Dr. Gerhard Helle
Function and Responsibilities:
Jointly with my trainees for the profession of a physics laboratory technician I am running the Dendroclimatology Laboratory. Our laboratory focuses on stable isotope analyses of tree organic matter, mostly tree ring cellulose at annual to sub-annual resolution and quantitative wood anatomy, i.e. wood cell structure analyses to produce multi-parameter time series for reconstructions of climate and environmental dynamics. We carry out the entire sequence of necessary project work from field deployment (tree-ring sampling & dendrohydrological monitoring (TERENO-NE)) to precisely dated annually-resolved time series of climate and environmental proxy data.
- 2013 to 2017 Introduction to Dendrochronology. Lecture and practical training course.
- since 2017 Introduction to Dendroclimatology. Lecture and practical training course.
FU Berlin, Geological Sciences, Palaeontology
- "Verfahren zur thermischen Umsetzung von Probenmaterial in Messgas". DE102010001677.2; WO2011/095639A1
Research Interests:
- Impact of climatic and geological extreme events on the isotopic signature of tree rings
- Climate signal and stable isotope transfer from atmosphere, soil and leaves into tree-rings
- Stable isotope techniques with focus on invention and optimization of methodologies for high-resolution and high-throughput isotope analysis of tree-rings
- Natural climate variability of the late Glacial/early Holocene period as well as the Common Era, i.e. the last 2000 years
- Stable isotope variability in tropical timber (Tropical dendroclimatology)
Career:
- since 2009 Senior Scientist, Section 4.3 (formaly 5.2) Climate Dynamics and Landscape Evolution, German Centre for GeoSciences GFZ
- 2008 Scientist at the Institute for Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, ICG-3 Phytosphere, Helmholtz Centre Jülich, 52428 Jülich, Germany
- 2005-2008 Group Leader “Tree-ring stable isotopes” at the Institute for Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, ICG-4 Sedimentary Systems, Helmholtz Centre Jülich
- 2000-2005 Research Group Leader and Co-Ordinator of the young researchers network project “ TRICE – Tree-Rings, Isotopes, Climate and Environment”, at the Institute for Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, ICG-4 Sedimentary Systems, Helmholtz Centre Jülich, funded by the German Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) within the German Climate Research Programme DEKLIM
- 1998-2000 PostDoc at the Institute for Chemistry and Dynamics of the Geosphere, ICG-4 Sedimentary Systems (Prof. Dr. G.H. Schleser), Helmholtz Centre Jülich, Germany (special leave from MünsterUniversity)
- 1997-1998 Assistant lecturer at the Chair of Palaeontology (Prof. F. Strauch), University of Münster, Germany
- 1997 Young scientist at the Chair of Palaeontology, Institute for Geology & Palaeontology, University of Tübingen, Germany
Education:
- 1997 Dissertation (Dr. rer. nat.) in Geosciences, Department 14: GeoSciences, University of Münster, Germany Title: "Hochauflösende intra-annuelle Kohlenstoff-Isotopenuntersuchungen an Baumjahresringen"
- 1994 Diploma in Geology & Palaeontology, Department 14: GeoSciences, University of Münster, Germany
Research Boards and Committees:
2012 - 2018 Member of the board of Association for Tree-ring Research (ATR) (treasurer)
2001 Founding Member of the Association for Tree-ring Research (ATR)