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Prof. Dr. Thomas Litt

TLitt2020.jpg

Kontakt

Nußallee 8

Gebäude Geologie

Raum 109
Telefon: +49 (0)228 73-2736
Telefon: +49 (0)228 73-3103 (Sekretariat)
E-Mail: t.litt [at] uni-bonn.de

Forschungsschwerpunkte

  • Paläobotanik, Palynologie
  • Paläoökologie, Paläoklimaforschung,
  • Wechselbeziehung zwischen Geo- und Biosphäre,
  • Mensch-Umwelt-Interaktionen in ur- und frühgeschichtlicher Zeit,
  • Vegetationsgeschichte Europas und des Mittleren Ostens

Wissenschaftlicher Werdegang 

Thomas Litt studierte Ur- und Frühgeschichte, Geologie und Botanik an der Martin-Luther Universität Halle-Wittenberg. Vor und nach der Promotion 1987 im Fach Quartärgeologie an der Universität Greifswald war er am Landesmuseum für Vorgeschichte in Halle tätig. Von 1990 bis 1993 arbeitete er als Habilitationsstipendiat am Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften der Universität Halle sowie bis 1994 als wissenschaftlicher Oberassistent am Institut für Geophysik und Geologie der Universität Leipzig. 1993 erhielt er den Credner-Preis der Deutschen Geologischen Gesellschaft. Nach Abschluss der Habilitation im Fach Allgemeine Geologie nahm er 1994 einen Ruf auf eine Professur für Paläobotanik an der Universität Bonn an.

Als Geowissenschaftler mit paläontologischem Schwerpunkt beschäftigt sich Litt mit Fragen der Wechselbeziehung zwischen Geosphäre und Biosphäre in der jüngeren Erdgeschichte. Hierbei nutzt er vor allem durch Bohrungen gewonnene Seesedimente als Archive für die Paläoökologie und Paläoklimatologie. In den letzten Jahren lag der Fokus seiner wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten auf der Untersuchung langer kontinentaler Sedimentfolgen aus tiefen Seen im Nahen und Mittleren Osten, welche die Vegetations- und Klimageschichte der letzten Jahrhunderttausende lückenlos erfassen. Er leitete ein multidisziplinäres wissenschaftliches Bohrprogramm in der Türkei (Lake Van Drilling Project PALEOVAN) mit Unterstützung des „International Continental Scientific Drilling Program“ (ICDP). An komplementären Forschungen im Toten Meer in Israel ist er ebenfalls beteiligt (ICDP Dead Sea Deep Drilling Project). Diese Paläoklimaarchive werden im Rahmen des Sonderforschungsbereichs 806 „Unser Weg nach Europa: Kultur-Umwelt Interaktion und menschliche Mobilität im späten Quartär“, dessen stellvertretender Sprecher Litt ist, detailliert untersucht. 2015 erhielt er eine Lady Davis Fellowship verbunden mit einer mehrmonatigen Gastprofessur an der Hebräischen Universität von Jerusalem. Seit 2020 ist er ordentliches Mitglied der Nordrhein-Westfälischen Akademie der Wissenschaften und Künste.

Aktuelle und laufende Projekte

  • Environmental Response on Climate Events in the Levant, Near East and SE Europe during the last 200,000 years based on Long continental Records
    (Project B3, DFG Collaborative Research Centre 806 (SFB) “Our Way to Europe”)
  • Faunal assemblages and Biomes at the Anthropological Frontier around 50-40 ka BP
    (Project E8, DFG Collaborative Research Centre 806 (SFB) “Our Way to Europe”)
  • Lake Van Drilling Project “PaleoVan”, a long continental record in eastern Turkey
    (DFG – Priority Program (SPP) ICDP, LI 582/15-1-2, LI 582/20-1-2)
  • Flow cytometry method for purification of fossil pollen from Lake Van varved sediments for AMS radiocarbon dating – a new approach
    (DFG Priority Program (SPP) ICDP, Pickarski/Litt)
  • Paleoclimate and paleoecology of the continental Eastern Mediterranean region - High- resolution pollen analysis from Lake Van during the Middle Pleistocene (MIS 8 to 10)
    (DFG Priority Program (SPP) ICDP, Pickarski/Litt)

