Current Position

Associate Professor, Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering & Earth Sciences

Education

Ph.D., University of Minnesota
M.S., Earth Sciences, University of California Riverside
B.S., Geology, Oberlin College

Research Interests

The Berke group uses organic geochemical signatures of past life preserved in sediments to study environmental change through time. The group is involved in a series of interdisciplinary projects that look at the nature of climate forcing and environmental response. These organic remains are also the primary constituents of fossil hydrocarbon deposits tapped for traditional fuels (such as coal and oil) and can inform us about more renewable algal biofuels. A better understanding of the organic components of both of these energy sources can lead to lower environmental impact from society’s energy consumption.

Key Words

Climate Change, Climate Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Environmental Change, Hydrocarbon Accumulation, Paleoecology, Paleolimnology, Paleoceanography, Organic Geochemistry, Sedimentary Geology, Organic Matter, Carbon Accumulation

Relevant Energy Publications

1. McClymont, E. L., H. L. Ford, S. L. Ho, J. C. Tindall, A. M. Haywood, M. Alonso-Garcia, I. Bailey et al. "Lessons from a high-CO2 world: an ocean view from∼ 3 million years ago, Clim. Past, 16, 1599–1615." (2020).
2. Berke, Melissa A., Brett J. Tipple, Bastian Hambach, and James R. Ehleringer. "Life form-specific gradients in compound-specific hydrogen isotope ratios of modern leaf waxes along a North American Monsoonal transect." Oecologia 179, no. 4 (2015): 981-997.

Department Website
Group Website