Dr Sabine Wulf
Biography
I graduated from the Justus-Liebig University of Giessen (Germany) in 1997 with a diploma degree in Geology specialising in the mineralogical fields of ‘Zircon Typology’ and ‘Geochemistry’. I went on to complete a PhD at the GeoForschungsZentrum (GFZ) and University of Potsdam (Germany) in 2000 on the development of a detailed tephrochronological framework in the central Mediterranean region. During my postdoctoral employments at the GFZ (2000-2005) and at the Institute for Geophysics at the University of Texas at Austin, USA (2006-2008), I set a further special focus on the reconstruction of Holocene palaeoclimate variability, human environmental impact and historical records of Tsunami, hurricane and extreme drought events recorded in Late Quaternary lake sediments from the Central and Southern Americas. During the following employment at the GFZ Potsdam (2011-2015, 2017) and at Senckenberg Frankfurt/Heidelberg University (2015-2017) I developed new and advanced methods in the detection of cryptotephra layers in annual laminated lake sediments (NE Germany, N Poland, Italy) and in a long high-resolution peat record in Greece. In December 2017, I joined the University of Portsmouth as Associate Professor in Environmental Change and currently supervise undergarduate and postgraduate projects on palaeoclimate and -environmental reconstructions and tephrochronology in southern England.
Research interests
Areas of research:
- Development of detailed tephrostratigraphies in the Eastern Mediterranean region (Italy, Santorini)
- Advancing techniques for cryptotephra identification
- Abrupt climate change
- Reconstruction of environmental change and natural hazard events from terrestrial sediment records
Current and Recent Research:
- Identifying tempo and magnitude of abrupt environmental changes of the last 15 kyrs by using tephrostratigraphic links in palaeoclimate records from southern England (self-funded PhD project by Eve Horsfall, 2023-)
- Palaeoenvironmental changes at Munsley Bog, Isle of Wight (MRes project by Daniel Howlett 2019/20)
- Ecological and Wildfire Responses to Rapid Landscape Changes
within the Last ~900 Years on the South Haven Peninsula,
Dorset (Southern England) (Bachelor theses by Daniel Howlett and Scarlett Wharrham 2018/2019, in collaboration with Dr Mark Hardiman)
Research outputs
2025
Chronology and environmental changes from a sediment core spanning the last 485 ka from Lake Acıgöl (SW Anatolia)
Caldirak, H., Oen, B., Akkiraz, S., Çağatay, M. N., Ghaleb, B., Wulf, S., Eris, K., Acar, D., Kaiser, J., Akcer-Oen, S.
15 Mar 2025, In: Quaternary International. 722, 12p., 109710
Research output: Article
2024
New constraints on the Middle-Late Pleistocene Campi Flegrei explosive activity and Mediterranean tephrostratigraphy (~160 ka and 110-90 ka)
Fernandez, G., Giaccio, B., Costa, A., Monaco, L., Nomade, S., Albert, P., Pereira, A., Flynn, M., Leicher, N., Lucchi, F., Petrosino, P., Palladino, D. M., Milia, A., Insinga, D. D., Wulf, S., Kearney, R.,
1 May 2024, In: Quaternary Science Reviews. 331, 25p., 108623
Research output: Article
Central Mediterranean tephrochronology for the time interval 250-315 ka derived from the Fucino sediment succession
Leicher, N., Monaco, L., Giaccio, B., Nomade, S., Pereira, A., Mannella, G., Wulf, S., Sottili, G., Palladino, D. M., Zanchetta, G., Wagner, B.
1 Apr 2024, In: Boreas. 53, 2, p. 164-185, 22p.
Research output: Article
2023
Atmospheric CO2 forcing on Mediterranean biomes during the past 500 kyrs
Koutsodendris, A., Dakos, V., Fletcher, W., Knipping, M., Kotthoff, U., Milner, A. M., Mueller, U. C., Kaboth-Bahr, S., Kern, O., Kolb, L., Vakhrameeva, P., Wulf, S., Christanis, K., Schmiedl, G., Pross, J.
25 Mar 2023, In: Nature Communications. 14, 12p., 1664
Research output: Article
Climate changes during the Late Glacial in southern Europe: new insights based on pollen and brGDGTs of Lake Matese in Italy
Robles, M., Peyron, O., Ménot, G., Brugiapaglia, E., Wulf, S., Appelt, O., Blache, M., Vannière, B., Dugerdil, L., Paura, B., Ansanay-Alex, S., Cromartie, A., Charlet, L., Guédron, S., de Beaulieu, J.,
23 Feb 2023, In: Climate of the Past. 19, 2, p. 493-515
Research output: Article
2022
Gone with the wind: dispersal of Ciomadul tephra
Wulf, S., Veres, D., Gertisser, R., Hambach, U., Magyari, E., Karatson, D.
2 Jun 2022,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Palaeogeography: syn- and post-eruptive landscape evolution around Ciomadul
Veres, D., Karátson, D., Wulf, S., Hambach, U., Novothny, A., Gertisser, R., Magyari, E. K., Lehmkuhl, F.
2 Jun 2022,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Evolution of the Ciomadul volcanic field - lava domes and explosive eruptions
Karátson, D., Veres, D., Lahitte, P., Telbisz, T., Wulf, S., Gertisser, R., Dibacto, S., Kiss, B., Magyari, E. K., Novothny, A., Janosi, C.
2 Jun 2022,
Research output: Chapter (peer-reviewed)
Ecological and wildfire responses to rapid landscape changes within the last ~900 years on the South Haven Peninsula, Dorset (Southern England)
Howlett, D., Wulf, S., Wharram, S., Hardiman, M., Byrne, H.
4 May 2022, In: Quaternary. 5, 2, 23p., 27
Research output: Article
2021
Defining the Upper Nisyros Pumice (57.1 ± 1.5 ka) as new tephra isochrone for linking early MIS-3 palaeoenvironmental records in the Aegean-Black Sea gateway: new evidence from the Sea of Marmara
Wulf, S., Çağatay, M. N., Appelt, O., Eris, K., Henry, P.
15 Dec 2021, In: Quaternary Science Reviews. 274, 8p., 107285
Research output: Article