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Mailing and Contact Information:

George William Barineau III Professor
3277 Energy, Coast & Environment Building
Coastal Fisheries Institute
Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences
Louisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA - 70803

Tel: 225-578-6136
Fax: 225-578-6423
E-mail: kliu1@lsu.edu

 

KAM-BIU LIU
   

Education:

  • Ph.D. University of Toronto, Geography, 1982
  • M.Sc. University of Toronto, Geography, 1978
  • B.S. Sc. Geography with First Class Honor), 1974


Research Interests:
  • Thematic: Paleotempestology, Coastal paleoecology, Ice-core paleoclimatology, Global environmental change, Palynology and lake-sediments
  • Regional: U.S. Gulf coast and Atlantic coast, Caribbean region and Central America, South America (Andes and Amazon Basin), Tibetan Plateau, Central Asia (Mongolia and Kazakhstan), China, Africa


Grants:

  • 2006-11 Inter-American Institute for Global Change Research (IAI), Collaborative Research Network grant (CRN II 050) ($698,300). "Paleotempestology of the Caribbean region: A multi-proxy, multi-site study of the spatial and temporal variability of Caribbean hurricane activity". This is a 5-year collaborative research project involving 12 co-PIs from four different countries in the Americas (PI: Kam-biu Liu)
  • 2006-07 LSU Faculty Research Grant ($10,000). “Climate change, sea level rise, and hurricanes/ typhoons in two of the world’s largest river systems: developing comparative ecological study of the Yangtze and Mississippi River deltas”. (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: W.J. Platt)
  • 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($139,991), Geography & Regional Science Program, BCS-0623514. "Collaborative Research: Bioclimatic reconstruction of the past 50,000 years from eolian sequences in westerlies-dominated Central Asia ". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PI: Z.D. Feng, Montclair State Univ., total award for LSU and MSU: $289,897)
  • 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,940), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0623287. "Tracking Donna across the northern Caribbean: Developing a modern analog methodology for paleotempestology" (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Jason Knowles, Ph.D. student)
  • 2006-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), SGER grant ($32,658), Division of Environmental Biology (DEB-0612477). "Do hurricanes spur responses of coastal communities to changing sea level?" (PI: William J. Platt; co-PIs: Kam-biu Liu, Julie Whitbeck, University of New Orleans; Loretta Battaglia, Southern Illinois University; total award for LSU, UNO, and SIU: $50,000)
  • 2006-08 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,760), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0602554. "Proxy records of paleohurricane activities for the western and southern Caribbean" (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Terrence McCloskey, Ph.D. student)
  • 2006-09 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($132,251), Human and Social Dynamics (HSD)-Agents of Change Program, HSD-0527620. "Paleoclimatic change, landscape evolution, and cultural transformations in far western Tibet". (lead PI: Mark S. Aldenderfer; co-PIs: Jonathan Overpeck, Julie Cole, Jon Pelletier: University of Arizona; Kam-biu Liu, LSU; total award for UA and LSU: $725,789)
  • 2005-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($92,292), Geography & Regional Science Program, BCS-0452399. "Collaborative Research: An integrative study of vulnerability and cultural response to hurricane hazards among indigenous populations on the Miskito coast of Honduras and Nicaragua ". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PIs: Andy Reese and David Cochran, University of Southern Mississippi; total award for LSU and USM: $199,868)
  • 2005-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), Doctoral dissertation research improvement (DDRI) grant ($11,925), Geography and Regional Science Program, BCS-0503334. "Vegetation change and land degradation in the Lake Baringo ecosystem, Kenya, East Africa: Evidence from the paleorecord " (PI: Kam-biu Liu; co-PI: Lawrence Kiage, Ph.D. student)
  • 2005-07 Bermuda Biological Station for Research (BBSR), Risk Prediction Initiative (RPI) research grant ($40,000), "Hurricane Ivan as modern analog to prehistoric hurricane strikes". (PI: Kam-biu Liu)
  • 2004-07 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($125,081), Earth System History Program, ATM-0402475. "Collaborative Research: Holocene Climatic Changes in the Mongolian Plateau". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PIs: Zhaodong Feng, Monclair State University; Alexander Prokopenko, University of South Carolina; total award for LSU, MSU, & USC: $370,641)
  • 2002-06 National Science Foundation (NSF), research grant ($167,730), co-funded by the Geography & Regional Science Program and the Climate Dynamics Program, BCS-0213884. "Collaborative Research: The role of the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) in modulating major hurricane activity in the U.S.: Interannual to millennial timescales". (PI: Kam-biu Liu; collaborative PI: James Elsner, Florida State University; total award for LSU & FSU: $299,921)


Recent Publications:


    A. Books

    Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.), 2004. Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, 462 pages.

