Andreas Mulch

• Prof. Dr.
• Professor at Goethe University Frankfurt

Mountains are key features of the Earth’s surface and host a substantial proportion of the world’s species. However, the links between the evolution and distribution of biodiversity and the formation of mountains remain poorly understood. Here, we integrate multiple datasets to assess the relationships between species richness in mountains, geology...

Reconstructing long-term continental temperature change provides the required counterpart to age equivalent marine records and can reveal how terrestrial and marine temperatures were related during times of extreme climate change such as the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO) and the following Middle Miocene Climatic Transition (MMCT). Carbonate clumpe...

The dry continental interior of Asia has remained arid throughout most of its geological history, yet the future of this unique ecosystem remains unclear. Here we use palynological and isotopic records to track vegetation and moisture throughout the warm early Eocene (57 to 44 million years ago) as an analogue for extreme atmospheric CO2 scenarios....

We present stable hydrogen-isotope analyses of volcanic glass (δDg) and radiometric ages (U–Pb zircon, U–Th calcite, AMS14C) from deformed sedimentary deposits in the vicinity of the intermontane Pocitos Basin in the central Puna of the Andean Plateau at about 24.5°S. Our results demonstrate 2-km surface uplift since the middle to late Miocene and...

Quantitative reconstruction of paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic changes that lack modern analogues is inherently challenging. A notable example of extreme paleoenvironmental transformation occurred in the Mediterranean Basin at the Messinian–Zanclean boundary (5.33 Ma), marked by the transition from the terminal Lago-Mare phase of the Messinian...

Life on Earth has been capitalizing on the C3 photosynthetic pathway for 2.8 billion years. However, in the world’s grasslands that emerged since the Paleogene, C4 vegetation expanded dramatically between 8 and 3 Ma in response to climatic changes. Here we present the first comprehensive Late Miocene to Holocene δ13C soil carbonate record from the...

Individual dietary specialization, where individuals occupy a subset of a population’s wider dietary niche, is a key factor determining a species resilience against environmental change. However, the ontogeny of individual specialization, as well as associated underlying social learning, genetic, and environmental drivers, remain poorly understood....

The ability of stony corals to thrive in the oligotrophic (low-nutrient, low-productivity) surface waters of the tropical ocean is commonly attributed to their symbiotic relationship with photosynthetic dinoflagellates1,2. The evolutionary history of this symbiosis might clarify its organismal and environmental roles³, but its prevalence through ti...

Characterizing fluid circulation in orogens is key to understanding orogenic processes because fluid–rock interaction modifies the physical properties of rocks, hence their response to deformation and, for example, their suitability for radioactive waste storage. Fluid circulation can be dated by applying geochronological methods to fluid-precipita...

Capturing the mechanisms leading to the local extirpation of a species in deep time is a challenge. Here, by combining stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses on benthic and planktonic foraminifera and the otoliths of pelagic and benthic fish species, we reveal the paleoceanographic regime shifts that took place in the eastern Mediterranean from...

Eocene hyperthermal events reflect profound perturbations of the global carbon cycle. Most of our knowledge about their onset, timing, and rates originates from marine records. Hence, the pacing and magnitude of hyperthermal continental warming remains largely unaccounted for due to a lack of high-resolution climate records. Here we use terrestrial...

During the Middle Miocene, the Earth shifted from a warm state, the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, 16.9–14.7 Ma), to a colder state associated with the formation of extensive and permanent ice sheets on Antarctica. This climatic shift, the Middle Miocene Climatic Transition (MMCT, 14.7–13.8 Ma) strongly affected the composition and structure of maj...

Many continental paleoclimate archives originate from wetland sedimentary sequences. While several studies have investigated biomarkers derived from peat-generating vegetation typical of temperate/boreal bogs (e.g., Sphagnum), only scant information is available on emergent plants predominant in temperate/subtropical coastal marshlands, peri-lacust...

The quantitative reconstruction of paleoclimatic and paleoenvironmental conditions in regions and in time periods characterized by recurrent and significant fluctuations is challenging. An example of strong paleoenvironmental change occurred in the Mediterranean Basin across the Miocene – Pliocene boundary (5.33 Ma), marked by the restoration of no...

Capturing the mechanisms leading to the local extirpation of a species in deep-time is a challenge. Combining stable oxygen and carbon isotopic analyses on benthic and planktonic foraminifera and the otoliths of pelagic and benthic fish species, we reveal here the paleoceanographic regime shifts changes that took place in the Eastern Mediterranean...

Besides providing unique information on early mammal evolution, the UNESCO World Heritage Site "Messel Fossil Pit" (Hesse, Germany) yields detailed insight into short-term climate variability during the early to middle Eocene due to its annually laminated oil-shale sequence. Here, we constrain the chronos-tratigraphy of the sediments from the Messe...

