Position:
Early-stage researcher, PhD student
Address:
Limnology Unit, Department of Biology, Ghent University
K.L. Ledeganckstraat 35, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium
Email:
aynalemzenebe.degefa@ugent.be
or
aynalem241@gmail.com
Website:
UGent webpage
Supervisor:
Dirk Verschuren
Biography:
I am a doctoral student at Ghent University, Limnology Research Unit. I have BSc (2006) in Applied Geology from Mekelle University and MSc (2009) in Earth Sciences from Addis Ababa University. My MSc thesis was on Holocene Palaeoclimate Reconstruction using speleothem and lake sediment archives. I started my PhD (Dec.2013), in the interdisciplinary project called Resilience in East African Landscape (REAL) focusing mainly on climate-human-landscape interaction in East Africa. My research focus is on reconstructing the rate of soil erosion and sedimentation in Lake Baringo, NE part of the Kenyan Rift Valley using geological geochemical from lake sediment archives and historical records in a time frame back to the past 250 years…
About my project
the main target of my research is to reconstruct and quantify the rate of soil erosion in the Lake Baringo basin, Kenya. Several scientific research revealed the Baringo area is one of the severely affected due to anthropogenic induced land degradation and severe drought as a result of climate variability. In the past 250 years, the Lake catchment experienced severe soil erosion which resulted in reduced Lake water reduction. I will be working on the the reconstruction of soil erosion rates in the specified time frame. I plan to apply sediment texture and geochemistry, high resolution magnetic susceptibility, and XRF analysis to trace events of severe soil erosion at catchment scale using lake sediment cores and surface soil samples. Land use change, RS data and documented historical records will be coupled with lake sediment archives. I will also be interested to examine recent lake level fluctuations in the past decade.
PhD Title: Climate-Human-Landscape interaction within the last ca. 200-250 years in the north central Kenya Rift Valley (Laikapia-Baringo-Ewaso-Bogoria)
Abbreviated CV:
2006 B.Sc. Degree, Applied Geology, Mekelle University
2009 M.Sc. Degree in Earth Sciences (Geo-Environmental Systems Analysis) , Addis Ababa University.
MSc. Thesis : “Holocene Paleoclimate Reconstruction Using Proxy Records in Stalagmites from the Mechara Karst Area and Lake Archives from Tillo and Awassa Lakes, Ethiopia”.
07-2009-12-2013 Lecturer at Department of Earth Sciences, Mekelle University, Ethiopia.
2014-present- PhD student, Ghent University, Belgium, Department of Biology, Limnology Research Unit.
