Address:
Department of Geosciences
University of Bremen
GEO Building, Room 5090
Klagenfurter Strasse
28359 Bremen
Research Profile My current research focuses on the reconstruction of the past productivity of the tropical Indian Ocean using coccolithophores as proxies. My work is centered on identification, counting, and geochemical analysis of these microfossils to interpret ancient environments and processes represented by the sediments. I am interested in the information that these records hold and the story that they tell about the past climate and geochemical cycles. I am also keen on learning how and why water masses move, and when they do, how do these processes affect the biological community. Aside from the use of these coccolithophores as paleoenvironmental and paleoceanographic tracers, I was also able to explore their utility as biostratigraphic markers during the IODP Expedition 361: Southern African Climates where I sailed as one of the nannofossil biostratigraphers.
My past research involvements were mostly on the late Quaternary paleoceanographic reconstructions of the South China Sea and the Philippine marginal and inland seas (Bohol, Sibuyan, and Sulu Seas) using water, sediment trap, surface sediments, and long sediment core samples. I also made my contribution in the refinement of Philippine stratigraphy by doing biostratigraphic studies of several sedimentary formations (Catanduanes, Ilocos, Mindoro, Misamis Oriental, Samar) from Cretaceous to Recent and published papers in the local geology journal. In addition, I did biostratigraphic works for a few private mining companies in the Philippines, providing age constraints of their respective study sites.
I am also proficient in other geological duties such as, but not limited to time-series analysis using a suite of open-source software, sedimentary core logging, geological mapping, sample processing and operation of ICPMS, ICPOES and XRF for major and trace element analyses, and TOC and CaCO3 analyses.
Ship Expeditions • February/March 2016, Joides Resolution, Port Louis, Mauritius to Cape Town, South Africa, IODP Expedition 361 - Southern African Climates , Calcareous nannofossil biostratigrapher.
Chief scientists: Ian Hall and Sidney Hemming
• September 2013, R/V Revelle, Papua New Guinea, Federal States of Micronesia, and Philippine Waters, Site Survey and Coring of Potential IODP Drill Sites in the Western Pacific Warm Pool.
Chief scientists: Yair Rosenthal and Gregory Mountain
• March 2009, R/V Melville, Northern Philippine seaboard (Philippines-Taiwan).
Chief scientist: Pierre Flament
• December 2007, R/V Melville, Philippines Straits Dynamics Experiment: inland and marginal seas.
Chief scientists: Pierre Flament and Cesay Villanoy
Publications In preparation
• Tangunan, D., K. H. Baumann, C. Fink. in preparation. Northern migration of the subtropical front enhances coccolithophore glacial productivity.
• Tangunan, D., K. H. Baumann, J. Just, L. Brentegani, I. Hall and the Expedition 361 scientists. in preparation. The last 1 million years of discoasters: Plio-Pleistocene productivity at Site U1476 (Mozambique Channel).
Submitted
• Tangunan, D., A. Peleo-Alampay. under review. Late Pleistocene to Holocene productivity changes in the western equatorial Pacific (Sulu Sea, Philippines) from calcareous nannofossils. Marine Micropaleontology.
1. Paleoproductivity in the western tropical Indian Ocean over the past 300 kyrs: evidence from coccolithophores off Tanzania, East Africa (D.N. Tangunan and K. –H. Baumann), International Conference on Paleoceanography (ICP 12), Utrecht, the Netherlands, August 28- September 3, 2016.
2. Coccolithophores’ life magnified: telling the Indian Ocean paleoproductivity story (D.N.Tangunan and K.-H. Baumann), 6th Early Career Scientists Conference (ECC) for Marine and Climate Research, Kiel, Germany, October 5-6, 2015.
3. Late Quaternary calcareous nannofossils from the western tropical Indian Ocean (D.N.Tangunan and K.-H. Baumann), PhD Days 2015, Schloss Etelsen Achim, April 22-23, 2015.
4. Response of coccolithophores to paleoproductivity changes in the western tropical Indian Ocean (off Tanzania, East Africa) for the past 25 kyrs (D.N.Tangunan and K.-H. Baumann), International Nannoplankton Association (INA) Meeting, Bohol, Philippines, February 2015.
5. Paleoproductivity Changes in the Sulu Sea from Geochemical Proxies (D.N. Tangunan and A.M. Peleo-Alampay), NIGS Research Symposium, UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, February 2013.
