Dr Catherine Stickley
B.Sc. (Hons) M.Sc. D.UCL Ph.D.

Palaeo⁷ LLP Delegated Partner Representative

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Catherine is a siliceous micropalaeontologist with 21 years’ experience, specialising in the Late Cretaceous to Holocene biostratigraphy and palaeoceanography of diatoms, silicoflagellates, ebridians and the minor siliceous groups.  Building on her M.Sc. in Micropalaeontology  (University College London, 1994), she is currently training in the advanced taxonomy and  application of Mesozoic and Cenozoic radiolarians.  In 1998 she was awarded a Ph.D. from UCL in Cenozoic-Quaternary diatom biostratigraphy and palaeoceanography from offshore New Zealand.  During her subsequent 3-year post-doctorate at UCL, she sailed as sole diatom biostratigrapher for Ocean Drilling Program Leg 189 to offshore  South Australia, and co-ordinated the post-expedition biomagnetostratigraphy involving 6 major microfossil groups and 5 drill-sites.

In 2002, she was awarded a Royal Society-Fulbright Fellowship to Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (New York) where she reconstructed past ocean circulation patterns using diatoms from several drill-sites in the North, South and mid Atlantic.  After this she took a 3-year project at Cardiff University analysing the siliceous microfossil content of Quaternary-Holocene sediments from several cores along the East Antarctic Margin, before moving to Norway in 2006.  There, at the Norwegian Polar Institute and University of Tromsø, she became directly involved in developing a new Paleogene biostratigraphy using siliceous microfossils from the only existing drill-hole in the Central Arctic; the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program “ACEX” sediments from the Lomonosov Ridge.  These analyses led her to re-assess Late Cretaceous-Miocene sediments from 9 drill-sites across the Norwegian-Greenland seas, North Sea, and North Atlantic.  She subsequently developed a new regional siliceous microfossil biostratigraphy that is calibrated to the Global Time Scale and has excellent potential for integration with existing palynological biostratigraphies in the same region.

As one of relatively few specialists in pre-Quaternary marine diatoms, Catherine has a keen interest in the development and training of others in this often overlooked group.  She has helped promote diatoms and other siliceous groups as invaluable tools for global biostratigraphy and palaeoenvironments through nearly 50 peer-reviewed publications on a variety of biostratigraphic and palaeoclimatic issues and time-frames.  These include works published in Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience and PNAS, several book chapters and a number of books/expedition proceedings.  She regularly reviews for several high-profile journals and until recently served 7 years on the editorial board for the Journal of Micropalaeontology.  She has sailed as a diatomist on 6 coring expeditions to both polar regions (total 30 weeks) including most recently as micropalaeontology team leader during the 2010 IODP Wilkes Land Expedition (Antarctica) involving 4 major microfossil groups and 7 drill sites.

 

Publications

Backman, J., Jakobsson, M., Frank, M., Sangiorgi, F., Brinkhuis, H., Stickley, C.E., O'Regan, M., Løvlie, R., Pälike, H., Spofforth, D., Gattacecca, J. & Moran. K. 2008. Age Model and Core-Seismic Integration for the Cenozoic ACEX Sediments from the Lomonosov Ridge. Paleoceanography, 23.

Barron, J.A., Stickley, C.E. & Bukry, D. 2015. Paleoceanographic, and paleoclimatic constraints on the global Eocene diatom and silicoflagellate record. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 422: 85–100.

Battarbee, R.W., Gasse, F. and Stickley, C.E. (Eds). 2004. Past Climate Variability Through Europe and Africa. Developments in Paleoenvironmental Research Book Series, vol. 6. Springer. 638pp.

Bijl, P.K., Bendle, J.A.P., Bohaty, S.M., Pross, J., Schouten, S., Tauxe, L., Stickley, C.E., et al. 2013. Eocene cooling linked to early flow across the Tasmanian Gateway.  PNAS, 110 (24): 9645-9650.

Bijl, P.K., Pross, J., Warnaar, J., Stickley, C.E., et al. 2011. Environmental forcings of Paleogene Southern Ocean dinoflagellate biogeography. Paleoceanography. 26, PA1202.

Cook, C.P., et al. including Stickley, C.E., 2013. Dynamic behaviour of the East Antarctic ice sheet during Pliocene warmth. Nature Geoscience, 6: 765–769.

Escutia, C., Brinkhuis, H. & the Expedition 318 Scientists. 2014. From Greenhouse to Icehouse at the Wilkes Land Antarctic Margin: IODP Expedition 318. In: (Stein et al., Eds) Earth and Life Processes Discovered from Subseafloor Environments. Developments in Marine Geology, Volume 7: 295-328. 

Escutia, C., Brinkhuis, H., Klaus, A., and the Expedition 318 Scientists incl. Stickley, C.E., 2011. Proc. IODP, 318: Tokyo (Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Management International, Inc.).

Ettwein, V.J., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2001. Fluctuations in productivity and upwelling intensity at Site 1083 during the intensification of the Northern Hemisphere glaciation (2.40-2.65 Ma). Proceed. ODP, Sci., Res., 175: 1-25.

