I am a Research Professor at NORCE Climate and Environment, affiliated to the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research. My main research interests are Atlantic and Polar paleoceanography, sea ice reconstructions and proxies, and past warm climates. My current research focuses on polar paleoceanography and sea ice reconstructions. Together with my cross-disciplinary team of paleoceanographers and microbial ecologists, we are investigating the potential of ancient DNA in marine sediments for sea ice reconstructions in the Arctic and Antarctic. Our projects are funded through an ERC Consolidator Grant (AGENSI), an EEA and Norway Grant (NEEDED) and the Norwegian Research Council (ARCHIE). For all of these projects we work with international partners located in Germany, Poland, Australia and the UK.
My main expertise is in marine palynology (dinoflagellate cysts), and I have worked with inorganic (stable isotopes and Mg/Ca of foraminifers) and organic (sea ice biomarkers) geochemistry, and more recently also with ancient DNA. I remain interested and active in research on different aspects of dinoflagellate cyst research, past warm Pliocene climates, Quaternary and Pliocene paleoceanography, regional paleoenvironmental reconstructions and biostratigraphy.
Very short CV
Since 2016 Research Professor at NORCE
2014–2016 Senior Researcher at Uni Research
2011–2014 Postdoc at University of Bergen (Norway)
2006–2011 Postdoc at University of Bremen (Germany)
2002–2006 PhD, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge (UK)
Recent publications
De Schepper, S., Ray, J. L., Skaar, K., Sadatzki, H., Ijaz, U.Z., Stein, R. and Larsen, A. 2019. The potential of sedimentary ancient DNA for sea ice reconstructions. ISME Journal 13, 2566–2577, doi:10.1038/s41396-019-0457-1. Link
Clotten, C., Stein, R., Fahl, K., Schreck, M., Risebrobakken, B. & De Schepper, S., 2019. On the causes of Arctic sea ice in the warm Early Pliocene. Scientific Reports 9:989, doi: 10.1038/s41598-018-37047-y. Link
McClymont, E.L., Ford, H.L., Ho, S.L., Tindall, J.C., Haywood, A.M., Alonso-Garcia, M., Bailey, I., Berke, M.A., Littler, K., Patterson, M., Petrick, B., Peterse, F., Ravelo, A.C., Risebrobakken, B., De Schepper, S., Swann, G.E.A, Thiraumalai, K., Tierney, J.E., van der Weijst, C. and White, S. 2019. Lessons from a high CO2 world: an ocean view from ~3 million years ago, doi: 10.5194/cp-2019-161. Link
All publications, see ORCID 0000-0002-6934-0914