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Teaching | Research | Potential Thesis Ideas | CV | Publications | Contact info | ISC10
After completing my B.Sc. in Environmental Geology, I worked for a number of years in materials testing and environmental monitoring in New York State. I later completed a M.Sc. in Marine Ecology, where my thesis dealt primarily with the ecophysiology of Kenyan mangrove crabs. After my MSc, I started my PhD within the CALMARs project in 2001 under the supervision of F. Dehairs (advisor), W. Baeyens (co-advisor) and E. Keppens (co-advisor) to calibrate bivalve shells as recorders of their environment (termed Sclerochronology). I was especially interested in drawing on my background in physiology to unravel the physiological signal which is often superimposed on environmental signals in most biological carbonates. During my PhD, I worked primarily on two estuaries, one in Europe (the Schelde) and the other in North Carolina USA (Wade Creek), but also worked in the tropics (Kenya). I obtained my PhD in July of 2005 and moved back to the US. Since then, I have taught Environmental Geology and the Physical Geology laboratory and field excursion as an adjunct professor at the State University of New York at New Paltz and am now a Visiting Assistant Professor of Geology in the Department of Geology and Geography at Vassar College where I teach Sediments, Strata, & the Environment; Evolution of Earth & Its Life (Historical Geology); Earth, Environment, & Humanity (Physical Geology); Stable Isotopes in Environmental Science; Geology of New York State, Advanced Oceanograohy, Paleontology and Biogeochemistry of small watersheds. The core of my teaching philosophy revolves around actively including students in research and developing their critical thinking. I achieve this through exposing students to scientific peer-reviewed papers, the peer-review process, class discussion on controversial topics in environmental sciences (both intro and upper level classes) and having students conduct their own research project (upper level classes). I have taken several students to international meetings for them to present their research. I also strongly feel that a field component should be incorporated into all classes. I find that field trips can make learning fun, and help me connect with the students as well as creating a ‘community’ feeling in the class (in addition to teaching them how to set up a tent). At Vassar I have taken nearly all of my classes on weekend-long field trips. I have also organized several activities outside of class time such as casual departmental hikes; all of which helps build community in the department. |
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Essentially all we know about past climates and ecosystems is derived from either chemical or physical proxy records stored in solid structures such as tree-rings, ice-cores, or carbonate skeletons. Understanding how precisely these proxies record their environment is of paramount importance to understanding global climate change. It is well known that each proxy has its benefits and drawbacks. For example, ice cores can only be obtained from limited locals; trees only provide terrestrial records. Biological carbonates, however, are found from the poles to the tropics and from shallow freshwater and marine systems to the deep oceans. My research focuses on the use of biological carbonates as environmental/climatic record keepers, a field known as sclerochronology (analogous to dendrochronology). More precisely, I study how well skeletal chemistry records the environment (or sclerochemistry, a term a colleague and I recently proposed [Grocke and Gillikin, 2008]). One of the main drawbacks in using a biologic carbonate is that the biology of the organism may interfere with equilibrium reactions in the skeleton. Understanding these ‘vital effects’ is my specialty. I have worked on trace elements such as Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca, Mg/Ca, and Pb/Ca as well as stable isotopes (see publications bellow). |
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Wilson Salls - Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes in freshwater algae |
Matt Winnick - Freshwater mussels as salinity sensors |
Two students at the 2008 GSA meeting in Houston TX
The poster on the right was reported in Science News
Students: Potential thesis ideas
Publications [§ = students]| Geochemistry papers | |
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Gillikin, D. P., §K. Hutchinson and §Y. Kumai, (2009). Ontogenic increase of metabolic carbon in freshwater mussel shells (Pyganodon cataracta). Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences |
| Schöne, B. R., Z. Zhang, D. Jacob, D. P. Gillikin, T. Tütken, D. Garbe-Schönberg, T. McConnaughey, and A. Soldati (in press). Effect of organic matrices on the determination of the trace element chemistry (Mg, Sr, Mg/Ca, Sr/Ca) of aragonitic bivalve shells (Arctica islandica) – comparison of ICP-OES and LA-ICP-MS data. Geochemical Journal | |
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Cunningham M. A., C. M. O’Reilly, K. M. Menking, D. P. Gillikin, K. C. Smith, C. A. Foley, S. L. Belli, A. M. Pregnall, M. A. Schlessman, and P. Batur (2009). The suburban stream syndrome: evaluating land use and stream impairments in the suburbs. Physical Geography 30: 269-284. |
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Gillikin, D. P., A. Lorrain, Y.-M. Paulet, L. André, and F. Dehairs, (2008). Synchronous barium peaks in high-resolution profiles of calcite and aragonite marine bivalve shells. Geo-Marine Letters 28: 351-358. |
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McConnaughey, T. A. and D. P. Gillikin, (2008). Carbon isotopes in mollusk shell carbonates. Geo-Marine Letters 28: 287-299. |
