Tjerk Veenstra is a PhD candidate at the Marine Palynology and Palaeoceanography group. His research focuses on global change across the Miocene Climatic Optimum (MCO, a period of inferred global warmth between 17.0 and 13.9 Ma), associated oceanographic feedbacks and their link to an increase in atmospheric pCO₂. He uses a combination of techniques, including palynology (dinoflagellate cyst palaeoecology and stratigraphy), organic geochemistry (biomarker palaeothermometry), inorganic geochemistry and several forms of stratigraphy, and applies these to a suite of localities around the world in order to solve uncertainties regarding surface ocean warming and the cause of the MCO.

Area of scientific interest

Past global change reconstruction, (Neogene) climate dynamics and paleoceanography, carbon and nutrient cycling, global warming, sea level changes, organic geochemistry, palynology and micropaleontology.