    B. Refereed Journal Articles and Book Chapters

    • Liu, K.B., 2007.“Uncovering prehistoric hurricane activity”, American Scientist 95: 126-133.
    • Liu, K.B., 2007. “Paleotempestology”. In: Elias, S. (ed.), Encyclopedia of Quaternary Science. Elsevier, Amsterdam, pp. 1978-1986.
    • Kiage, L.M. and Liu, K.B., 2006. “Late Quaternary paleoenvironmental changes in East Africa: A review of multi-proxy evidence from palynology, lake sediments, and associated records”, Progress in Physical Geography 30: 633-658.
    • Fogarty, E.A., Elsner, J.B., Jagger, T.H., Liu, K.B., and Louie, K.S., 2006. “Variations in typhoon landfalls over China”, Advances in Atmospheric Sciences 23(5): 665-677.
    • Morrill, C., Overpeck, J.T., Cole, J.E., Liu, K.B., Shen, C., and Tang, L., 2006. “Holocene variations in the Asian monsoon inferred from the geochemistry of lake sediments in central Tibet”, Quaternary Research 65(2): 232-243.
    • Shen, C., Liu, K.B., Tang, L., and Overpeck, J.T., 2006. “Quantitative relationships between modern pollen rain and climate in the Tibetan Plateau”, Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 140: 61-77.
    • Feng, Z.D., Tang, L.Y., Wang, H.B., Ma, Y.Z., and Liu, K.B., 2006. “Holocene vegetation variations and associated environmental changes in the western part of the Chinese Loess Plateau”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 241: 440-456.
    • Lu, H.-Y., Wu, N.-Q., Yang, X.-D., Jiang, H., Liu, K.B., Liu, T.-S., 2006. “Phytoliths as quantitative indicators for the reconstruction of past environmental conditions in China I: phytolith-based transfer functions”, Quaternary Science Reviews 25: 945-959.
    • Liu, K.B., Reese, C.A., and Thompson, L.G., 2005. “Ice-core pollen record of climatic changes in the central Andes during the last 400 years”, Quaternary Research 64(2): 272-278.
    • Lu, H.Y., Yang, X.Y., Ye, M.L., Liu, K.B., Xia, Z.K., Ren, X.Y., and Cai, L.H., Wu, N.Q., and Liu, T.S., 2005. “Millet noodles in Late Neolithic China”, Nature 437: 967-968.
    • Lu, H.Y. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Phytolith indicators of coastal environmental changes and hurricane overwash deposition”, The Holocene 15 (7): 965-972.
    • Overpeck, J.T., Liu, K.B., Morrill, C. Cole, J., Shen, C., Anderson, D., and Tang, L., 2005. “Holocene environmental change in the Himalayan-Tibetan Plateau region: Lake sediments and the future”. In: U.M. Huber, H.K.M. Bugmann, and M.A. Reasoner (eds.), Global Change and Mountain Regions: An Overview of Current Knowledge. Springer, Boston, pp. 83-92.
    • Shen, C.M., Tang, L.Y., Wang, S.M., Li, C.H., and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Pollen records and time scale for the RM core of the Zoige Basin, northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau”, Chinese Science Bulletin 50(6): 553-562.
    • Reese, C.A. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “Interannual variability in pollen dispersal and deposition on the tropical Quelccaya Ice Cap”, Professional Geographer 57(2): 185-197.
    • Reese, C.A. and Liu, K.B., 2005. “A modern pollen rain study from the central Andes region of South America”, Journal of Biogeography 32: 709-718.
      Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Principles, methods, and examples from Gulf coast lake-sediments”. In: Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 13-57.
    • Louie, K.S. and Liu, K.B., 2004. “Ancient records of typhoons in Chinese historical documents”. In Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 222-248.
    • Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B., 2004. "Conclusion". In Murnane, R. and Liu, K.B. (eds.): Hurricanes and Typhoons: Past, Present, and Future. Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 441-446.
    • Liu, K.B., 2004. “Paleotempestology: Geographic solutions to hurricane hazard assessment and risk prediction”. In: D. Janelle, B. Warf, and K. Hansen (Eds), WorldMinds: Geographical Perspectives on 100 Problems. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, pp. 443-448.

    MEDIA LINKS

    My various research activities have been featured in many national and international newspapers, magazines, websites, and radio and TV broadcasts. A few recent examples:

    German ZDF TV, documentary program on hurricanes and paleotempestology, “Geschichtsbuch der Stürme: Die Wissenschaft der Paläotempestologie” (10/11/06)
    http://www.zdf.de/ZDFde/inhalt/15/0,1872,3986767,00.html

    New Scientist, podcast on paleotempestology: “Speaking in tongues” (6/9/06)
    http://www.newscientist.com/podcast.ns

    BBC radio: “Oldest noodles unearthed in China” (10/12/05) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4335160.stm

    NPR (National Public Radio): “Neolithic noodles unearthed in China” (10/12/05)
    http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4957805#email

    Discovery Channel, documentary program on “Everything You Need to Know: Hurricanes” (3/8/06)

    Discovery Channel, documentary program on “Killer Hurricane: Anatomy of Katrina” (9/2/05)

    National Geographic TV channel, “Violent Earth” documentary program (5/8/05)

    U.S. News & World Report, “A disaster long in the making” (9/4/06), pp. 45-46.
    http://usnews.com

    National Geographic News (6/7/04, 6/8/04)
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0608_040608_hurricanes.html,
    http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/06/0607_040607_hurricanehistory.html

 

 




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