Ausgewählte Publikationen

  • Steinhoff, C., Pickarski, N., Litt, T., Hajdas, I., Welte, C., Wurst, P., Kühne, D., Dolf, A., Germer, M., Kallmeyer, J. (2022): New approach to separate and date small spores and pollen from lake sediments in semi-arid climates. Radiocarbon 64, 1191-1207.
  • Miebach, A., Power, M.J., Besag, T.R., Netzel, T., Holombaroli, D., Litt T. (2022): Changing fire regimes during the first olive cultivation in the Meditieranean Basin: New high-resolution evidence from the Sea of Galilee, Israel. Global and Planetary Change 210 (2022) 103774.
  • Litt, T., Richter, J., Schäbitz, F. (eds) (2021): The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe. Culture-Environmental Interaction and Mobility. Schweizerbart Stuttgart
  • Litt, T. (2021): The southern Levant as migration corridor and barrier. In: Litt, T., Richter, J., Schäbitz, F. (eds) The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe. Culture-Environmental Interaction and Mobility. Schweizerbart Stuttgart, 63-71.
  • Miebach, A., Stolzenberger, S., Hense, A., Litt, T. (2021): The palaeoenvironment of the southern Levant during the last interglacial-glacial cycle. In: Litt, T., Richter, J., Schäbitz, F. (eds) The Journey of Modern Humans from Africa to Europe. Culture-Environmental Interaction and Mobility. Schweizerbart Stuttgart, 72-78.
  • Richter, J., Litt, T., Lehmkuhl, F., Hense, A., Hauck, T.C., Leder, D.F., Miebach, A., Parow-Souchon, H., Sauer, F., Schoenenberg, J., Al-Nahar, M., Hussain, S.T. (2020): Al Ansab and the Dead Sea: Mid-MIS 3 archaeology and environment of the early Achmarian population of the Levantine corridor. PLOS ONE 15(10): e0239968. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0239968
  • Miebach, A., Stolzenbberger, S., Wacker, L., Hense, A., Litt, T. (2019): A New Dead Sea Pollen Record Reveals the Last Glacial Paleoenvironment of the southern Levant. Quaternary Science Reviews 214: 98-116.
  • Kappenberg, A., Lehndorff, E., Pickarski, N., Litt, T., Amelung, W. (2019): Solar controls of fire history during the past 600,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 208: 97-104.
  • Palmisano, A., Woodbridge, J., Roberts, N., Bevan, A., Fyfe, R., Shennan, S., Cheddadi, R., Greenberg, R., Kaniewski, D., Langgut, D., Leroy, S.A.G., Litt, T., Miebach, a. (2019): Holocene Landscape Dynamics and Long-term Population Trends in the Levant. The Holocene 29: 708-727. Link
  • Langgut, d., Cheddadi, R., Carrion, J.S., Cavanagh, M., Colombaroli, D., Eastwood, W.J., Greenberg, R., Litt, T., Mercuri, A.M., Miebach, A., Roberts, N., Woldring, H., Woodbridge, J. (2019): The origin of olive domestication in the Mediterranean Basin: the fossil pollen evidence. The Holocene: 29:902-922. Link
  • Vossel, H., Roeser, P., Litt, T., Reed, J.M. (2018): Lake Kinneret (Israel). New insights into Holocene regional palaeoclimate variability based on high-resolution multi-proxy analysis. The Holocene 28, 1395-1410.
  • Schiebel, V., Litt, T. (2018): Holocene Vegetation history of the southern Levant based on a pollen record from Lake Kinneret (Sea of Galilee), Israel. Vegetation History and Archaeoboany 27, 577-590.
  • Chen, C; Litt, T. (2018): Dead Sea Pollen provides new insights into the paleoenvironment of the southern Levant during MIS 6-5. Quaternary Science Reviews 188, 15-27.
