2007 NRC Posdoctoral Fellow, NOAA, Climate Dynamics Branch

2006 Ph.D.,University of South Florida, Marine Science

2003 M.S., University of South Florida, Marine Science

1998 B.A. ,Smith College, Geology

I am an interdisciplinary scientist interested in climate change. The research program I am developing has three main foci all centered around understanding natural climate change in order to further our understanding of the potential for future climate change 1) Developing new records of past surface ocean conditions, 2) Exploring the link between ocean circulation and climate and 3) Understanding the climatological controls on tropical cyclone activity.

The sun's heat is adsorbed in the tropics and is transported to the extra-tropics in the atmospheric and oceanic circulations, thus the tropics are an important 'heat engine' driving the climate system as we know it. Corals growing in the tropics archive records of the ocean conditions in which they live. I am a specialist in using coral geochemistry to reconstruct surface ocean salinity, temperature, and ocean circulation. This requires occasional fieldwork in the tropics and much more time in the laboratory.

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, R.S. Webb, T. Guilderson, Decadal- to interannual-scale source water variations in the Caribbean Sea recorded by Puerto Rican coral radiocarbon, Eos Trans. AGU, 87(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract PP34A-08

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, J, Nyberg, A. Winter, R.S. Webb, T. Guilderson, Seasonally Resolved Climate Records from Puerto Rico over the Past Eight Centuries, Eos Trans. AGU, 86(52), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract PP54A-08

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, F.W. Taylor, T. Delcroix, and Y. Gouriou, Tropical Salinity Reconstructions in Modern and Fossil Corals From Vanuatu, a South Pacific Convergence Zone Dominated Signal, AGU Chapman Conference on Tropical-Extratropical Climatic Teleconnections, A Long-Term Perspective, February 2005

Kilbourne, H.K., T.M. Quinn, F.W. Taylor, R.S. Webb, A. Winter, T. Guilderson, Caribbean Climate Reconstructions Using Coral Skeletal Geochemistry: Initial Results From Puerto Rico, EOS Trans. AGU, 85(47), Fall Meeting Supp. Abstract PP13A-0586.

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, F.W. Taylor, T. Delcroix, and Y. Gouriou, SPCZ- and ENSO-related salinity variations recorded in the skeletal geochemistry of a Porites coral from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu, Eos. Trans. AGU, 84(46), Fall Meet. Suppl. Abstract PP21D-07, 2003

M. Zimmermann, K.H. Kilbourne, J.A. Reid, M.E. Field, J.V. Gardner, C. Jenkins, R.G. Currie, J.V. Barrie, and D. Bornhold,� Use of Surficial Sediment Information and Species Assemblage Analysis for Improving Trawl Survey Stratification and Abundance Estimation. Western Groundfish Conference, Ocean Shores, WA, 2002

Kilbourne, K.H., Quinn, T.M., Taylor, F.W., Gallup, C., Edwards, R.L., A coral Perspective of Modern and Late Pleistocene Climate Variation in the South Pacific, EOS trans. AGU, 82(47), Fall Meet. Suppl., Abstract PP31A-0496, 2001

Kilbourne, K.H., M.E. Field, M. Zimmermann, J.V. Gardner, C. Jenkins, Evaluating Benthic Fish Habitats on the Continental Shelf and Slope of the Southern California Bight: Design and Use of a Benthic Character Database.� ASLO/AGU Ocean Sciences Meeting p. 24-28, San Antonio, TX, 2000

Kilbourne, K.H., M.E. Field, M. Zimmermann, J.V. Gardner, C. Jenkins, Bottom Character on the Pacific Shelf and Slope of the US and Southern Canada: a Foundation for Evaluating Benthic Fish Habitats. EOS Trans. AGU, 80 (46), Fall Meet. Suppl. Abstract B12B-10, 1999

Kilbourne, K.H., M.E. Field, J.V. Gardner, C. Jenkins, A new method for variable-scale benthic habitat description. Proceedings, Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary - Sanctuary Currents Symposium, P. 12, Seaside, CA. 1999

Kilbourne, K.H., M.E. Field, J.V. Gardner, C. Jenkins, Benthic habitat mapping and data management: a versatile approach.� Third Biennial USGS Geographic Information Science Workshop.� Denver, CO. 1999�

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, T.P. Guilderson, R.S. Webb, J.Nyberg and A. Winter, Paleoclimate proxy perspective on Caribbean climate since the year 1751: evidence of cooler temperatures and multidecadal variability, Paleoceanography, in press 2008.

Chuan-Chou Shen, K-S. Li, K. Sieh, D. Natawidjaja, H. Cheng, X. Wang, R. L. Edwards, D. D. Lam, Y.-T. Hsieh, T.-Y. Fan, A. J. Meltzner, F. W. Taylor, T. M. Quinn, H.-W. Chiang, K. H. Kilbourne, Variation of initial 230Th/232Th and limits of high precision U-Th dating of shallow-water corals, Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, v. 72 (17), 4201-4223, 2008.�

Nyberg, J., B.A. Malmgren, A. Winter, M. R. Jury, K.H, Kilbourne, and T. M. Quinn.� Low Atlantic hurricane activity in the 1970s and 1980s compared to the past 270 years.� Nature, 447, 698-701, 2007

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, T.P. Guilderson, R.S. Webb, and F.W. Taylor, Decadal- to interannual-scale source water variations in the Caribbean Sea recorded by Puerto Rican coral radiocarbon.� Climate Dynamics, published online 6 February 2007, doi:10.1007/s00382-007-0224-2

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, F.W. Taylor, T. Delcroix, and Y. Gouriou, SPCZ- and ENSO-related Salinity Variations Recorded in the Skeletal Geochemistry of a Porites Coral from Espiritu Santo, Vanuatu,
Paleoceanography, v. 19, PA4002, doi: 10.1029/2004PA001033, 2004

Kilbourne, K.H., T.M. Quinn, and F.W. Taylor, A Fossil Coral Perspective on Western Tropical Pacific Climate ~350 ka. Paleoceanography, v. 19, PA1019, doi: 10.1029/2003PA000944, 2004
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I am coordinating the Environmental Policy and Science major at McDaniel College along with Scott Hardy, our new Enviornmental Policy specialist.� We have about 40 majors in the program and I am currently advising most of them either informally, or formally. This year, I am organizing the seniors to focus their capstone projects on creating a plan for McDaniel to reduce it's carbon emissions.� Each senior working on the project is focused on a single aspect of the campus that interested them and is coordinating with the other seniors to create a unified report that will be submitted to the college president in the spring.�

Courses that I have recently taught or will teach next semester include:
Environmental Problem Solving
Environmental Geology
Landscape Development
Climatology
Environmental Policy and Science Senior Seminar
Environmental Chemistry
(Tropical Marine Biology) Helping out with the Bahamas Jan-term course

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