Group

MIT EAPS Directory

Kristin Bergmann

D. Reid Weedon, Jr. ’41 Career Development Professor

Website

Kristin Bergmann's multi-disciplinary research – sedimentology and stratigraphy, stable isotope geochemistry of carbonates including clumped isotope thermometry, and geobiology - focuses on reconstructing the record of environmental change from observations of sedimentary rocks spanning Precambrian to end-Ordovician time.

To date her work has focused on marine carbonate sedimentary rocks and fossils from sites that include locations in United States, Oman, and Svalbard. She analyzes these rocks using a variety of tools in order to better understand how the chemistry and climate of the oceans and atmosphere affected the evolution of complex life, from unicellular microbial communities to multicellular animal communities. Her research has multiple important components including placing constraints on the environmental change that provides a backdrop for early evolution but also quantifying the range of climatic conditions the earth system is capable of.

Bergmann received a BA in geology from Carleton College in 2004, after which she spent three years teaching earth and life sciences at The Pennington School in New Jersey. From there she returned to graduate school at Caltech where she was supervised by Professors John Grotzinger, Woodward Fischer, and John Eiler.

After graduating she was a Junior Fellow with the Harvard Society of Fellows, working with Professor Andrew Knoll. She joined the EAPS faculty in July 2015.

Publications

Bergmann, K. D., Finnegan S., Eiler, J. M., Hughes, N. C., Popov, L. E., Fischer, W. W., Estimating Cambro-Ordovician seawater temperature and isotopic composition using carbonate clumped isotope thermometry on calcitic and phosphatic fossils (in review, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta)

Present, T. M., Bergmann K. D., Meyers, C. E., Slotznick, S. P., Creveling, J. C., Zeig, J., Fischer, W. W., Knoll, A. H., Grotzinger, J. P. Porous macroscopic pyrite networks in a Mesoproterozoic SEDEX massive sulfide deposit (in review, GSA Bulletin)

Gomes, M., Bergmann, K. D., Knoll, A., Fike, D. , Environmental insights from high-resolution (SIMS) sulfur isotope data in multiple generations of sulfides in Proterozoic microbialites with diverse mat textures (in press, Geobiology)

Gilbert, P.U., Bergmann, K.D., Myers, C.E., Marcus, M.A., DeVol, R.T., Sun, C.Y., Blonsky, A.Z., Tamre, E., Zhao, J., Karan, E.A. and Tamura, N., (2017). Nacre tablet thickness records formation temperature in modern and fossil shells. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 460, 281-292, doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.11.012

Knoll, A. H., Bergmann, K. D., & Strauss, J. V. (2016). Life: the first two billion years. Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B, 371(1707), 20150493, doi: 10.1098/rstb.2015.0493

JR Creveling, KD Bergmann, JP Grotzinger (2016), Cap carbonate platform facies model, Noonday Formation, SE California, Geological Society of America Bulletin (2016),:B31442.1, doi: 10.1130/B31442.1

Osburn, M. R., Owens, J., Bergmann, K. D., Lyons, T. W., and Grotzinger, J. P. (2015), Dynamic changes in sulfate sulfur isotopes preceding the Ediacaran Shuram Excursion, Geochimica Et Cosmochimica Acta, 170, 2014-224, doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2015.07.039

Osburn, M., Grotzinger, J. P., Bergmann K. (2014), Facies, Stratigraphy, and Evolution of a Middle Ediacaran-age carbonate ramp: Khufai Formation, Sultanate of Oman, AAPG Bulletin, 2014, 98, 1631-1667, doi: 10.1306/07291312140

Creveling, J. R., Fernandez-Remolar, D., Rodriguez-Martinez, M., Menendez, S. Bergmann K. D., Gill, B. C., Abelson, J., Amils, R., Ehlmann, B. L., Garcia-Bellido, D. C., Grotzinger, J. P., Hallman, C., Stack, K. M., Knoll, A. H. (2013), Geobiology of a lower Cambrian carbonate platform, Pedroche Formation, Ossa Morena Zone, Spain, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 2013, 386, 459-478, doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.06.015

Bergmann, K. D., Grotzinger, J. P., & Fischer, W. W. (2013). Biological influences on seafloor carbonate precipitation. Palaios, 28(2), 99-115, doi: 10.2110/palo.2012.p12-088r

Bergmann, K. D., Zentmyer, R. A., & Fischer, W. W. (2011). The stratigraphic expression of a large negative carbon isotope excursion from the Ediacaran Johnnie Formation, Death Valley. Precambrian Research, 188(1), 45-56.

Finnegan, S., Bergmann, K., Eiler, J.M., Jones, D.S., Fike, D.A., Eisenman, I., Hughes, N.C., Tripati, A.K. and Fischer, W.W. (2011), The magnitude and duration of Late Ordovician–Early Silurian glaciation. Science, 331(6019), 903-906, doi: 10.1126/science.1200803

Awards

2018 Packard Fellowship in Science and Engineering, David and Lucile Packard Foundation (2018) | Ally of Nature Fund Award, MIT (2015) | William F. Milton Fund, Harvard (2014) | Harvard Society of Fellows, Junior Fellowship, (2013) | Ian Campbell Award for Excellence in Field Geology, Caltech (2013) | National Science Foundation Graduate Student Research Fellowship (2011-2013) | Class of 1963 Fellowship, Carleton College, (2003) | Duncan Stewart Fellowship, Carleton College (2003) | Victor P. Starr Career Development Chair (2016)