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Gröcke D. R. and D. P. Gillikin, (2008). Advances in mollusc sclerochronology and sclerochemistry: tools for understanding climate and environment. Geo-Marine Letters 28: 265-268. |
Cunningham, M. A., K. M. Menking, D. P. Gillikin, S. L. Belli, C. Freimuth, K. C. Smith, A. M. Pregnall, M. A. Schlessman, P. Batur, (submitted). Can urban stream water quality recover longitudinally? |
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Gillikin, D. P., A. Lorrain, §L. Meng and F. Dehairs, (2007). A large metabolic carbon contribution to the δ13C record in marine aragonitic bivalve shells. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 71: 2936-2946. |
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Gillikin D. P. and S. Bouillon (2007) Determination of δ18O of water and δ13C of dissolved inorganic carbon using a simple modification of an elemental analyzer – isotope ratio mass spectrometer (EA-IRMS): an evaluation. Rapid Communications in Mass Spectrometry 21: 1475-1478. |
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Gillikin, D. P., F. Dehairs, A. Lorrain, §D. Steenmans, W. Baeyens, and L. André (2006). Barium uptake into the shells of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis) and the potential for estuarine paleo-chemistry reconstruction. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70: 395-407. |
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Gillikin, D. P. , A. Lorrain, S. Bouillon, P. Willenz and F. Dehairs, (2006). Stable carbon isotopic composition of Mytilus edulis shells: relation to metabolism, salinity δ13CDIC and phytoplankton. Organic Geochemistry 37: 1371-1382. |
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Schöne, B. R., D. L. Rodland, D. M. Surge, J. Fiebig, D. P. Gillikin, S. M. Baier, and A. Goewert (2006). Comment on “Stable carbon isotopes in freshwater mussel shells: Environmental record or marker for metabolic activity?” by J. Geist et al. (2005). Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 70: 2658-2661. |
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Lorrain A., D. P. Gillikin, Y.-M. Paulet, L. Chauvaud, A. Le Mercier, J. Navez, L. André, 2005. Strong kinetic effects on Sr/Ca ratios in the calcitic bivalve Pecten maximus. Geology 33: 965-968. [see our image on the cover] |
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Gillikin, D. P., F. Dehairs, W. Baeyens, J. Navez, A. Lorrain and L. André, 2005. Inter- and intra-annual variations of Pb/Ca ratios in clam shells (Mercenaria mercenaria): a record of anthropogenic lead pollution? Marine Pollution Bulletin 50: 1530-1540. |
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Gillikin, D. P., A. Lorrain, J. Navez, J. W. Taylor, L. André, E. Keppens, W. Baeyens and F. Dehairs, 2005 . Strong biological controls on Sr/Ca ratios in aragonitic marine bivalve shells. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 6, Q05009, doi:10.1029/2004GC000874. |
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Gillikin, D. P., F. De Ridder, §H. Ulens, M. Elskens, E. Keppens, W. Baeyens and F. Dehairs, 2005 . Assessing the reproducibility and reliability of estuarine bivalve shells (Saxidomus giganteus) for sea surface temperature reconstruction: implications for paleoclimate studies. Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology 228: 70-85. |
[6.98 Mb] |
Gillikin, D.P., 2005. Geochemistry of Marine Bivalve Shells: the potential for paleoenvironmental reconstruction. Ph.D. thesis. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium, p. 258. [6.98 Mb] |
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De Ridder, F., R. Pintelon, J. Schoukens and D. P. Gillikin, 2005. Modified AIC and MDL model selection criteria for short data records. IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement 54 (1): 144-150. |
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De Ridder, F., R. Pintelon, J. Schoukens, D. P. Gillikin, L. André, W. Baeyens, A. de Brauwere and F. Dehairs, 2004. Decoding Non-linear Growth Rates in Biogenic Environmental Archives. Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems 5, Q12015, doi:10.1029/2004GC000771. |
Mangrove crab ecology papers |
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Gillikin, D.P. and C.D. Schubart, 2004. Ecology and systematics of mangrove crabs of the genus Perisesarma (Crustacea: Brachyura: Sesarmidae) from East Africa. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 141 (3): 435-445. (a new species of Kenyan mangrove crab) |
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Gillikin, D.P., B. De Wachter and J.F. Tack, 2004. Physiological responses of two ecologically important Kenyan mangrove crabs exposed to altered salinity regimes. Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology 301(1):93-109. |
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Gillikin, D.P. and §C.P. Kamanu, 2005. Burrowing in the East African mangrove crab, Chiromantes ortmanni (Crosnier, 1965) (Decapoda, Bracayura, Sesarmidae). Crustaceana.78: 1273-1275. |
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Gillikin, D.P., 2004. Osmoregulatory ability of Chiromantes ortmanni (Crosnier, 1965) subjected to dilute and hypersaline seawater. Crustaceana 77(1): 67-74. |
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Gillikin, D.P., S. De Grave and J.F. Tack, 2001. The occurrence of the semi-terrestrial shrimp Merguia oligodon (De Man, 1888) in Neosarmatium smithi H. Milne Edwards, 1853 burrows in Kenyan mangroves. Crustaceana 74(5): 505-508. |
Geology Field Excursion
Selected Abstracts for a full list see my vitae [§ = students]
§Salls, W., §A. Jost and D. P. Gillikin, 2008. Unusual stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values in freshwater filamentous algae. GSA Abstracts with Programs 40(2) Abstract 25-10.
