Current
I am a paleoclimatologist interested in Arctic climate change, biomarker proxies, and Holocene climate variability.
Currently, I am Postdoc in the Organic Stable Isotope Lab (OSIBL) at UB, under the supervision of Dr. Elizabeth Thomas.
In September 2026, I will be joining the lab group of Dr. Anne de Vernal at UQAM as a Postdoc, funded through a NSERC Impact+ Postdoctoral grant.
Education
PhD - University of Toronto (Graduated 2023)
MSc - University of Toronto (Graduated 2018)
BSc - University of Alberta (Graduated 2016)
chromatoPy
chromatoPy (Otiniano et al., 2025), is a peak integration toolthat enables rapid quantification of compounds measured via chromatography.
- Tutorials (coming soon)
- GitHub repo for chromatoPy python package (latest version)
- Download chromatoPy app for macOS (ARM) (latest version)
- Download chromatoPy app for Windows (latest version)
macOS install note: After downloading the DMG, open it and drag chromatoPy-desktop.app into your Applications folder. Then open Terminal and run:
xattr -dr com.apple.quarantine /Applications/chromatoPy-desktop.app
Pysotope
pysotope is a python package for processing isotopic data measured via GC-IRMS (δ2H, δ13C) and EA (δ13C, δ15N). Corrections for drift (time), linearity (amount), methanol (for FAME derivatization), and reference standards (e.g., VSMOW). We incorporate a number of methods for identifying coherent trends in measurement standards, enabling accurate isotopic measurements even at low concentrations.- GitHub repository for pysotope package (latest version)
In Review
Topness, R. G., Thomas, E. K., Fendrock, M., and Otiniano, G. A.: Calibration guidelines and a runoff-isotope module for lake proxy system modeling (PRYSM v2.0), EGUsphere, 1–31, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2322, 2026. (Preprint PDF)
Peer-Reviewed
Otiniano, G. A., Thomas, E. K., Castañeda, I. S., Acharya, S., Sharma, Y., Mark, S. Z. (2025). chromatoPy: An open-source tool for chromatographic peak deconvolution and integration applied to glycerol dialkyl glycerol tetraethers. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 40 , e2025PA005316. https://doi.org/10.1029/2025PA005316 (PDF)
Trasune, L., Orozco, L. E., Salonen, J. S., Otiniano, G. A., Porter, T. J., Weckström, J., et al. (2026). A comparison of Holocene temperature reconstructions from vegetation proxies and brGDGTs in northern Fennoscandia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 372, 109727. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2025.109727. (PDF)
Otiniano, G. A., Porter, T. J., Phillips, M. A., Juutinen, S., Weckström, J. B., & Heikkilä, M. P. (2024). Reconstructing warm-season temperatures using brGDGTs and assessing biases in Holocene temperature records in northern Fennoscandia. Quaternary Science Reviews, 329, 108555. (PDF)
Otiniano, G. A., Porter, T. J., Buceta, R. E., Bergman, M. E., & Phillips, M. A. (2023). Climatic and environmentally driven variability in lacustrine brGDGT distributions at local to regional scales in Alaska and northwestern Canada. Organic Geochemistry, 181, 104604. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.orggeochem.2023.104604 (PDF)
Otiniano, G. A., Porter, T. J., Benowitz, J. A., Bindeman, I. N., Froese, D. G., Jensen, B. J. L., et al. (2020). A Late Miocene to Late Pleistocene Reconstruction of Precipitation Isotopes and Climate From Hydrated Volcanic Glass Shards and Biomarkers in Central Alaska and Yukon. Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 35(7), e2019PA003791. https://doi.org/10.1029/2019PA003791 (PDF)