Exon, N.F. et al. incl. Stickley, C.E., 2001. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Initial Reports, 189.

Flower, R. J., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2006. Environmental Changes at the Desert Margin: An Assessment of Recent Paleolimnological Records in Lake Qarun, Middle Egypt. J. Paleolim., 35.

Hollis, C.J., Stickley, C.E., Bijl, P.K., Schiøler, P., Clowes, C.D., Li, X. & Campbell, H., 2017. The age of the Takatika Grit, Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Alcheringa, 41: 1–14.

Houben, A.J.P., Bijl, P.K., Pross, J., Bohaty, S.M., Passchier, S., Stickley, C.E., et al. 2013. Reorganization of Southern Ocean plankton ecosystems at the onset of Antarctic glaciation. Science, 19 April 2013: 341-344.

Huber, M., Brinkhuis, H., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2004. Eocene circulation of the Southern Ocean: Was Antarctica kept warm by subtropical waters? Paleoceanography, PA4016.

Jordan, R.W. and Stickley, C. E. 2010. Diatoms as indicators of paleoceanographic events. The Diatoms: Applications for the Environmental and Earth Sciences. 2nd edition. C.U.P., p. 423-452.

Koc, N., Miettinen, A., Stickley, C.E., 2013. Diatom records: North Atlantic and Arctic. In: (Elias, S.A., ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, vol. 1, pp. 562-, 2nd edition. Amsterdam, Elsevier.

Leventer, A., Domack, E., Dunbar, R., Pike, J., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2006. East Antarctic Margin marine sediment record of deglaciation, GSA Today, 16, 12.

Maslin, M.A., Pike, J., Stickley, C.E. & Ettwein, V.J. 2003. Evidence of Holocene climate variability in marine sediments, pp.185-209. In: (Mackay, A.et al., eds), Global Change in the Holocene. Hodder-Arnold, Lond. 528 pp.

Maslin, M.A., Stickley, C.E. and Ettwein, V.J. 2001 (2003 online). Holocene Climate Variability, pp.1210-1217. In: (Steele, J., Thorpe, S. and Turekian, K., eds), Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences. Academic Press. 300 pp.

Maslin, M.A., Stickley, C.E. and Ettwein, V.J. 2008 (2009 online). Holocene Climate Variability, pp.125-132. In: (Steele, J., et al., eds), Encyclopedia of Ocean Sciences (Second Edition). Academic Press. 300 pp.

O’Regan, M., Moran, K., Backman, J., Jakobsson, M., Sangiorgi, F., Brinkhuis, H., Pockalny, R., Skelton, A., Stickley, C. E., et al., 2008. Mid-Cenozoic tectonic and paleoenvironmental setting of the central Arctic Ocean. Paleoceanography, 23.

Pant, N.C., et al. including. C.E. Stickley. 2013. Provenance of Pleistocene sediments from Site U1359 of the Wilkes Land IODP Leg 318—evidence for multiple sourcing from the East Antarctic Craton and Ross Orogen. Geol. Soc. Spec. Publ., 381.

Patterson, M.O. et al. (including Stickley, C.E.). 2014. Orbital forcing of the East Antarctic ice sheet during the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene. Nature Geoscience.

Pearce, M.A., Stickley, C.E. & Johansen, L.M., 2019 (in press). Chatangiella islae and Trithyrodinium zakkii, new species of peridinioid dinoflagellate cysts (Family Deflandreoideae) from the Coniacian and Campanian (Upper Cretaceous) of the Norwegian Sea. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology, 271: in press.

Pike J., Allen, C. S., Leventer, A., Stickley, C.E., and Pudsey, C.J. 2008. Comparison of contemporary and fossil diatom assemblages from the western Antarctic Peninsula shelf. Marine Micropaleontology, 67: 274–287.

Pike, J. and Stickley. C.E., 2006 (2007 online). Diatom records: marine laminated sequences. In: (Elias, S., ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Elsevier, 557-567.

Pike, J. and Stickley. C.E., 2013. Diatom records: Diatom fossil records from marine laminated sediments. In: (Elias, S., ed.), The Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, 1: 554-561, 2nd edition. Amsterdam, Elsevier.

Pike, J., Crosta, X., Maddison, E. J., Stickley, C. E., et al. 2009. Observations on the relationship between the Antarctic coastal diatoms Thalassiosira antarctica Comber and Porosira glacialis (Grunow) Jørgensen and sea ice concentrations during the late Quaternary. Marine Micropaleontology, 73: 14-25.

Pross, J., et al. incl. Stickley, C.E. 2012. Persistent near-tropical warmth on the Antarctic continent during the early Eocene epoch. Nature, 488 (2 August), 73-77.

Robert C. M. et al. incl. Stickley, C. E. 2001. Palaeogene ocean opening south of Tasmania and palaeoceanographic implications: preliminary results of clay mineral analyses (ODP Leg 189). Comptes Rendus de l’Académie des Sciences, 332: 323-329.

