Lisa Feist
News
• Dec 2025: ENLIGHT BIP "Limnogeology Summer School: Environmental change, natural hazards and human impact in Central Switzerland" funded (main applicant: U. Bern, partner universities: U. Ghent and U. Göttingen). Stay tuned for more information!• Oct 2025: We just came back from fieldwork in Ecuador. Stay tuned for updates. (:
• Aug 2025: I became a steering committee member for the Early Career Network of PAGES.
• Jun 2025: I am honored to have received a fieldwork scholarship from the Hanna-Bremer foundation to conduct more fieldwork in Ecuador.
• Jun 2025 New paper published! Bellanova et al. 2025 Tsunami deposits preserved in coastal karst pockets on Malta (Central Mediterranean Sea)
• May 2025: Bjarne, Elisabeth, and I presented our work in the Ecuador project at the European Geoscience Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna. Check out our abstracts!
• May 2025: I have attended the PAGES Young Scientist Meeting and Open Science Meeting in Shanghai with travel support from PAGES. What a great experience! (: Check out the article we wrote for PAGES magazine.
• Apr 2025: I became a steering committee member for the Early Career Network of ICDP with the Newsletter/Communication and ECR Database as my main responsibilities.
• Dec 2024/Jan 2025: New paper published! Feist et al. 2025 Shallow seismic stratigraphy of the southwestern Algarve shelf (Portugal) and characteristics of offshore tsunami deposits (open access)
• Dec 2024: I became a working group member of COST Action PaleoOpen. Check it out!
Current Projects
My current research in the Landscape Geoscience Group focuses on the impacts of climate change on land use in the northern Andes of Ecuador. This project combines several disciplines, including natural and social sciences. My research involves the analysis of sub-bottom profiles and sediment cores from several lakes in the region and aims to contribute to a better understanding of past and modern landscape dynamics.Find more information here
Interested in a Bachelor/Master thesis? Find information here
Scientific Interests
My scientific interests lie in understanding the complex interactions between the Earth's surface and the environment in the Late Quaternary (particularly the Holocene) by utilizing sedimentary archives. I am particularly interested in investigating the dynamics of sediment transport and deposition during extreme events, such as tsunamis and storms, and gradual (long-term) changes in environmental conditions, such as changes in climate.To achieve this, I employ geophysical imaging techniques (seismic, sub-bottom profiles) and apply various laboratory methods to sediment cores and samples (granulometry, P-wave velocities, magnetic susceptibility, XRF core scanning, high-resolution XCT scanning).
(Short-term) Extreme Events:
I am particularly interested in extreme wave events that affect (low-lying) coastal areas, such as storms and tsunamis. These events can cause the destruction of (natural) coastal barriers and can inundate large areas. I study their sedimentary imprint and infer physical parameters, such as flow characteristics (e.g., flow direction, velocity, inundation vs. backwash). Notably, my PhD thesis focused on offshore tsunami deposits of the southwestern Algarve shelf (Portugal).
Study regions and archives:
• Portugal (Algarve coast), Spain (Gulf of Cadiz & Malaga), Malta
• (Shallow) continental shelf, beach, coastal floodplains and lagoons, coastal cliffs
(Long-term) Environmental Change:
Currently, I focus on understanding more gradual (long-term) environmental changes. Changes in environmental conditions can be expressed in different sediment layers, and lakes make excellent sedimentary archives. These lacustrine sedimentary records can contain a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological proxies that can be used to reconstruct past environmental conditions, such as changes in climate, but they can also be influenced by human activity.
Study regions and archives:
• Ecuador (near Quito)
• Lakes in the Northern Andes (3000-4000 m a.sl.)
Courses Taught
SoSe:WiSe: