Kaja Fenn
Department of Geography & Planning, University of Liverpool, UK
I am a Quaternary scientist who uses dust and loess to piece together how landscapes have changed through time. By combining field observations with sedimentology, geochronology and geochemistry, I trace where sediment came from, reconstruct past environments, and investigate how climate reshapes landscapes.
Research
I use loess and sediment to reconstruct past environments and investigate how climate, landscapes, and sediment systems have changed through time.
DUST & LOESS
Loess is so much more than alternating units of loess and soils. I study loess to understand past dust activity, ask where sediment came from, when landscapes became dust sources, and why dust systems changed through time.
LANDSCAPE CHANGE
What did this landscape used to look like, and why did it change? I reconstruct past environments to investigate how surface processes and climate have reshaped landscapes through time.
Current Projects
SOUTHERN DUSTSCAPES
Reconstructing how Southern Hemisphere landscapes became dust sources through the Late Quaternary.
New Zealand · Tasmania
MONTEREY BAY
Investigating how sediment properties vary along the coast and testing whether portable OSL can reveal new information about sediment transport and depositional processes.
California, USA
CHEST OF DEE
Reconstructing the palaeoenvironmental context of human occupation in the Cairngorms to understand how people interacted with changing landscapes.
Scotland
The provenance of Danubian loess
Earth-Science Reviews, 2022
Tracing the sources of loess along the Danube and showing the importance of regional sediment sources beyond the major glaciated mountain belts.
Selected Publications
A tale of two signals: Global and local influences on the Late Pleistocene loess sequences in Bulgarian Lower Danube
Quaternary Science Reviews, 2021
Using dated loess sequences to separate wider climatic signals from local landscape influences on sediment accumulation in the Lower Danube.
Re-analysis of late Quaternary dust mass accumulation rates in Serbia using new luminescence chronology for loess–palaeosol sequence at Surduk
Boreas, 2020
A new luminescence chronology used to reconstruct changing dust accumulation rates and identify periods of disrupted deposition in Serbia.
About me
I am a Quaternary scientist and Lecturer in Environmental Change at the University of Liverpool. My research focuses on dust, loess and past landscapes, particularly where sediment came from, how it moved, and when it was deposited. I combine fieldwork with geochronology, geochemistry and sedimentology to piece together how landscapes and environments changed through time.
I am always interested in new questions, places and collaborations, and welcome enquiries about research projects, expert comment, PhD or postdoctoral ideas, and applications I may be able to support or host.
