Dr. Dirk Verschuren
Department of Biology, Ghent University
Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Gent, Belgium

Education & Experience:

Dirk Verschuren received his Lic.Sc. in Zoology from Ghent University (Belgium) in 1986, and his PhD in Ecology from the University of Minnesota (Minneapolis) in 1996.  At the University of Minnesota he was affiliated with the Limnological Research Center, which conducted an extensive research programme on the limnology and paleolimnology of saline lakes in the northern Great Plains.  His own dissertation research dealt with the historical paleolimnology of shallow fluctuating lakes in the Kenya Rift Valley, which in the past 120 years of their history have experienced a succession of fresh and saline phases, or of different regimes of mixing and stratification.  Thesis work focused on the effects of these physical and chemical changes on sedimentation dynamics and the distribution of lake biota, in order to validate the use of sediment stratigraphy and fossil biota as indicators for climate-driven changes in lacustrine environments.  Afterwards he held a NOAA Postdoctoral Fellowship in Climate and Global Change Research at the Large Lakes Observatory of the University of Minnesota (Duluth), where he used paleolimnological methods to study human impact on the African Great Lakes, Victoria and Tanganyika.  Since returning to Belgium in 1997 he has focused on reconstruction of the climate history of Africa with high temporal resolution, using sediment records from climate-sensitive, often saline lakes in Kenya, Uganda, and Chad.

Five representative publications

Verschuren, D., 1999.  Influence of depth and mixing regime on sedimentation in a small, fluctuating tropical soda lake. Limnol. Oceanogr. 44: 1103-1113.

Verschuren, D., C. Cocquyt, J. Tibby, N. Roberts, & P. R. Leavitt, 1999.  Long-term dynamics of algal and invertebrate communities in a small, fluctuating tropical soda lake. Limnol. Oceanogr. 44: 1216-1231.

Verschuren, D., K. R. Laird, & B. F. Cumming, 2000. Rainfall and drought in equatorial East Africa during the past 1100 years. Nature 403: 410-414.

Verschuren, D., J. Tibby, K. Sabbe, & N. Roberts, 2000. Effects of lake level, salinity and substrate on the invertebrate community of a fluctuating tropical lake. Ecology 81: 164-182.

Verschuren, D., T. C. Johnson, H. J. Kling, D. N. Edgington, P. R. Leavitt, E. T. Brown, M. R. Talbot & R. E. Hecky, 2002. History and timing of human impact on Lake Victoria, East Africa. Proc. Roy. Soc. Lond. B 269: 289-294.

Candidate’s statement

My research focus on lake-based climate reconstruction in Africa fits in the socially relevant context of natural long-term variability in the water balance of tropical dryland regions, the effects of global warming on the tropical water balance, and its consequences for sustainable management of scarce freshwater resources in developing countries.  Although I see lake studies mainly as my chosen tool with which to contribute to global-change research, the complexity of lake-based climate reconstruction will continue to require comprehensive and detailed study of the temporal dynamics of African fresh and salt-lake systems, and the mechanisms controlling long-term variability in water quality, biology, and ecosystem function.  As coordinator of tropical Africa for the IGBP programme "Past Global Changes (PAGES)", and steering-committee member of the European Science Foundation programme "Holocene climate variability (HOLIVAR)", I am actively promoting both paleoclimate and long-term field studies on African lakes, trying to mobilise the African scientific community by offering their governments direct socio-economic justification for multi-faceted lake research.  As Member-at-Large of ISSLR I would thus represent an important field of applied salt-lake research, partly on behalf of the African salt-lake research community.

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