raised by new megatsunami evidence 2015
The Southern Glacial Maximum 65,000 years ago and its Unfinished Termination 2015
Biogeography in 231Pa/230Th ratios and a balanced 231Pa budget for the Pacific Ocean 2014
Present and Past Mineral Dust Variations- a Cross-Disciplinary Challenge for Research 2014
Quantifying Lithogenic Inputs to the North Pacific Ocean Using the Long-lived Thorium Isotopes 2013
The Magnitude, Timing and Abruptness of Changes in North African Dust Deposition over the Last 20,000 yr 2013

CONTACT

winckler@ldeo.columbia.edu

845-365-8756

Visit Website

NETWORK AFFILIATION(S)

Decarbonization, Climate Resilience and Climate Justice Network

EXPERTISE

marine geochemistry paleoclimate paleoceanography climate southern ocean carbon cycle

FIELDS OF INTEREST

Climate Change and Climate Science

The role of the ocean in the climate system and the carbon cycle, with a particular focus on the Southern Ocean and Pacific.

Paleoclimate and Paleoceanography

A better understanding of past climates is key to quantifying the climate system’s sensitivity and response to natural variability and anthropogenic perturbations. Winckler's current research focuses on the Pliocene, Quaternary ice age cycles, abrupt climate and environmental changes, as well as climatic extremes in the deep Earth history. She uses elemental and isotopic analyses to unravel processes of climate and environmental change in the oceans and on continents, on timescales ranging from decades to tens of millions of years. 

Her group (WINGS - Winckler Isotope and Noble Gas Laboratory) studies a variety of climate and environmental archives such as deep-sea sediments, lake sediments and polar ice cores from Antarctica and Greenland. 

Winckler applies a wide spectrum of analytical techniques, including sector-field mass spectrometry and ICP-MS to perform high-precision measurements of a variety of isotope tracers, including noble gases, stable isotopes, radiogenic and cosmogenic isotopes.


EDUCATION


  • 1998 PhD, University of Heidelberg 

  • 1993 M Sc (Diplom), University of Heidelberg


HONORS & AWARDS


  • 2023 Climate Scientist in Residence, Journalism School, Columbia University 

  • 2020 Excellence Award, Petersen-Foundation (20,000 Euro) 2019

  • 2018 Elected Member of the Advisory Council, The Climate Museum, NYC 

  • 2017 Fellow, Center for Climate and Life 

  • 2016 PVE Award, Pontifical Catholic University of Chile 2015 LDEO Excellence in Mentoring Award 

  • 2010 Kavli Fellow, Invited participant at Kavli Frontiers of Science Symposium U.S. National Academy of Sciences and Alexander von Humboldt Foundation of Germany