April 10, 2024
Open access:
Witteveen, N.H., White, C., Sánchez-Martínez, B.A., Philip, A., Boyd, F., Booij, R., Christ, R., Singh, S., Gosling, W.D., Piperno, D.R. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2024) Pre-contact and post-colonial ecological legacies shape Surinamese rainforests. Ecology, e4272. DOI: 10.1002/ecy.4272
March 26, 2024
Antoine, P., Wieringa, L.N., Adnet, S., Aguilera, O., Bodin, S.C., Cairns, S., Conejeros-Vargas, C., Cornée, J., Ežerinskis, Ž, Fietzke, J., Gribenski, N.O., Grouard, S., Hendy, A., Hoorn, C., Joannes-Boyau, R., Langer, M.R., Luque, J., Marivaux, L., Moissette, P., Nooren, K., Quillévéré, F., Šapolaitė, J., Sciumbata, M., Valla, P.G., Witteveen, N.H., Casanova, A., Clavier, S., Bidgrain, P., Gallay, M., Rhoné, M. & Heuret, A. (2024) A Late Pleistocene coastal ecosystem in French Guiana was hyperdiverse relative to today. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 121, e2311597121. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2311597121
March 1, 2024
Open access:
Witteveen, N.H., Blaus, A., Raczka, M.F., Herrick, C., Palace, M., Nascimento, M.N., Van Loon, E.E., Gosing, W.D., Bush, M.B. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2024) Quantifying local-scale changes in Amazonian forest cover using phytoliths. Frontiers of Biogeography. DOI: 10.21425/F5FBG62254
June 29, 2023
Open access:
Witteveen NH, White C, Sanchez Martinez BA, Booij R, Philip A, Gosling WD, Bush MB, McMichael CNH. 2023. Phytolith assemblages reflect variability in human land use and the modern environment. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany. DOI: 10.1007/s00334-023-00932-2
February 23, 2023
Open access:
McMichael, C.N.H., Vink, V., Heijink, B.M., Witteveen, N.H., Piperno, D.R., Gosling, W.D. & Bush, M.B. (2023) Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest. Plants, People, Planet 5, 281-291. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10344
November 22, 2022
Open access:
McMichael, C.N.H., Vink, V., Heijink, B.M., Witteveen, N.H., Piperno, D.R., Gosling, W.D. & Bush, M.B. (2022) Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest. Plants, People, Planet. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10344
November 18, 2022
The University of Amsterdam “Environments Through Time” course is currently underway. This cross-disciplinary course is part of the MSc Biological Sciences program and also attracts many students from the MSc Earth Sciences. During the course students gain an understanding of the importance of having a long-term (centennial to millennial) context to understanding environmental problems, and how datasets can be generated that are relevant to these timescales. To gain an understanding of uncertainty in reconstructing past environmental change students conduct a re-analysis of previously published datasets (such as those archived in Neotoma) and assess if the findings of those papers was robust. To do this students develop skills in data mining, Bayesian probability modelling, multi-variate statistical analysis, and change-point analysis. At the end of the course students have gained experience in the critical evaluation of the scientific literature, transferable numerical skills, and a greater appreciation of Earth history and past environmental change.
The 2022 edition of the Environments Through Time course is taught by:
If you would like to learn more about past environmental change and its relevance to ongoing societal, climatic and ecological change sign up for the MSc Biological Sciences or MSc Earth Sciences and take this course. If this course sparks further your interest in exploring past environmental change then further opportunities exist to take on masters projects in this field with our team.
March 14, 2022
With all the horror chaos in the world, science doesn’t seem like the most important thing. I forgot all about my paper, until I received an email, that… the first chapter of my PhD is published! Some positive news I would like to share with you.
If you think about a stereotypical scientist, hidden in a lab, investigating every detail of a tiny thing…. that is great description of what I was doing!
March 11, 2022
Open access
Witteveen, N.H., Hobus, C.E.M., Philip, A., Piperno, D.R. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2022) The variability of Amazonian palm phytoliths. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 300, 104613. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104613
March 25, 2021
Open access:
McMichael, C., Witteveen, N.H., Scholz, S., Zwier, M., Prins, M.A., Lougheed, B.C., Mothes, P. & Gosling, W.D. (2021) 30,000 years of landscape and vegetation dynamics in a mid-elevation Andean valley. Quaternary Science Reviews 258, 106866.
Ecology of the past 