People, Politics and the Planet – Any Questions?

March 17, 2015
WDG

People, Politics and the Planet – Any Questions?
9 March 2015 The Light, Euston Road, London
British Ecological Society

Find out what UK politicians think about the environment ahead of the forthcoming UK general election.


The panellists were:

  • Lord de Mauley TD (Conservatives, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for the Natural Environment and Science)
  • Barry Gardiner MP (Labour, MP for Brent North and Shadow Minister for the Natural Environment)
  • Baroness Parminter (Liberal Democrats, Environment Spokesperson)
  • Natalie Bennett (Green, Party Leader and Parliamentary Candidate for Holborn and St. Pancras)
  • Dr Eilidh Whiteford MP (Scottish National Party, MP for Banff and Buchan)
  • William Cash (UK Independence Party, Heritage and Tourism Spokesperson)

 

Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2015

February 13, 2015
WDG

NERN-NWO-ELIFE-NECOV_2015Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting
10-11 February 2015
by William Gosling

On Wednesday I attended my first Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM) unfortunately, due to prior commitments, I was not able to attend the whole event, but I still managed to get a nice insight into the vibrant Dutch Ecological research community. Particularly exciting for me was the “Biodiversity in Space and Time” theme. Plenary sessions by Alexandre Anotonelli (University of Gothenburg) and Hans ter Steege (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden) focused on the Amazon ecology past and present. The subsequent session on the same theme, organized by Daniel Kissling (University of Amsterdam) and Niels Raes (Naturalis Biodiversity Center), was also excellent and ranged from species richness patterns past and present in Gabon (Andre van Proosdij, Naturalis Biodiversity Center), through soil microbes (Kelly Ramirez, Netherlands Institute of Ecology) to the role of sea level change on island biodiversity (Kenneth Rijsdijk, University of Amsterdam). I am looking forward to attending more of these meetings in the future and getting involved with the NERN community.

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Introducing the XPERT network

January 16, 2015
WDG

ErazoRegion1

The Cross-disciplinary Palaeo-Environmental Research Training (XPERT) network commences in 2015. This international network will bring together early career researchers from five countries to learn new skills and develop collaborative projects. Training will be provided during a field school in Ecuador, and a summer school at the University of Amsterdam. For further details please visit the respective field school, summer school and staff pages hosted on this blog.

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Ecology of the past 2014

January 4, 2015
WDG

William shortly after a haircut

William shortly after first Dutch haircut

2014 has seen more people visit this blog and more “clicks” through to articles than in any previous year (see Annual Report 2014). So thanks for reading! I hope that the information provided is useful. For me 2014 has been a big year of change; with the largest work related change being taking up my new post at the University of Amsterdam in September.

2015 promises to be an exciting year with a number of key projects generating exciting findings (including chironomid climate for the Neotropics, Andean flank evolution, and ‘deep time’ palynomorphs) , the start of the XPERT network, and new proposals and collaborations being developed here in the Netherlands (including new proposal to work in Europe!).

Any comments, thoughts or contributions on the blog welcome.

William

News article

Science check call over Badger cull, Pallab Ghosh (@BBCPallab), BBC News.
Reporting on: Transparency and Evidence-Based Policy: An Open Letter to Defra from Journal of Animal Ecology

New fanged frog ‘gives both to tadpoles’, Jonathan Webb, BBC News.

Journal Articles

Hodgson, J.A., Thomas, C.D., Wintle, B.A. & Moilanen, A. (2009) Climate change, connectivity and conservation decision making: back to basics. Journal of Applied Ecology 46, 964-969.

…and published comment:
Doerr, V.A.J., Barrett, T. & Doerr, E.D. (2011) Connectivity, dispersal behaviour and conservation under climate change: a response to Hodgson et al. Journal of Applied Ecology 48, 143-147.
Summary (Will): The debate over the effectiveness of corridors to link landscapes

Jeffers, E.S., Bonsall, M.B. Froyd, C.A., Brooks, S.J. & Willis, K.J. The relative importance of biotic and abiotic processes for structuring plant communities through time. Journal of Ecology.

Jussila, T. & Virtanen, V. (2014) Learning in Virtual Forest: a forest ecosystem in the web-based learning environment. Journal of Biological Education 48, 196-200.
Associated Virtual forest site: http://www.helsinki.fi/biosci/biopop/virtualforest/index.html

 

Assistant Professor Palaeoecology

November 18, 2014
WDG

02_05_2007_AsteraceaeVacancy: Assistant Professor Palaeoecology
(5-year tenure track)

Palaeoecology & Landscape Ecology
Institute of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics
University of Amsterdam

Closing data: 14 December 2014
Interviews: January 2015

We are looking for an ecologist with experience and interest in long timescales specifically related to one, or more, of the following research areas:

  • the Quaternary (last 2.6 million years);
  • sedimentary archives;
  • application and interpretation of proxy indicators (physical, biological and/or geochemical);
  • novel proxy development;
  • numerical/statistical methods in ecology.

For full details on the position and how to apply click here.
For informal discussion of the position please contact William Gosling.

Current research within the P&L group focuses on examining past environmental change in lake sediments (Yanacocha, Peru)

Current research within the P&L group focuses on examining past environmental change in lake sediments (Photo: Yanacocha, Peru)

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