  • Litt, T., Ohlwein, C. (2017): Pollen as Palaeoclimate Indicators in the Levant. In: Enzrel, Y., Bar-Yosef, O. (eds) Quaternary of the Levant. Environments, Climate Change, and Humans. Cambridge University Press, 337-345.
  • Pickarski, N., Litt T. (2017): A new high-resolution pollen sequence at Lake Van, Turkey: insights into penultimate interglacial-glacial climate change on vegetation history. Climate of the Past 13:689-710.
  • Randlett, M.-E., Bechtel, A., van der Meer, M.T.J., Peterse, F., Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Kwiecien, O., Stockhecke, M., Wehrli, B., Schubert, K. (2017). Biomarkers in Lake Van sediments reveal dry conditions in eastern Anatolia during 110.000–10.000 years BP. Geochemistry Geophysics Geosystems 18, 571-583.
  • Miebach, A., Chen, CZ., Schwab, M.J., Stein, M., Litt, T. (2017). Vegetation and climate during the Last Glacial high stand (ca. 28-22 ka BP) of the Sea of Galilee, northern Israel. Quaternary Science Reviews 156, 47-56.
  • Roeser, P., Franz, S.O., Litt, T. (2016). Aragonite and calcite preservation in sediments from Lake Iznik related to bottom lake oxydation and water column depth. Sedimentology 63, 2253-2277.
  • Miebach, A., Niestrath, P., Roeser, P., Litt, T. (2016). Impacts of climate and humans on the vegetation in northwestern Turkey: palynological insights from Lake Iznik since the Last Glacial. Climate of the Past 12, 575-593.
  • Stockhecke, M., Timmermann, A., Kipfer, R., Haug, G.H., Kwiecien, O., Friedrich, T., Menviel, L., Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Anselmetti, F.S. (2016). Millennial to orbital-scale variations of drought intensity in the Eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews 133, 77-95.
  • Wagner, S., Litt, T., Sanches-Goni, M.-F., Petit, R.J. (2015). History of Larix decidua Mill. (European Larch) since 130 ka. Quaternary Science Reviews 124, 224-247.
  • Neugebauer, I., Brauer, A., Schwab, M.J., Dulski, P., Frank, U., Hadzhiivanova, E., Kitagawa, H., Litt, T., Schiebel, V., Taha, N., Waldmann, N.D. (2015). Evidence for centennial dry periods at ~3300 and ~2800 cal. yr BP from micro-facies analyses of the Dead Sea sediments. The Holocene 25, 1358-1371.
  • Pickarski, N., Kwiecien, O., Langgut, D., Litt, T. (2015b). Abrupt climate and vegetation variability in eastern Anatolia during the last glacial. Climate of the Past 11, 1491-1505.
  • Pickarski, N., Kwiecien, O., Djamali, M., Litt, T. (2015). Vegetation and environmental changes during the last interglacial in eastern Anatolia (Turkey): a new high-resolution pollen record from Lake Van. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 435, 145-158.
  • Lehndorf, E., Wolf, M., Litt. T., Brauer, A., Amelung, W. (2015): 15,000 years of black carbon deposition – A post-glacial fire record from mar lake sediments (Germany). Quaternary Science Reviews 110, 15-22.
  • Langgut, D., Finkelstein, I., Litt, T., Neumann, F.H., Stein, M. (2015): Vegetation and climate changes during the Bronze and Iron Ages (similar to 3600-600 BCE) in the southern Levant based on palynological records. Radiocarbon 57, 217-235.
  • Litt, T., Anselmetti, F.S. (2014): Lake Van deep drilling project PALEOVAN. Quaternary Science Reviews 104, 1-7.
  • Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Heumann, G., Stockhecke, M., Tzedakis, P.C. (2014): A 600,000 year long continental pollen record from Lake Van, eastern Anatolia (Turkey). Quaternary Science Reviews 104, 30-41.
