Oliver A. Kern
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oliverkern.bsky.social
Oliver A. Kern
@oliverkern.bsky.social
360 followers 340 following 36 posts
PostDoc @ University of Cologne
Vegetation Modelling & Paleoclimate | R | REVEALS
Pollen | Geochemistry | XRF

he/him
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oliverkern.bsky.social
Oliver A. Kern @oliverkern.bsky.social · Oct 19
Wondering who I am and what I do? Here is a word cloud based on the titles of my academic publications so far.
Credit and thanks to @obialik.bsky.social for the inspiration!
(source: shiny.rcg.sfu.ca/u/rdmorin/sc...)
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
📢 New Blog Post
What's a (good) model? Dr. Annika Vogel highlights the questions that need to be answered and decisions that need to be made to appropriately #model interdisciplinary phenomena - there are always tradeoffs!

🔗 read on here:
shorturl.at/JklT1
What is a good model? - Hescor
What's a (good) model? Dr. Annika Vogel highlights the questions that need to be answered and decisions that need to be made to appropriately model interdisciplinary phenomena - there are always trade...
shorturl.at
November 12, 2025 at 10:21 AM
oliverkern.bsky.social
🔔🔔New Paper 🔔🔔
Pollen-based REVEALS land-cover reconstructions for Europe during the latter half of the Last Glacial Period

essd.copernicus.org/articles/17/...

We show that glacial refugia and frequent openings of migration corridors may have played a substantial role human dispersal
Landscape reconstructions for Europe during the late Last Glacial (60–20 ka BP): a pollen-based REVEALS approach
Abstract. Vegetation change during the Last Glacial period in Europe plays a crucial role in better understanding the ecosystem dynamics response to abrupt climate change. Yet, most quantitative recon...
essd.copernicus.org
November 11, 2025 at 2:30 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
mohnika.bsky.social
🐝🐚🐙 Job Opening! 🐙🐚🐝

We are looking for a new collection manager for the macro-invertebarte collection at the Natural History Museum in Basel (CH).

I can only recommend the museum and the curator!
paleodanae.bsky.social Danae Thivaiou @paleodanae.bsky.social · Sep 15
📯Collection manager position in the Natural History Museum of Basel 🇨🇭

Collection: "invertebrate" fossils
Location: maps.app.goo.gl/Svd1o2M333av...
Workload: 70% of full-time
Description and application page: stellenmarkt.bs.ch/kbs/job/deta...
September 15, 2025 at 12:06 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
oliverkern.bsky.social
🚨We developed a simple app to facilitate access to pollen-based vegetation 🌿reconstructions from Europe during the Late Pleistocene ☃️to scientists from other fields:

Check out oakern.shinyapps.io/PALVEG/

more will follow!
PALVEG - REVEALS land-cover estimates for the Late Pleistocene
oakern.shinyapps.io
August 2, 2024 at 12:27 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
📢 New Blog Post
Living in high-altitudes is challenging - but humans in the #Ethiopian highlands have done it for tens of thousands of years! Dr. Götz Ossendorf introduces his hypothesis that social connectedness allowed past humans to endure such harsh conditions!

🔗 read on here:
shorturl.at/vH1en
View from the Afroalpine Plateau into the lowlands (Bale Mountains, SE Ethiopia).
September 3, 2025 at 12:42 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
shumon.bsky.social
Upcoming @hescor.bsky.social and @mesh-research-hub.bsky.social event at the University of Cologne on the "Politics of More-Than-Human Life and Earth System Science" with an exciting programme: www.hescor-project.com/news/politic...
Politics of more-than-human life and Earth System Science - Hescor
www.hescor-project.com
September 8, 2025 at 8:56 AM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
📢 New Blog Post
What have we learned from animals and they from us? @shumon.bsky.social & Dr. Dominik Ohrem highlight their research to better integrate the ways that humans and animals learn from each other and how that knowledge-sharing impacts the Earth System!