6. The Occurrence of Late Cretaceous Calcareous Nannofossils from Codon Point, San Andres, Catanduanes (D.N. Tangunan, A.G.S. Fernando, C.A. Arcilla), NIGS Research Symposium, UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, February 2013.
7. Paleoproductivity Variations in the Upwelling Site off Zamboanga Peninsula (Philippines) from planktonic foraminifera (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay) 11th NIGS Research Symposium, UP Diliman, Quezon City, Philippines, November 10-11, 2012.
8. The Catbalogan Formation (Northern Samar, Philippines): New age data from Calcareous Nannofossils (D.N.Tangunan, A.C. Fernandez, A.C. Balota, R.J.M. Antonio, M.L.C. Abad, A.M.Peleo-Alampay, and A.G.S. Fernando), 24th Annual Geological Convention of the Geological Society of the Philippines (GSP), Ortigas, Pasig City, Philippines, December 8-9, 2011.
9. Paleoproductivity Variations in the Upwelling Site off Zamboanga Peninsula (Philippines) from planktonic foraminifera (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay) PAMS Conference in Tagaytay, Philippines on September 2011.
10. Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy of Balanga Formation, Northwest Mindoro, Philippines (D.N.Tangunan, A.M. Peleo-Alampay, J. Abuda, L.A. Mambuay, C.R. Ramos, A.G.S. Fernando, C.B. Dimalanta, R.A. Tamayo, D. Faustino-Eslava, C.S. Pascua, E. Vargas), 13th International Nannoplankton Association Conference, September 4-15, 2010, Yamagata, Japan.
11. Upwelling History of Southeastern Margins of the Sulu Sea, Philippines (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay), 13th International Nannoplankton Association Conference, September 4-15, 2010, Yamagata, Japan.
12. Calcareous Nannofossil Biostratigraphy of Calcareous Sedimentary Sequence in Mamburao, Occidental Mindoro, Philippines (D.N.Tangunan, A.M. Peleo-Alampay, J. Abuda, L.A. Mambuay, C.R. Ramos, A.G.S. Fernando, C.B. Dimalanta, R.A. Tamayo, D. Faustino-Eslava, C.S. Pascua, Vargas), 10th NIGS Research Symposium, March 4-5, 2010, University of the Philippines, Diliman, Quezon City.
13. Calcareous Nannoplankton and Organic Carbon as Paleoproductivity Tracers: Examples from High and Low Productivity Areas of the Sulu Sea, Philippines (D.N. Tangunan, A.M. Peleo-Alampay) Philippine Association of Marine Science Conference, October 21-24, 2009, Davao City, Philippines.
14. Tracing the Paleoproductivity and Paleoceanography of Southwestern Philippine Waters: Evidence from Coccolithophores (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay), JENESYS Programme 2009, JSPS Exchange Program for East Asian Young Researchers: The 5th KAGI International Summer School, Kyoto University Active Geosphere Investigations for the 21st Century, August 21-September 4, 2009, Kyoto and Shiga, Japan.
15. Tracing the Paleoproductivity and Paleoceanography of Southwestern Philippine Waters: Evidence from Coccolithophores (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay), 2nd National Symposium and Scientific Meeting, Philippine Phycological Society, Inc., April 13, 2009, University of the Philippines Los Baños, Laguna, Philippines.
16. Clues to the Paleoproductivity and Paleoceanography of the Southwestern Portion of the South China Sea (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay), NIGSCON and GEOCON 2009, December 3-5, 2008, Intercontinental Hotel, Makati, Philippines.
17. Clues to the Paleoproductivity and Paleoceanography of the Southwestern Portion of the South China Sea (D.N.Tangunan, A.M.Peleo-Alampay), South China Sea Conference 2008, November 23-30, 2008, Kuantan, Malaysia.
Forams are fantastic! But what if they are made out of plastic?
In my story, Gigi, an aspiring micropaleontolofish and her equally inquisitive friend Thibault, a spontaneous sea turtle discovered a group of peculiar sea creatures in one of their adventures under the sea. Professor Fina, a teacher in an underwater school for marine animals helped them know what those are and how those creatures possibly got their form. This story tells us of what the future might be for foraminifera, a group of microscopic marine organisms. There will come a time when our oceans will have too much plastic litter that even the smallest of organisms living in them have to use them as shells.
• Science Slam im Wissenschaftsjahr 2016-17
June 17, 2017, Audimax TU Braunschweig.
Organized by Haus der Wissenschaft