  • Stockhecke, M., Kwiecien, O., Vigliotti, L., Anselmetti, F.S., Beer, J., Cagatay, M.N., Channell, J.E.T., Kipfer, R., Lachner, J., Litt, T., Pickarski, N., Sturm, M. (2014): Chronostratigraphy of the 600,000 year old continental record of Lake Van, (Turkey). Quaternary Science Reviews 104, 8-17.
  • Kwiecien, O., Stockhecke, M., Pickarski, N., Heumann, G., Litt, T., Sturm, M., Anselmetti, F., Kipfer, R., Haug, G.H., (2014): Dynamics of the last four glacial terminations recorded in Lake Van, Turkey. Quaternary Science Reviews 104, 42-52.
  • Randlett, M.E., Coolen, M.J.L., Stockhecke, M., Pickarski, N., Litt, T., Balkema, C., Kwiecien, O., Tomonaga, Y., Wehrli, B., Schubert, C.J., (2014): Alkenone distribution in Lake Van sediment over the last 270 ka: influence of temperature and haptophyte species composition. Quaternary Science Reviews 104, 53-62.
  • Langgut, D., Finkelstein, I., Litt, T. (2013): Climate and the Late Bronze Collapse: new evidence from the southern Levant. Tel Aviv: Journal of the Institute of Archaeology of Tel Aviv University 40/2, 149-175.
  • Litt, T., Anselmetti, F.S., Baumgarten, H., Beer, J., Cagatay, N., Cukur, D., Damci, E., Glombitza, C., Haug, G., Heumann, G., Kallmeyer, J., Kipfer, R., Krastel, S., Kwiecien, O., Meydan, F., Örcen, S., Pickarski, N., Randlett, M.-E., Schmincke, H.-U., Schubert, C.J., Sturm, M., Sumita, M., Stockhecke, M., Tomonaga, Y., Vigliotti, L., Wonik, T., and the PALEOVAN Scientific Team, (2012): 500,000 Years of Environmental History in Eastern Anatolia: The PALEOVAN Drilling Project. Scientific Drilling 14: 18-29.
  • Simonis, D., Hense, A., Litt, T. (2012): Reconstruction of late Glacial and Early Holocene near surface temperature anomalies in Europe and their statistical interpretation. Quaternary International 274, 233-250.
  • Viehberg, F.A., Ulgen, U.B., Damci, E., Franz, S.O., On, S.A., Roeser, P.A., Cagatay, M.N., Litt, T., Melles, M. (2012): Seasonal hydrochemical changes and spatial sedimentological variations in Lake Iznik (NW Turkey). Quaternary International 274, 102-111.
  • Roeser, P., Franz, S.O., Litt, T., Ulgen, U.B., Hilgers,, A., Wulf. S., Wennrich, V., On, S.A., Viehberg, F.A., Cagatay, M.N., Melles, M. (2012): Lithostratigraphic and geochronological framework for the paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the last ~36 ka cal BP from a sediment record from Lake Iznik (NW Turkey). Quaternary International 274, 73-87.
  • Huguet, C., Fietz, S., Moraleda, N., Litt, T., Heumann, G., Stockhecke, M., Anselmetti, F.S., Sturm, M. (2012): A seasonal cycle of terrestrial inputs in Lake Van, Turkey. Environmental Science and Pollution Research 19, 3628-3635.
  • McCormick, M., Buentgen, U., Cane, M.A., Cook, E.R., Harper, K., Huybers, P., Litt, T., Manning, S.W., Mayewski, P.A., More, A.F.M., Nicolussi, K., Tegel, W. (2012): Climate Change during and after the Roman Empire: Reconstructing the Past from Scientific and Historical Evidence. Journal of Interdisciplinary History 43, 169-220.
  • Litt, T., Ohlwein, C., Neumann, F.H., Hense, A., Stein, M. (2012): Holocene climate variability in the Levant from the Dead Sea pollen record. Quaternary Science Reviews 49: 95-105.
