Stefan Loehr

I am an Earth Scientist with expertise in geochemistry, sedimentary geology and (palaeo)oceanography, as well as a strong background in soil and environmental science. In order to advance our understanding of the causes and consequences of environmental change, my research focusses on extracting records of palaeoenvironmental/climatic change from marine and lacustrine sedimentary rocks. I utilise a combination of fieldwork, analytical (esp. microbeam), experimental and modelling approaches to extract, validate, and interpret this information, working with a diverse group of national and international collaborators.

Current research interests include:

1. high resolution palaeorecords across time-periods of significant environmental change (Quaternary glacial-interglacial cycles, Eocene-Oligocene Climate Transition, Mesozoic Greenhouse World and Ocean Anoxic Events, Ediacaran-Cambrian Transition);

2. secondary mineral formation and alteration in terrestrial and marine settings – implications for biospheric evolution, climate, element cycling (e.g. REEs), geochronology and the interpretation of isotope proxy records;

3. wildfires as agents of mineral alteration and geochemical differentiation at the Earth’s surface;

4. development of novel applications combining high resolution, quantitative electron-based sedimentary petrography with microbeam geochemical and isotopic (incl. geochronological) analysis to inform studies of palaeoenvironmental change.

5. more recently, I have also become interested in combining my expertise in clay mineralogy, (isotope) geochemistry and high resolution sedimentary petrography to identify the mechanisms of 'clay-hosted' REE enrichment in soils and weathering profiles.

PhD students supervised (* denotes primary supervision):

Current: Jack Jones - 'A chronostratigraphic framework for the Cambrian Stansbury Basin, South Australia' (at Macquarie University)

Current: Elizabeth Baruch - 'Burial evolution of porosity in unconventional reservoirs' (at University of Adelaide)

*Current: Shujun Han - 'Diagnostic criteria for identifying authigenic clay minerals and implications for the earliest record of animal life in the Ediacaran Doushantuo Formation' (at Macquarie University)

*Current: Hafiz Shahid Hussain - 'New insights into the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum from a basinal transect of the Indus Basin' (at Macquarie University)

*2018 - 2021: Mehrnoush Rafiei – 'Novel sedimentary petrography applied to the shale record of continental weathering in the Precambrian' (at Macquarie University)

2017 - 2021: Kristy Guerin –  ‘Wildfires as an agent of high temperature geochemical and mineralogical differentiation at the Earth’s surface’ – with Drs David Murphy & Luke Nothdurft (at Queensland University of Technology)

2016 – 2019: Huiyuan Xu – ‘Source rock development and organic matter inputs in the Dongying Depression of the Bohai Bay Basin’ (at Macquarie University)

2013 – 2018: Md Habibur Rahman – ‘Clay mineral catalytic influence on hydrocarbon generation in black shales’ (at Macquarie University)

MRes & BSc (Hons) students supervised (* denotes primary supervision):

*2021-2022: Cassandra Wheeler - "Mesoproterozoic lacustrine clay-mineral record of weathering prior to greening of the continents"

*2021-2022: Ananyaa Deepak - "A Proterozoic shale record of marine clay authigenesis"

*2021-2022: Hannah Wilson - "Biomarker-based Holocene wildfire history of Kangaroo Island and links to human occupation" (with Prof Simon George)

*2019-2020: Kaycee Handley - 'Massive subaerial volcanism trigger for Oceanic Anoxic Event 2' - joint supervision with Dr April Abbott

2018: Angela Mabee – ‘Eocene deepening of the Tasman Gateway & commencement of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current’

2015: Natalie Debenham – ‘An exotic source rock: drivers of organic carbon enrichment in the Permian Arckaringa Basin’

*2013: Robyn Williamson – ‘Organic carbon in Mediterranean sapropels: The interplay between anoxia, productivity and clay mineral association’ (BSc Hons, University of Adelaide)

2012: Samuel Fraser – 'Nanoscale imaging of the Woodford Shale, Oklahoma, USA: Organic matter preservation as clay-organic nanocomposites' (BSc Hons, University of Adelaide)