Currently visiting: David K. Watkins

15.03.2023

From March to April 2023, David K. Watkins is at the Department of Geology as visiting professor. He will share his expertise in nannofossils and quantitative paleontology with UNIVIE students, interact with the group of Michael Wagreich - and also wants to take this opportunity to see the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of the magnificent Austrian Alps.

 

  • What is so fascinating about your research area?

Life on Earth is supported by a vast array of microscopic photosynthetic plankton that inhabit the near-surface waters of the world’s oceans. Besides producing much of the world’s atmospheric oxygen, many of these creatures make skeletons that are preserved in the fossil record. Calcareous nannoplankton produce calcium carbonate skeletons that piled up in uncountable numbers on the seafloor, making the deposits such as chalk and in the process sequestering CO2 extracted from the ocean and atmosphere.

The distribution of living calcareous nannoplankton is controlled by physical conditions (i.e., temperature and nutrient contents) in the surface waters in which they live, and this distribution is reflected in the sediments accumulating on the sea floor. Their skeletal record extends backward in time for more than 200 million years, providing us with a means to reconstruct the nature and distribution of surface water masses of ancient oceans and seas. These fossils are a key to unlock the secrets of past ages, providing a means to reconstruct part of the vast history of the evolution of the world’s ocean system and its role in climate change.

  • Which central message should your students remember?

I hope to leave the students with a firm basis to start using the tools of quantitative paleontological analysis and the rich fossil record of the calcareous nannoplankton to solve problems in geology and paleoceanography. In a broader sense, I hope that they will appreciate that most of what we think we know is an approximation, seen vaguely and darkly through the mists of time. There is so much more that waits to be discovered about the fascinating history of the world’s oceans.

  • Why did you decide to do research and teach at our Faculty?

The lab of Michael Wagreich is world-renown for its expertise in multidisciplinary paleoclimate and paleoceanography studies, especially in the rocks of the Mesozoic. I have come to share my expertise in nannofossils and quantitative paleontology with the students and interact with the members of the lab. I also want to take this opportunity to see the Mesozoic sedimentary rocks of the magnificent Austrian Alps.

  • Which three publications characterise your work?


These may not fully characterize my work, but they were the most fun :-)

Watkins, D.K., and I. Raffi, 2020, Calcareous Nannofossils, In, Gradstein, F.M., Ogg, J. Schmitz, M., Ogg, G., A Geological Time Scale 2020, 1, 69-73, Elsevier.

Watkins, D.K., M.J. Cooper, and P.A. Wilson, 2005, Calcareous Nannoplankton Response to late Albian Oceanic Anoxic Event 1d in the Western North Atlantic, Paleoceanography, 20.

Watkins, D.K., E. Erba, and I. Premoli Silva, 1995, Manganese-encrusted hardgrounds from the Paleogene of the northern Marshall Islands, Ocean Drilling Leg 144. Proc. ODP Scientific Results, 144, 97-126.

Thank you & welcome to our Faculty!

Photo: David Watkins

From March to April 2023, David K. Watkins joins the Department of Geology as Visiting Professor. In his research the Professor emeritus for Earth & Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln concentrates on calcareous nannofossils, the smallest of all skeletal fossils routinely preserved in marine sediments. Photo: David Watkins

Photo: David Watkins

In his course, he will provide the students with a firm basis to start using the tools of quantitative paleontological analysis and the rich fossil record of the calcareous nannoplankton to solve problems in geology and paleoceanography.