  • Garetta, V., Miller, P.A., Guiot, J., Hély, C., Brewer, S., Sykes, M.T., Litt, T. (2010): A method for climate and vegetation reconstruction through the inversion of a dynamic vegetation model. Climate Dynamics 35, 371-389.  
  • Litt, T., Schölzel, C., Kühl, N., Brauer, A. (2009): Vegetation and climate history in the Westeifel Volcanic Field (Germany) during the last 11,000 years based on annually laminated lacustrine sediments. Boreas 38, 679-690.
  • Litt, T., Krastel, S., Sturm, M., Kipfer, R., Örcen, S., Heumann, G., Franz, S.O., Ülgen, U.B., Niessen, F. (2009). „PALEOVAN“, International Continental Scientific Drilling Program, (ICDP): Results of a recent site survey and perspectives. Quaternary Science Reviews 28, 1555-1567.
  • Liepelt, S., Cheddadi, R., De Beaulieu, J., Fady, B., Gömöry, D., Hussenhofer, E., Konnert, M., Litt, T., Longauer, R., Terhürne-Berson, R., Ziegenhagen, B. (2009): Postglacial range expansion and its genetic imprints in Abies alba (Mill.) - a synthesis from paleobotanic and genetic data. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 153, 139-149.
  • Walker, M., Johnsen, S., Rasmussen, S.O., Popp, T., Steffensen, J.P., Gibbard, P.L., Hoek, W., Lowe, J., Andrews, J., Björck, S., Cwynar, L., Hughen, K., Kershaw, P., Kromer, B., Litt, T., Lowe, D.J., Nakagawa, T., Newnham R., Schwande, J. (2009): Formal definition and dating of the GSSP (Global Stratotype Section and Point) for the base of the Holocene using the Greenland NGRIP ice core, and selected auxiliary records. Journal of Quaternary Science 24, 3-17.
  • Tollefsrud, M. M., Kissling, R., Gugerli, F., Johnsen, O., Skroppa, T., Cheddadi, R., Van Der Knaap, W. O., Latalowa, M., Terhürne-Berson, R., Litt, T., Geburek, T., Brochmann, C., Sperisen, C. (2008): Genetic consequences of glacial survival and postglacial colonization in Norway spruce: combined analysis of mitochondrial DNA and fossil pollen. Molecular Ecology 17, vol 18, 4134-4150.
  • Litt, T., Schmincke, H.-U., Frechen, M., Schlüchter, C. (2008): Quaternary. In: Mc Cann, T. (Ed.), The Geology of Central Europe. Geol. Soc. London, 1287-1340.
  • Litt, T., Gibbard, P.L. (2008): A proposed Global Stratotype Section and Point (GSSP) for the base of the Upper (Late) Pleistocene Subseries (Quaternary System/Period). Episodes 31 (2), 260-263.
  • Kühl, N., Gebhardt, C., Kaspar, F., Hense, A., Litt, T. (2008): Reconstruction of Quaternary temperature fields and model-data comparison. PAGES News 16 (2), 8-9.
  • Kühl. N., Litt, T., Schölzel, C., Hense, A. (2007): Eemian and Early Weichselian temperature and precipitation variability in northern Germany. Quaternary Science Reviews 26, 3311-3317.
  • Gebhardt, C., Kühl, N., Hense, A., Litt, T. (2007): Reconstruction of Quaternary temperature fields by dynamically consistent smooting. Climate Dynamics 30, 421-437.
  • Neumann, F., Schölzel, C., Litt, T., Hense, A., Stein, M. (2007): Holocene vegetation and climate history of the northern Golan Hights (Near East). Vegetation history and Archaeobotany 16, 329-346.
  • Kühl, N., Litt, T. (2007): Quantitative Time Series Reconstructions of Holsteinian and Eemian Temperatures Using Botanical Data. In: Sirocko, F., Claussen, M., Sanchez Goñi, M.F., Litt, T. (Eds.), The climate of past interglacials, Elsevier, Amsterdam, 239-254.
