Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2019
The Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM) 2019 takes place in the 12 and 13 February. This annual showcase of predominantly Dutch based ecological research will take place, as usual, at Conference Centre “De Werelt” (Lunteren). I am particularly excited this year as, along with Marielos Pena Carlos and Patrick Jansen, I am co-convening a session on “Tropical Ecology”. The first time I have contributed to the program in this way. Our session will be on the second day of the conference and contain the following exciting presentations:
- 15:00 Predator avoidance and prey tracking in a Neotropical forest (Constant Swinkels, Wageningen University & Research)
- 15:20 The role of fig volatiles in pollinator specificity and fig diversity (Aafke Oldenbeuving, Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
- 15:40 Mangrove Atlantis: Can mangroves keep up with extreme land-subsidence? (Celine van Bijsterveldt, Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research)
- 16:00 Break
- 16:10 The fate of forests in agro-forest frontier landscapes, implications for conservation (Madelon Lohbeck, Wageningen University & Research)
- 16:30 Trends in the variability of Specific Leaf Area of paramo vegetation during succession (Marian Cabrera, University of Amsterdam)
- 16:50 Succession dynamics of tree and soil fungal communities in regenerating tropical rainforests are strongly influenced by regional species pool and abiotic factors (Irene Adamo, Naturalis Biodiversity Center)
Reconstructing past fire temperatures from ancient charcoal material
Gosling, W.D., Cornelissen, H. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2019) Reconstructing past fire temperatures from ancient charcoal material. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 520, 128-137. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2019.01.029
Click here for open access until 01/04/2019
Note: This article is developed directly from work conducted by Henk Cornelissen during his BSc Future Planet Studies thesis project at the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam.
Indicators for assessing tropical alpine rehabilitation practices
Open access:
Duchicela, S.A., Cuesta, F., Pinto, E., Gosling, W.D. & Young, K.R. (2019) Indicators for assessing tropical alpine rehabilitation practices. Ecosphere 10, e02595. DOI: 10.1002/ecs2.2595
Central American climate and microrefugia: A view from the last interglacial
Cárdenes-Sandí, G.M., Shadik, C.R., Correa-Metrio, A., Gosling, W.D., Cheddadi, R. & Bush, M.B. (2019) Central American climate and microrefugia: A view from the last interglacial. Quaternary Science Reviews 205, 224-233. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.12.021
For free access click here before 19 February 2019
Job: MacGillavry Fellowship
The Faculty of Science of the University of Amsterdam has just announced the third round of MacGillavry Fellowships. These are tenure track positions (6 years) for talented female researchers. Applicants can apply in six different fields including “Biodiversity & Earth Sciences” this field encompasses all activity within the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics.
Email me for informal discussions of applications related to Ecosystem & Landscape Dynamics.
To find out more and how to apply click here.
DPhil: Sniffing out global volcanic fingerprints using mercury in Quaternary sedimentary records
I am pleased to announce the opening up of a new DPhil position at the University of Oxford Department of Earth Sciences that I will be involved with. The main supervisor for the project is Prof. Tamsin Mather and the position is part of her recently funded European Research Council project. The project is entitled “Sniffing out global volcanic fingerprints using mercury in Quaternary sedimentary records”.
For full details of the project click here and how to apply click here.
Tropical Ecology @ Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2019
The next Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM) will take place on 12 and 13 February 2019 at Conference Centre “De Werelt” (Netherlands). Patrick Jansen, Marielos Pena Carlos and I (William Gosling) are organizing a broad session on “Tropical Ecology” (talks and posters most welcome!). Please contact us directly as soon as possible if you would like to contribute to this session (EXTENDED deadline 18 December 2018).
Session abstract: This session deals with studies focused on tropical ecosystems, including terrestrial as well as marine systems. We particularly welcome talks focused on explaining the extraordinary high biodiversity, or on understanding anthropogenic impacts on this diversity.
To submit your paper please send us the following information:
- Your full name and those of co-authors to be listed in the programme
- Your affiliation (institute + group/department)
- The title of the presentation
- A short abstract of the presentation that you propose to give (MAX. 200 WORDS)
Job: Theoretical Ecology
The Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam) is currently looking for an theoretical ecologist. The position will be based in the Department of Theoretical & Computational Ecology and will be at the Assistant or Associate Professor level.
Closing date: 3 January 2019
For further details on the position and how to apply click here.
Scientific Methods in Archaeology
Over the last two weeks I have been giving my lectures at the VU Amsterdam “Scientific Methods in Archaeology” bachelor program. In my lectures we think about how to detect past environmental change with particular reference to tracking past human activities. As part of our exploration of past human-environment-climate interactions each student is asked to choose a scientific article, summerise it, and we then discuss it in class. The three papers sected this year covered the Neolithic of the Netherlands (Weijdema et al., 2011), a overview of Mediterranean and north African cultural adaptations to drough events during the Holocene (Mercuri et al., 2011), and an exploration of the role of humans in mega-faunal extinctions in South America (Villavicencio et al., 2015). All papers provided interesting points of discussion and an opportunity to think about different aspects of how we investigate past environmental and societal change.
Read the full student summaries below.
Vegetation and climate evolution during the Last Glaciation at Tengchong in Yunnan Province, Southwest China
Zhang, J., Xu, H., Gosling, W.D., Lan, J., Dodson, J., Lu, F., Yu, K., Sheng, E. & Liu, B. (2018) Vegetation and climate evolution during the Last Glaciation at Tengchong in Yunnan Province, Southwest China. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.11.008
Environments Through Time paper presentations
The 2018 edition of the University of Amsterdam masters course “Environments Through Time” is now up and running. The course sits at the interface between ecology, physical geography and archaeology and seeks to provide students with a better understanding of how long-term (>100’s years) datasets can provide insights in to past environmental change.
In the first week of the course the students had to present their ‘favourite’ paper in just three (3) minutes! Quite a challenge and lots of fun. This years selection of papers themed around:
- mega-fauna extinctions (Bakker et al., 2016; Gill et al., 2009; van der Kaars et al., 2017),
- impacts of human land use practices (Bitusik et al., 2018; Carson et al., 2014; Chepstow-Lusty et al., 2009; Gauthier et al., 2010; Tisdall et al., 2018), and
- climatic drivers of vegetation change (Haug et al., 2001; Tierney et al., 2017; Tudhope et al., 2001).
For full list of papers presented see below.
In the second and third weeks (now ongoing) students get to deconstruct published chronologies and conduct time series analsis of multi-proxy datasets. Data for these excercises is frequently is extracted from databases such as Neotoma, Pangea, NOAA – paleoclimatology datasets database and the Global Charcoal Database – which shows the importance of these open access databases for developing effective research led eductation, as well as pushing forward to frontiers of research.
Environments Through Time is taught in English, delivered by myself (William Gosling), Crystal McMichael and Milan Tunissen van Manen and currently has 31 registered students from MSc Biological Sciences and MSc Earth Sciences degrees.
Full list of papers presented by students on the Environments Through Time course in 2018 Read More
The Palynology Specialist Group Meeting
Where: Linnean Society of London
When: 22 November 2018
Organizer: Dr. Barry Lomax (University of Nottingham)
For full program click link: LinnSoc-Palynology2018