Determination of the depositional age of sediments provides the basis for much of the current understanding of tectonic processes, paleoclimate, and other aspects that relate to time. Integrated the high-resolution magnetostratigraphy with independent means of age control (e.g., biostratigraphy, tephrostratigraphy), the age model of the sedimentary...

This study presents the simulated response of regional climate and the oxygen isotopic composition of precipitation (δ18Op) to different along-strike topographic evolution scenarios. These simulations are conducted to determine if the previously hypothesized diachronous surface uplift in the Western and Eastern Alps would produce δ18Op signals in t...

Orogenic crust is commonly exhumed beneath extensional detachment systems that separate upper crustal units, including syn-extension basins, and deep crustal lithologies, including high-grade metamorphic rocks and migmatite domes. Frequently, the associated fault and detachment systems also represent shallowly dipping fluid pathways that separate s...

crust in orogens from rifting to tectonic inversion. Since granitic rocks have low primary water contents and dominate the continental crust, their hydration exerts important control on metamorphism and deformation of the continental crust during orogeny. It is therefore of great interest to determine whether the granitic continental crust is hydra...

Determining the age of siliciclastic continental sequences in the absence of comprehensive biostratigraphy or radiometric dating of geological markers (e.g., volcanic layers) is inherently challenging. This issue is well exemplified in the current debate on the age of Cenozoic terrestrial strata in Central Asia, where competing age models constrain...

Individual dietary specialization, where individuals occupy a subset of a population’s wider dietary niche, is of key importance for species’ resilience against environmental change. However, the ontogeny of individual specialization, as well as associated underlying social learning, genetic, and environmental drivers remain poorly understood. Usin...

During the Middle Miocene the Earth’s climate shifted from a warm phase, the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, 16.9–14.7 Ma), to a colder phase associated with the formation of major and permanent Antarctic ice sheets. This climatic shift, the Middle Miocene Climatic Transition (MMCT, 14.7–13.8 Ma), had profound impact on the structure and composition...

Individual dietary specialization, where individuals occupy a subset of a populations wider dietary niche, is of key importance for species resilience towards environmental change. However, the ontogeny of individual specialization, as well as the underlying social learning, genetic, and environmental drivers remain poorly understood. Using a multi...

In the Mediterranean region, the end of the Miocene is marked by the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC; 5.97-5.33 Ma), a peculiar event that governed environmental modifications in the region, causing the deposition of large thicknesses of evaporitic rock units, dramatic hydrological and ecological crises that affected both water and land-based habita...

Uplift of the Tian Shan range modified regional climate during Cenozoic aridification in Central Asia. This study presents facies analyses and Neogene oxygen and carbon isotopic records from magnetostratigraphically‐dated terrestrial sedimentary sections on the southern side of the intermontane Issyk Kul basin in the Kyrgyz Tian Shan and 26Al/10Be...

The European Alps are hypothesized to have experienced diachronous surface uplift in response to post-collisional processes such as, e.g., slab break-off. Therefore, understanding the geodynamic and geomorphic evolution of the Alps requires 15 knowledge of its surface uplift history. This study presents the simulated response of regional climate an...

The analyses of the stable isotope ratios of carbon (δ¹³C), nitrogen (δ¹⁵N), and oxygen (δ¹⁸O) in animal tissues are powerful tools for reconstructing the feeding behavior of individual animals and characterizing trophic interactions in food webs. Of these biomaterials, tooth enamel is the hardest, most mineralized vertebrate tissue and therefore l...

The Middle Miocene (15.99–11.65 Ma) of Europe witnessed major climatic, environmental, and vegetational change, yet we are lacking detailed reconstructions of Middle Miocene temperature and precipitation patterns over Europe. Here, we use a high-resolution (∼0.75°) isotope-enabled general circulation model (ECHAM5-wiso) with time-specific boundary...

The Middle Miocene (15.99–11.65 Ma) of Europe witnessed major climatic, environmental, and vegetational change, yet we are lacking detailed reconstructions of Middle Miocene temperature and precipitation patterns over Europe. Here, we use a high‐resolution (∼0.75°) isotope‐enabled general circulation model (ECHAM5‐wiso) with time‐specific boundary...

Situated at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea, the lower Eocene Schöningen Formation of the Helmstedt Lignite Mining District, Lower Saxony, Germany, is characterized by several lignite seams alternating with estuarine to brackish interbeds. Here, we present carbon isotope data for bulk organic matter (δ13CTOC), total organic carbon content...

Stable oxygen and carbon isotopic composition of the otoliths of a pelagic and a benthic fish species are used as indicators of sea surface and bottom salinity-oxygenation conditions, as well as proxies of the fishes’ metabolic response to the paleoceanographic changes in the eastern Mediterranean from 7.2 to 6.5 Ma. The step-wise restriction of th...

Interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere are most active in the critical zone, a region extending from the tops of trees to the bottom of groundwater. Changes in one or more of these spheres can result in a cascade of changes throughout the system in ways that are often poorly understood. Here we investigate how pa...

During the Messinian (7.24–5.33 Ma), the highly dynamic Mediterranean environment was concomitantly governed by global climate changes and regional tectonic activity affecting the connectivity to the global ocean. The combined effects generated extreme and rapid paleoenvironmental changes culminating in the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC; 5.96–5.33...

Groundwater dynamics in continental rift zone settings remain poorly understood because of the spatial heterogeneity in flow, storage, and recharge dynamics. The Central Kenya Rift is an excellent example where, though groundwater is important for domestic, irrigation, and geothermal energy exploitation, its hydrogeological properties remain largel...

Hydrothermal veins and altered feldspar are evidence for fluid circulation in granitic rocks in the continental crust. The hydrothermal alteration of feldspar affects the deformation behavior of granitoids, especially if it occurs before orogeny. Geochronology can establish the timing of fluid circulation to determine if this fluid-driven alteratio...

Quantifying surface elevation over geological time is essential for reconstructing coupled climatic and mountain building processes. Surface uplift of an orogen, such as the European Alps, results from the interplay between subsurface geodynamic processes and climate-induced denudation. Although being one of the most studied mountain ranges worldwi...

The timing of surface uplift of the Altai Mountains in northern Central Asia-and the climatic consequences-remains controversial. Today, the Altai Mountains cast a substantial rain shadow, effectively separating the western Gobi Desert and steppe from the Siberian Taiga. We take advantage of this stark climatic gradient to trace the interaction of...

Assessing the geochemical signature and the role of fluids in a key Variscan detachment zone demonstrates the link between crustal deformation, thermo-mechanical events and Variscan mineralization. We document meteoric fluid infiltration into the ductile segment of the Late-Carboniferous Quiberon detachment zone (QDZ), when synkinematic muscovite a...

This study describes the hydroclimate evolution of the eastern Mediterranean Basin during the early Messinian (7.2 to 6.5 Ma) time-interval based on analysis of a succession at Agios Myron (Crete, Greece), prior to the onset of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (5.96–5.33 Ma). Specifically, we report sea surface temperature and salinity reconstructions...

The Cordillera Blanca detachment is a crustal-scale system that has been accommodating synconvergent extension in the highest elevations of the Peruvian Andes since the late Miocene. A modern hydrothermal system circulates high elevation-derived (>3900 m) meteoric water to depths of 9-11 km, approaching the base of the seismogenic zone. Evidence fo...

Landlocked basins like the Caspian Sea are highly sensitive to changes in their hydrological budget, especially at times of disconnection from the global ocean. Here, we reconstruct the Pliocene to Pleistocene palaeohydrological and palaeoenvironmental changes occurring in the South Caspian Basin between ~3.6 and ~ 1.9 Ma, using compound-specific h...

Reconstructing Oligocene–Miocene paleoelevation contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary history of the European Alps and sheds light on geodynamic and Earth surface processes involved in the development of Alpine topography. Despite being one of the most intensively explored mountain ranges worldwide, constraints on the elevation histo...

The Cordillera Blanca detachment in the highest elevations of the Peruvian Andes has been accommodating synconvergent extension since the late Miocene. Stable isotope analysis of synkinematic mica from its exhumed footwall shear zone provides new constraints on deep meteoric-hydrothermal circulation during ductile deformation and regional paleoelev...

We present the first stable isotope paleoaltimetry estimates for the hinterland of the eroded Variscan Belt of Western Europe based on the hydrogen isotope ratios of muscovite from syntectonic leucogranites that have been emplaced at ∼315 Ma. We focus on the Limousin region (Western Massif Central, France) where peraluminous granites are spatially...

A large and highly dynamic aquatic system called Paratethys governed important elements of the middle and late Miocene (15.97–5.33 Ma) hydrology in western Eurasia. So far, the impact of the vast Paratethys water body on the Eurasian climate, however, is not yet understood. Here we apply biomarker analyses coupled to compound-specific hydrogen and...

Situated at the southern edge of the proto-North Sea the lower Eocene Schöningen Formation of the Helmstedt Lignite Mining District, Lower Saxony, Germany is characterized by several lignite seams alternating with estuarine to brackish interbeds. Here, we present carbon isotope data of bulk organic matter (δ13CTOC), organic carbon content (%TOC), a...

https://2021.goldschmidt.info/goldschmidt/2021/meetingapp.cgi/Paper/7809 ______________________ Check the paper just published in EPSL: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2021.117064

Interrupting a long‐term Cenozoic cooling trend, the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO; ca. 17–15 Ma) represents a time interval characterized globally by warmer than present temperatures, lower ice volume, and elevated pCO2 levels. Establishing quantitative Neogene temperature estimates is an important element in the effort to explore the long‐term ch...