  • Magri, D., Vendramin, G.G., Comps, B., Dupanloup, I., Geburek, T., Gömöry, D., Latałowa, M., Litt, T., Paule, L., Roure, J., Tantau, I., Van Der Knaap, W.O., Petit, R., De Beaulieu, J.-L. (2006): Combined analyses of fossil and genetic data in the European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.). New Phytologist 171, 199-221.
  • Cheddadi, R., Vendramin, G., Litt, T., François, L., Kageyama, M., Lorentz, S., Laurent, J.-M., De Beaulieu, J.-L.,Sadori, L., Jost, A., Lunt, D. (2006):Imprints of glacial refugia in the modern genetic diversity of Pinus sylvestris. Global Ecology and Biogeography 15, 271-282.
  • Kaspar, F., Kühl, N., Cubasch, U., Litt, T. (2005): A model-data comparison of European temperatures in the Eemian interglacial. Geophysical Research Letters 32: L11703.
  • Terhürne-Berson, R., Litt, T., Cheddadi, R. (2004): The spread of Abies throughout Europe since the last glacial period: combines macrofossil and pollen data. Vegetation history and Archaeobotany 13, 257-268.
  • Schwab, M.J., Neumann, F., Litt, T., Negendank, J.F.W., Stein, M. (2004). Holocene palaeoecology of the Golan Heights (Near East): investigation of lacustrine sediments from Birkat Ram crater lake. Quaternary Science Reviews 23, 1723-1731.
  • Kühl, N., Litt, T. (2003): Quantitative time series reconstruction of Eemian temperature at three European sites using pollen data. Vegetation history and Archaeobotany 12, 205-214.
  • Litt, T., Schmincke, H.-U., Kromer, B. (2003): Environmental response to climate and volcanic events in central Europe during the Weichselian Lateglacial. Quaternary Science Reviews 22, 7-32.
  • Kühl, N., Gebhardt, C., Litt, T., Hense, A. (2002): Probability Density Functions as Botanical-Climatological Transfer Functions for climate Reconstruction. Quaternary Research 58, 381-392.
  • Heumann, G., Litt, T. (2002): Stratigraphy and palaeoecology of the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene in the open-cast mine Hambach (Lower Rhine Basin). Netherlands Journal of Geoscience/Geologie en Mijnbouw 81. 193-199.
  • Brauer, A., Litt, T., Negendank, J.F.W., Zoltschka, B. (2001): Lateglacial varve chronology and biostratigraphy of lakes Holzmaar and Meerfelder Maar. Boreas 30, 83-88.
  • Litt, T., Brauer, A., Goslar, T., Merkt, J., Balaga, K., Müller, H., Ralska-Jasiewiczowa, M., Stebich, M., Negendank, J.F.W. (2001): Correlation and synchronisation of Lateglacial continental sequences in northern central Europe based on annually-laminated lacustrine sediments. Quaternary Science Reviews 20, 1233-1249.
  • Litt, T., Stebich, M. (1999): Bio- and chronostratigraphy of the Lateglacial in the Eifel region, Germany. Quaternary International 61, 5-16.
  • Brauer, A., Endres, C., Günter, C., Litt, T., Stebich, M., Negendank, J.F.W. (1999): High resolution sediment and vegetation responses to Younger Dryas climate change in varved lake sediments from Meerfelder Maar, Germany. Quaternary Science Reviews, 18, 321-329.
  • Aalbersberg, G., Litt, T. (1998): Multi-proxy climate reconstructions for the Eemian and Early Weichselian. Journal of Quaternary Science 13, 367-390.
  • Litt, T., Junge, F., Böttger, T. (1996): Climate during the Eemian in north-central Europe - a critical review of the palaeobotanical and stable isotope data from central Germany. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany 5, 247-256.

 

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