July 2, 2025
The call for sessions for the next edition of the Society for Tropical Ecology’s, European Conference of Tropical Ecology is open until 8 July 2025. The meeting will be held in Passau (Germany) and will cover all aspects of tropical ecological research. To make sure that your interests are well represented submit a session idea now by visiting the conference web site: https://gtoe2026-passau.de/
June 18, 2025
Ecology of the Past blog contributor Nina Witteveen was awarded the Hugo de Vries prize on 13 June 2025 at the Botanic Gardens in Nijmegen. The Hugo de Vries prize is awarded by the KNbv (Royal Dutch Botanical Society) and the Stichting Hugo de Vries fonds (Hugo de Vries foundation) for the best PhD thesis in Botany defended at a Dutch University. This years prize was awarded to Nina for her thesis “Long-term Forest Recovery in Amazonia: Insights from Phytolith Analysis” (University of Amsterdam) which was completed under the supervision of Crystal McMichael.
After much debate the jury decided to award two first prizes this year, with the other prize also going to a tropical PhD thesis. That of Tomonari Matsuo for his thesis “Drivers and mechanisms of tropical secondary forest succession” (Wageningen University & Research).
To find out more about the prize and how to submit a thesis for the award visit: https://www.knbv.eu/hugo-de-vries-prijs/
Follow Nina’s journey into tropical palaeoecology through her blog posts here: https://ecologyofthepast.info/?s=nina+witteveen
June 12, 2025
Open access:
Paine AR, Frieling J, Shanahan TM, Mather TA, McKay N, Robinson SA, Pyle DM, Fendley IM, Kiely R, Gosling WD. 2025. Evidence for millennial-scale interactions between Hg cycling and hydroclimate from Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana. Climate of the Past 21(4): 817–839. DOI: 10.5194/cp-21-817-2025
June 10, 2025
Hlophe B. & Bamford M.K. (2025) Charcoal insights on the vegetation, climate and subsistence patterns at Wonderwerk Cave. Quaternary International 728,109755. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109755
To find the complete list of articles in the Mapping Ancient Africa special issue of Quaternary International click here.
May 14, 2025
13.15: arrival / inloop
13.30-14.30: Annual meeting / Jaarvergadering
14.30-14.55: Tobias Vervaart MSc (Universiteit Utrecht): Introducing PhD project ‘Looking back to plan ahead: unfolding the natural heritage of Dutch landscapes’.
14.55-15.15: coffee break
15.15-15.40: Yannick Bats MSc (Universiteit Utrecht): Impact of chemical treatments on the molecular and stable carbon isotopic composition of sporomorphs.
15.40-16.10: Prof Dr. Corrie Bakels (Faculteit der Archeologie, Universiteit Leiden): Results from stable isotope analysis applied to charred grain preserved in two storage rooms found in Tell Damiyah, Jordan.
16.10-16.35: Dr. Otto Brinkkemper (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed): The optimal sample size of cereal grains for stable isotope research.
16.35: Drinks/ borrel
For further information: https://www.palynologischekring.nl/
April 9, 2025
I was delighted to be invited to give a seminar as part of the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology “Human Palaeo-systems Research Group” series. In case you missed it the seminar is will soon be available to watch online (click here).
To see the full list of seminars in the series click here.
March 14, 2025
The 8th European Conference of Tropical Ecology took place in Amsterdam (The Netherlands) from 24 to 28 February 2025. This meeting was organized for the Society for Tropical Ecology. The event was hosted by the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam), held at Hotel Casa, and the main sponsor was the NWO (Dutch Science Foundation).
During the conference around 250 scientists delivered 150 oral and 69 poster presentations. The science spanned the full breadth of tropical ecology, ranging from interactions of coral dwelling crabs, through carbon cycling dynamics in forests, to the governance of hunting activity. The six keynote speakers were paired under three topics “Human legacies in the tropics”, “Tropical ecosystem dynamics”, and “Protecting tropical ecosystems”. Within each topic we invited a senior scientist and a ‘rising star’ to provide their perspective on a particularly hot-button issue. If you want to find out more about what was presented all the abstracts are now published, open access, in the Society for Tropical Ecology’s journal Ecotropica.
Open access:
Gosling, W.D. & McMichael, C.N.H., eds. (2025) Time for tropical ecology: Abstracts of the 8th European Conference of Tropical Ecology, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; 24.-28.2.2025. The Society for Tropical Ecology, Ecotropica, 26 (1-2): 1-222. https://doi.org/10.30427/ECOTROP202501
March 12, 2025
Open access:
Chevalier, M., Gosling, W.D., Hooghiemstra, H., Cartapanis, O., Chase, B.M. & Kaboth-Bahr, S. (2025) Eccentricity-driven glacial climate variability and its influence on speciation in the tropical Andes. Quaternary Science Advances 100278. DOI: 10.1016/j.qsa.2025.100278
January 14, 2025
The next seminar series of the Palynologische Kring (Dutch palynological society) will take place on 24 January 2025, at the Auditorium of TNO Utrecht. If you would like to attend please register by emailing the society (link).
PROGRAMME
13.00-13.15 Arrival
13.15-13.45 Irene Waajen (TNO): Re-evaluation of Early Weichselian pollen zones with new insights from the North Sea.
13.45-14.15 Nathalie Van der Putten (VU) & Jeroen Schokker (TNO): Zagwijn revisited: the Eemian to Early-Weichselian sequence in the Amersfoort Basin.
14.15-14.45 Freek Busschers (TNO): Response of the Eerbeek alluvial fan to 150.000 years of (sub)orbital climate fluctuations.
14.45-15.00 Break
15.00-15.30 Timme Donders (UU): An update of the Late Pliocene and Early Pleistocene vegetation and climate stratigraphy of NW Europe.
15.30-16.00 Sander Houben (TNO): A new stratigraphic framework for the Lower Pleistocene of the Netherlands.
16.00 Social drinks
January 6, 2025
Kiely, R.E., Paine, A.R., McMichael, C.H. & Gosling, W.D. (2025) Heat, hydroclimate and herbivory: A late-Pleistocene record of environmental change from tropical western Africa. Quaternary International 717, 109636. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2024.109636
To find the complete list of articles in the Mapping Ancient Africa special issue of Quaternary International click here.
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