§Volesky, S., A. Verheyden and D. P. Gillikin, 2008. Dendrochemistry as an indicator of soil salt concentrations. GSA Abstracts with Programs 40(2) Abstract 6-13.
Gillikin, D. P., §K. Hutchinson and §Y. Kumai, 2007. Ontogenic increase of metabolic carbon in freshwater mussel shells. Eos Trans. AGU, 88(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract B31D-0615
Gillikin, D.P., and Verheyden, A., 2006. A hands-on lab to help introductory students grasp the carbon cycle. Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 38, No. 7, p. 499
Gillikin, D.P., Lorrain, A., Bouillon, S., Willenz, P., and Dehairs, F., 2006. Can the stable carbon isotopic composition of bivalve shells be used as a proxy of δ13C-DIC and provide an indication of estuarine salinity? Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs, Vol. 38, No. 7, p. 378.
Gillikin, D. P., F. Dehairs, §D. Steenmans, A. Lorrain, L. André, J. Navez, W. Baeyens and the CALMARs group (2005) Barium uptake into the shells of the common mussel (Mytilus edulis): results from a field and laboratory experiment. EGU General Assembly 2005, Vienna, Austria. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 7, 00073.
Gillikin, D. P. , F. Dehairs, §D. Steenmans, §L. Meng, §T. Haifeng, J. Navez, L. André, W. Baeyens, E. Keppens, and the CALMARS group, 2004. Trace element proxies (Sr/Ca, Ba/Ca and Pb/Ca) in Bivalve shells: environmental signals or not? Eos Trans. AGU, 85(46), Fall Meet. San Francisco, CA, Suppl., Abstract B13E-08
Gillikin, D. P., J. Navez, F. Dehairs, W. Baeyens and L. André, 2004. Validation of Laser Ablation-ICP-MS results with Solution Nebulization-HR-ICP-MS. European Science Foundation workshop : Isotopic microsampling in Earth, Environmental and Archaeological Sciences, September 9-11, 2004, Durham, UK.
Gillikin, D. P., D. Steenmans, F. Dehairs, W. Baeyens, J. Navez, L. Andre, E. Keppens, and the CALMARs group, 2004. Calibration and validation of the mussel Mytilus edulis as an environmental archive. 1st EGU General Assembly, Nice, France, 26 - 30 April 2004. Abstract EGU04-A-04054.
Gillikin, D. P., Ulens, H., Dehairs, F., Baeyens, W., Navez, J., Andre, L., Keppens, E., and the Calmars Group, 2004. Sr and Mg Profiles in Aragonitic Bivalves: Do They Record Temperature? Eos Trans. AGU, 84(52), Ocean Sci. Meet. Portland, OR, Suppl., Abstract OS42B-06.
Gillikin, D. P., F. Dehairs, W. Baeyens, J. Navez, L. Andre, and the CALMARs group, 2003. The potentials of high resolution trace element profiles in bivalve shells as a record of paleoenvironment: exploring Mercenaria mercenaria. Geophysical Research Abstracts, Vol. 5, 11503
Student guidance:
Salls, W.B.(2009). Stable carbon and nitrogen isotope signatures of freshwater algae from the Caspserkill ( Eastern NY ). Undergraduate honors thesis, Vassar College
Winnick, M. (2009). Evaluating the freshwater mussel Elliptio complanata as a proxy for road salt pollution in northeastern US streams.Undergraduate honors thesis, Vassar College
Jost, A. (2008). Isotope stratigraphy and the Silurian Devonian boundary of the eastern Appalachian basin. Undergraduate honors thesis, Vassar College
Volesky, S. (2008). Dendrochemistry – a tool to record soil salinity? Undergraduate honors thesis, Vassar College
Meert, I. (2005). Reconstruction of environmental conditions at the Belgian coastal area over the past 800 years using Mytilus edulis shells. M.Sc. thesis Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium. [winner of 2005 best thesis award, The Flanders Marine Institute VLIZ]
Steenmans, D. (2004). Do Marine Bivalve Shells Record Paleo-Productivity? M.Sc. thesis. Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Meng, L. (2004). Can bivalves be used as archives of anthropogenic carbon input to the marine environment? EST M.Sc. thesis Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.
Ulens, H. (2003). The potentials of Saxidomus giganteus as a paleoclimate proxy. MareLac M.Sc. thesis. Gent University, Belgium.
Perisesarma samawati Gillikin & Schubart 2004
Updated
June 25, 2009