🔗 read on here:
shorturl.at/6zdAa
The figure contains graphical, iconic (human and animal icons) and textual elements. They are horizontally arranged to form three separate compartments, each of which is populated by a different configuration of humans and animals, accompanied by a symbolic and descriptive qualification of the associated learning mode. On the left, humans learn to think about themselves and their worlds through other animals (for example a raven), exemplified by the question “Who am I in this world?” (learning through). In the middle, humans take inspiration from other animals (for example beavers) in how to manipulate their environments, exemplified by the realization “Ah, this is how it works!” (learning from). On the right, humans make themselves at home in the world in such a way that they can coinhabit their environments with other animals (for example wolves), thereby co-learning how to live effectively in these environments with the respective animals (learning with). The framing arrows on the top and bottom indicate that human cultural frameworks can be expected to shape these modes of learning to various degrees and that their behavioural integration can be expected to differ across spatiotemporal scales.
August 21, 2025 at 11:06 AM
oliverkern.bsky.social
Third day on the Orkney Islands was a great success! Two cores, one >2m long, from the deepest secrion of the lake! Let's see what the sedaDNA will tell us about the history of the area
July 25, 2025 at 5:51 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
Researchers at universities rarely work with researchers in other departments - why? Dr. Elena Robakiewicz highlights the difficulties of understanding #research and #data in other fields and what HESCOR is doing to address data #communication issues!

🔗 read on here:
tinyurl.com/bdffven4
Communicating Interdisciplinary Data - Hescor
tinyurl.com
June 25, 2025 at 12:01 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
✍️ HESCOR Comics
We are collaborating with Dr Frederik von Reumont (Institute of Geography Education) to create easily digestible #educational #comics about the #interdisciplinary scientific process for the public, ranging in age from school children to the young at heart!

🔗 tinyurl.com/ed825wmf
June 20, 2025 at 12:28 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
What is HESCOR? 🤔
Join Andreas Maier and Nikki Vercauteren for insights into HESCOR‘s vision and research goals!

want to learn more?
hescor-project.com

#HESCOR #Interdisciplinary #UniCologne #EarthSystem #HumanSystem #ResearchProject #Culture #Nature
June 6, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
hescor.bsky.social
Hello Bluesky! 👋
Welcome to the official Bluesky account of #HESCOR - an interdisciplinary research project based at the #UniCologne!
We explore how the human and earth system co-evolve, bridging natural sciences, system modelling, and the humanities.

🔗 Learn more: www.hescor-project.com
HESCOR: Human & Earth System Coupled Research
HESCOR unites Earth system science, human modelling & humanities to study how climate and culture have co-evolved across history.
www.hescor-project.com
June 4, 2025 at 8:51 AM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
shumon.bsky.social
There is a job opening (Post-Doctoral Research Associate, 2 years, 100%) in my new VW project on the macro-evolution of Pleistocene technological ecosystems in Europe: ecolithic.uni-koeln.de/opportunitie...

Deadline 25.05.2025

Please distribute widely!
🏺🦣
May 3, 2025 at 1:28 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
isabell-schmidt.bsky.social
Our study on #demograpic responses of #huntergatherers during the #FinalPalaeolithic in #Europe is out now:

journals.plos.org/plosone/arti...

💪🏼 Thanks to the great collaborative effort that has gone into putting together an #archaeological #database - available at zenodo.org/records/1313...
Large scale and regional demographic responses to climatic changes in Europe during the Final Palaeolithic
The European Final Palaeolithic witnessed marked changes in almost all societal domains. Despite a rich body of evidence, our knowledge of human palaeodemographic processes and regional population dyn...
journals.plos.org
April 7, 2025 at 2:17 PM
oliverkern.bsky.social
Interested in vegetation reconstructions from the Last Glacial in Europe? How do different approaches (pollen/models) compare? And most importantly, how to visualize all these data for a quick overview without spending weeks?