Röhl, U., Brinkhuis, H., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2004. Sea Level and astronomically induced environmental changes in Middle and Late Eocene sediments from the East Tasman Plateau. 127-151. In: (Exon, N.F., Kennett, J.P. and Malone, M.J. (Eds), The Cenozoic Southern Ocean: Tectonics, Sedimentation and Climate Change between Australia and Antarctica. Geophysical Monograph Series, 151. AGU, Washington, 344pp.

Sangiorgi, F., Brumsack, H.-J., Willard, D. A., Schouten, S., Stickley, C. E., O’Regan, M., Reichart, G.-J., Sinninghe Damste, J.-S and Brinkhuis H. 2008a. A 26 million years gap in the central Arctic record at the greenhouse-icehouse transition: Looking for clues. Paleoceanography, 23.

Sangiorgi, F., van Soelen, E. E., Spofforth, D. J. A., Pälike, H., Stickley, C. E., St. John, K., Koç, N., Schouten, S., Sinninghe Damsté, J. S. and Brinkhuis, H. 2008b. Cyclicity in the middle Eocene central Arctic Ocean sediment record: Orbital forcing and environmental response. Paleoceanography, 23.

Schellenberg, S.A., Brinkhuis, H., Stickley, C.E., et al. 2004. The Cretaceous/Paleogene Transition at Ocean Drilling Program Site 1172 (East Tasman Plateau, Southwestern Pacific). In: (Exon, N.F., Kennett, J.P. and Malone, M.J., eds), The Cenozoic Southern Ocean: Tectonics, Sedimentation and Climate Change between Australia and Antarctica. Geophysical Monograph Series, 151. AGU, Washington, 344pp.

Sluijs, A., Brinkhuis, H., Stickley, C.E., et al., 2003. Dinoflagellate cysts from the Eocene-Oligocene transition in the Southern Ocean: Results from ODP Leg 189. Proceed. ODP, Scientific Results, 189: 1-42.

Stickley, C. E., et al., 2009. Evidence for middle Eocene Arctic sea ice from diatoms and ice-rafted debris. Nature, 460 (16 July), 376-379.

Stickley, C.E., (in press 2014). Major Contributor to Matthews, J.A. et al. (Eds), The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change. (2nd edition). Sage Publications, London and California.

Stickley, C.E., 2001. Major Contributor to Matthews, J.A. et al. (Eds), The Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Environmental Change, 1st edition, Arnold, London, 690pp.

Stickley, C.E., 2014. Palaeoclimate: The Sea Ice Thickens. News and Views. Nature Geoscience, 7: 165-166.

Stickley, C.E., et al. 2005. Deglacial ocean and climate seasonality in laminated diatom sediments, Mac.Robertson Shelf, Antarctica. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 227: 290-310.

Stickley, C.E., et al. 2008. A siliceous microfossil view of middle Eocene Arctic paleoenvironments: A window of biosilica production and preservation. Paleoceanography, 23.

Stickley, C.E., et al.  2004b. Timing and nature of the deepening of the Tasmanian Gateway. Paleoceanography, 19, PA4027

Stickley, C.E., et al., 2001. Lower Circumpolar Deep Water flow through the SW Pacific Gateway for the last 190 ky: Evidence from Antarctic diatoms, p. 101-116. In: (Seidov, D., et al., eds), The Oceans and rapid climate change, past, present and future. Geophysical Monograph Series, 126. AGU, Washington, 294pp.

Stickley, C.E., et al., 2013. Diatom records: Antarctic waters. In: (Elias, S. ed.), The Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science, vol. 1, pp. 527-539, 2nd edition. Amsterdam, Elsevier.

Stickley, C.E., et  al. 2004a. Late Cretaceous-Quaternary biomagnetostratigraphy of ODP Sites 1168, 1170, 1171 and 1172, Tasmanian Gateway. Proceedings of the Ocean Drilling Program, Scientific Results, 189: 1-57.

Stickley, C.E., Koç, N., Pearce, R.B., Kemp, A.E.S., Jordan, R.W., Sangiorgi, F. and St. John, K., 2012. Variability in the length of the sea ice season in the middle Eocene Arctic. Geology, 40: 727-730.

Stickley, C.E., Pike, J. and Jones, V.J., 2006 (2007 online). Diatom records: Antarctic waters. In: (Elias, S., ed), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Elsevier, 530-541.

Stickley, C.E., Pike, J. and Leventer, A., 2006. Productivity events of the marine diatom Thalassiosira tumida (Janisch) Hasle recorded in deglacial varves from the East Antarctic Margin. Marine Micropalaeontology, 59: 184-196.

Stocchi, P. et al. incl. Stickley C.E. 2013. Relative sea-level rise around East Antarctica during Oligocene glaciation. Nature Geoscience, 6: 380-384.

Tauxe, L. Stickley C.E., et al. 2012. Chronostratigraphic framework for the IODP Expedition 318 cores from the Wilkes Land Margin: Constraints for paleoceanographic reconstruction. Paleoceanography, 27, PA2214.