Prof. Kristin Bergmann

The Bergmann Lab is an interdisciplinary group in Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences (EAPS) at the MIT. Work combines aspects of sedimentology, stratigraphy, geochemistry, and geobiology to better understand the connections between the Earth's environment and the organisms that inhabit it.

The Bergmann Lab’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. Current work in the Bergmann Lab is focused on interpreting the record of marine carbonate sedimentary rocks and fossils. The Lab 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. Research attempts to place constraints on the environmental change that provides a backdrop for early evolution and quantify the range of climatic conditions the earth system is capable of.