Check out an early version here:

oakern.shinyapps.io/palveg_v2/
PALVEG (Version 2) - Comparing different approaches to reconstruct the paleovegetation of the Last Glacial
oakern.shinyapps.io
April 2, 2025 at 11:53 AM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
oliverkern.bsky.social
🚨Preprint Online🚨

REVEALS Vegetation reconstructions using pollen data from the late Last Glacial (60-20 ka BP) in Europe and bordering regions!

essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es...
Landscape reconstructions for Europe during the late Last Glacial (60–20 ka BP): A pollen-based REVEALS approach
Abstract. Vegetation change during the Last Glacial period in Europe plays a crucial role in better understanding the ecosystem dynamics response to abrupt climate change. Yet, quantitative reconstruc...
essd.copernicus.org
November 25, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
oliverkern.bsky.social
Analysis of travel-related carbon emissions by physicians and researchers at a university hospital, led by @gebhardtpsych.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

long story short:
- 98% of CO2 from flights
- noticeable decrease during and after (!) COVID-19
- lots of room to emit less CO2
A longitudinal bottom-up analysis of staff travel patterns (2018–2023) at a research-intensive university hospital - Discover Sustainability
University hospitals are part of the health care system, as well as academia. The carbon footprint of staff travel, quantified as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is significantly enlarged by academic ...
link.springer.com
January 13, 2025 at 12:13 PM
oliverkern.bsky.social
Analysis of travel-related carbon emissions by physicians and researchers at a university hospital, led by @gebhardtpsych.bsky.social

link.springer.com/article/10.1...

long story short:
- 98% of CO2 from flights
- noticeable decrease during and after (!) COVID-19
- lots of room to emit less CO2
A longitudinal bottom-up analysis of staff travel patterns (2018–2023) at a research-intensive university hospital - Discover Sustainability
University hospitals are part of the health care system, as well as academia. The carbon footprint of staff travel, quantified as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is significantly enlarged by academic ...
link.springer.com
January 13, 2025 at 12:13 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
gebhardtpsych.bsky.social
🧵1/ Ever thought about the carbon footprint of medical research? We analyzed travel patterns at a German University hospital from 2018 to 2023 and estimated the effect of reduction measures.
💡 [1]: Since Covid-19, researchers travel less.

@oliverkern.bsky.social
link.springer.com/article/10.1...
A longitudinal bottom-up analysis of staff travel patterns (2018–2023) at a research-intensive university hospital - Discover Sustainability
University hospitals are part of the health care system, as well as academia. The carbon footprint of staff travel, quantified as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, is significantly enlarged by academic ...
link.springer.com
January 7, 2025 at 12:34 PM
oliverkern.bsky.social
These cookies might be 40,000 years past their "use before" date, but I will eat them anyways, for science
November 30, 2024 at 11:05 AM
oliverkern.bsky.social
🚨Preprint Online🚨

REVEALS Vegetation reconstructions using pollen data from the late Last Glacial (60-20 ka BP) in Europe and bordering regions!

essd.copernicus.org/preprints/es...
Landscape reconstructions for Europe during the late Last Glacial (60–20 ka BP): A pollen-based REVEALS approach
Abstract. Vegetation change during the Last Glacial period in Europe plays a crucial role in better understanding the ecosystem dynamics response to abrupt climate change. Yet, quantitative reconstruc...
essd.copernicus.org
November 25, 2024 at 7:00 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
thornsesholdlab.bsky.social
Wishing the Elsevier editors who desk-accepted this all the best for their next career moves.

doi.org/10.1016/j.ij...
November 22, 2024 at 2:49 PM
Reposted by Oliver A. Kern
obialik.bsky.social
By now, I made three Earth ⚒️ and Marine 🌊 Sciences 🧪 Starter Packs:

Paleoenvironmental researchers:
bsky.app/starter-pack...

Scientific Drilling ( #IODP / #ICDP ) researchers:
bsky.app/starter-pack...

Marine biogeochemistry researchers:
bsky.app/starter-pack...

One of them may be interesting.
November 16, 2024 at 9:24 AM
oliverkern.bsky.social
Reviewer liked Figure 3, so I've got that going for me, which is nice
October 20, 2024 at 4:56 PM
oliverkern.bsky.social
Last week I had the honor to receive the Walter-Schall-Award by the Society of Natural Sciences Württemberg for my studies in southern Germany. I want to express my gratitude to Klaus Rehfeld and the Society for the warm reception and the opportunity to present my work at the annual meeting
October 15, 2024 at 8:09 AM