Reconstructing Oligocene-Miocene paleoelevation contributes to our understanding of the evolutionary history of the European Alps and sheds light on geodynamic and Earth’s surface processes involved in the development of Alpine topography. Despite being one of the most intensively explored mountain ranges worldwide, constraints on the elevation his...

Determining how the elevation of the Northern Andes has evolved over time is of paramount importance for understanding the response of the Northern Andes to deformational and geodynamic processes and its role as an orographic barrier for atmospheric vapor transport over geologic time. However, a fundamental requirement when using stable isotope dat...

Triple oxygen isotope measurements are an emerging tool in paleoclimate reconstructions. In this contribution we develop the application of triple oxygen isotope measurements to lacustrine sediments to reconstruct past elevations. We focus on a well-constrained sample set from the Eocene North American Cordillera (Cherty Limestone Formation, Elko B...

Soil respiration (Rs), the production of carbon dioxide in soils, increases dramatically from deserts to forested ecosystems. Rs values thus provide a potential tool to identify past ecosystems if recorded in sedimentary archives. Here, we propose a quantitative method to reconstruct past Rs values from paleosols. This method reverses the soil pale...

The Andes constitute an important orographic barrier in the southern hemisphere, impacting atmospheric circulation, the amount and distribution of rainfall, and Earth-surface processes in a highly asymmetric manner. In the Central Andes of NW Argentina, the Andean Plateau (Puna) and the intermontane basins of the adjacent Eastern Cordillera constit...

The Black Sea basin is the sink for some of the largest European rivers and has acted as such, since it was part of the Eastern Paratethys. The late Miocene-to-Pliocene sedimentary record of the Black Sea documents several phases of strongly evaporitic conditions associated with extreme changes in regional hydrology. Here, we present the first comb...

Ductile shear zones represent sites of significant fluid circulation and hydrothermal alteration where metamorphic, magmatic and surface-derived fluids meet. Characterization of the meteoric source of crustal fluids can be used to better understand ore deposition and mineralization at the orogen scale or for stable isotope paleoaltimetry reconstruc...

Many stable isotope paleoaltimetry studies have focused on paleoelevation reconstructions of orogenic plateaus such as the Tibetan or Andean Plateaus. We address the opportunities and challenges of applying stable isotope paleoaltimetry to “smaller” orogens. We do this using a high‐resolution isotope tracking general circulation model (ECHAM5‐wiso)...

Temperature and rainfall patterns, as well as their seasonality, determine the evolution of biomes and ecosystems, and so reconstructing these parameters in the geologic past is crucial for paleo-environmental and paleo-ecological studies. Here we combine carbonate stable isotope ( 18 Ocarbonate,  13 Ccarbonate) and clumped isotope temperature (T...

Continued Africa-Eurasia convergence resulted in post-11 Ma surface uplift of the Central Anatolian Plateau (CAP) and the westward escape of the Anatolian microplate. Contemporaneously, a central Anatolian fluvio-lacustrine system developed that covered extensive parts of the rising CAP. Today, the semi-arid CAP interior − except for the Konya clos...

The reconstruction of Cenozoic terrestrial paleoclimate is often limited by poor temporal resolution or improper tools to quantitatively assess changes in temperature and precipitation. Even though the dynamics of ocean temperatures1 and chemistry2, varying pCO23, and faunal assemblages are known up to a certain level, terrestrial data on temperatu...

Reconstructing coupled temperature and precipitation change by the integration of combined carbonate stable isotope ( 18 Ocarbonate) and clumped isotope temperature (T(Δ47)) data, in conjunction with sedimentological and paleontological information can reveal how moderate changes in pCO2 affected continental climate during the Miocene Climatic Opt...

Im Rahmen ihrer 171. Jahrestagung, die im September 2019 in Münster stattfand,ehrte die Deutsche Geologische Gesellschaft – Geologische Vereinigung (DGGV) folgende Persönlichkeiten: Leopold-von-Buch-Plakette: Prof. Dr. Xavier Le Pichon (Sisteron, Frankreich) Gustav-Steinmann-Medaille: Prof. Dr. C. Page Chamberlain (Stanford, USA) Serge-von-Bubnoff-...

The Mediterranean region is highly sensitive to climate change, particularly with regard to warming and increasing aridity. Understanding its past climate history during periods similar to the Holocene is key to understand the long-term dynamics that accompany anthropogenic climate change. Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 11 (ca. 424–367 ka BP) is consid...