Kathleen Wendt
Innsbruck Quaternary Research Group
Research Interests
• Understanding the climate and precipitation history of modern-day arid regions
• Utilising speleothems as high-resolution climate archives
Short CV
2021-2023 NSF Postdoctoral researcher, Oregon State University
2019- 2020 Postdoctoral researcher, University of Innsbruck
2015-2019 PhD candidate in Earth Sciences at the University of Innsbruck, Austria
2013-2015 Masters of Science in Earth Sciences at the University of Minnesota, USA
2008-2013 Bachelor of Science in Environmental Sciences (summa cum laude honors) at the University of Minnesota, USA
Grants and scholarships
2014 Francis Gibson Graduate Fellowship
2013 Community Engagement Scholar Award
2013 Soil, Water, & Climate Scholarship
2012 Robert Henton Fund Scholarship
2011 Mulvehill Lind Scholarship
2011 Undergraduate Research Opportunity Grant
Professional and Community involvement
2015 Featured in the American Women in Geoscience (AWG)'s Spring 2015 Newsletter
2014-2015 Student organiser of the University of Minnesota’s Quaternary Paleoecology seminar
2012-2015 Volunteer at the Science Museum of Minnesota
Publications
Steidle, S.D., Dublyansky, Y., Roman, M., Moseley, G.E., Wendt, K.E., Edwards, R.L. & Spötl, C. (2026): Timing and amplitude of hydroclimate changes during the last glacial cycle in southwestern North America. – Quaternary Science Reviews, 109865, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2026.109865
Wendt, K.A., Carolin, S., Buizert, C., Steidle, S.D., Edwards, R.L., Moseley, G.E., Dublyansky, Y., Cheng, H., He, C., Warner, M.S.C., Spötl, C. (2025): Controls on the southwest USA hydroclimate over the last six glacial-interglacial cycles. – Nature Communications, 1 6:10007, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-64963-1
Wendt, K.A., Li, X., Edwards, R.L. (2021): Uranium–Thorium dating of speleothems. - Elements, 17, 87-92.
Affek, H.P., Barkan, E., Tal, Y., Steidle, S.D., Wendt, K.A., Spötl, C., Edwards, R.L., Fishman, E. & Dublyansky, Y. (2025): 17Oexcess in Devils Hole calcite: an indicator of equilibrium fractionation and paleo moisture sources. – Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 667, 119528, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2025.119528.
Moseley, G.E., Dublyansky, Y.V., Edwards, R.L., Wendt, K.A., Pythoud, M., Zhang, P., Cheng, H., , Lu, Y., Boch, R., Spötl, C. (2016): Response to comments on "Reconciliation of the Devils Hole climate record with orbital forcing". – Science, 354, 296e.
Moseley, G.E., Edwards, R.L., Wendt, K.A., Cheng, H., Dublyansky, Y., Lu, Y., Boch, R., Spötl, C. (2016): Reconciliation of the Devils Hole climate record with orbital forcing. – Science, 351, 165-168.
Wendt, K.A., Dublyansky, Y.V., Moseley, G.E., R Edwards, R.L., Cheng, H., Spötl, C. (2018): Moisture availability in the southwest United States over the last three glacial-interglacial cycles. – Science Advances, 4: eaau1375.
Wendt, K.A., Häuselmann, A.D., Fleitmann, D., Berry, A.E., Wang, X., Auler, A.S., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L. (2019): Three-phased Heinrich Stadial 4 recorded in NE Brazil stalagmites. - Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 510, 94-102.
Wendt, K.A., Pythoud, M., Moseley, G.E., Dublyansky, Y.V., Edwards, R.L., Spötl, C. (2020): Paleohydrology southwest Nevada (USA) based on groundwater 234U/238U over the past 475,000 k.y. – Geological Society of America Bulletin, 132, 793-802.
Comas-Bru, L., Rehfeld, K., Roesch, C., Amirnezhad-Mozhdehi, S., Harrison, S. P., Atsawawaranunt, K., Ahmad, S. M., Brahim, Y. A., Baker, A., Bosomworth, M., Breitenbach, S. F. M., Burstyn, Y., Columbu, A., Deininger, M., Demény, A., Dixon, B., Fohlmeister, J., Hatvani, I. G., Hu, J., Kaushal, N., Kern, Z., Labuhn, I., Lechleitner, F. A., Lorrey, A., Martrat, B., Novello, V. F., Oster, J., Pérez-Mejías, C., Scholz, D., Scroxton, N., Sinha, N., Ward, B. M., Warken, S., Zhang, H., and SISAL Working Group members including Moseley, G.E. , Wendt, K., Wilcox, P. (2020): SISALv2: a comprehensive speleothem isotope database with multiple age–depth models. - Earth Syst. Sci. Data 12, 2579–2606.
Stewart, B.D., Sorensen, J.V., Wendt, K., Sylvan, J.B., German, C.R., Anantharaman, K., Dick, G.J., Breier, J.A., Toner, B.M. (2021): A multi-modal approach to measuring particulate iron speciation in buoyant hydrothermal plumes. – Chemical Geology, 560, 120018,
Li, X., Wendt, K.A., Dublyansky, Y., Moseley, G.E., Spötl, C., Edwards, R.L. (2021): Novel method for determining 234U-238U ages of Devils Hole 2 cave calcite. – Geochronology, 3, 49-58.
Jackson, T.R., Steidle, S.D., Wendt, K.A., Dublyansky, Y., Spötl, C. (2023): A 350,000-year history of groundwater recharge in the southern Great Basin, USA. – Communications Earth & Environment, 4:98, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-00762-0.
Steidle, S.D., Wendt, K.A., Dublyansky, Y., Edwards, R.L., Li, X., McClure, G., Moseley, G.E., Spötl, C. (2024): Moisture availability and groundwater recharge paced by orbital forcing over the past 750,000 years in the southwestern USA. – Communications Earth & Environment, 5:376, https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-024-01550-0.