Alfred Houngnon was awarded an INQUA Fellowship in 2024 to develop his work on past environmental change in the Dahomey Gap (western Africa). Through the project Alfred is making a series of videos about his fellowship journey. In the first video Alfred introduced his project and collaborators (click here to watch the first part). In the two latest instalments (below) Alfred explains: (i) one of his key methodological approaches (modern pollen trapping), and (ii) the modern vegetation of the region and current threats to the vegetation.
The pollen and phytolith identification quiz! Is that an Asteraceae phytolith I see…???
The University of Amsterdam “Palaeoecology” course commenced this week with lectures getting students up to speed with the fundamental principles and approaches to the subject, and laboratory practicals training students in the identification of micro- and macro-fossils. Once students have gained a basic understanding of pollen and phytolith identification – and demonstrated this by passing the ‘dreaded’ identification quiz – it is time to commence the group project work.
This year the students are trying to identify from which study site their ‘mystery slides’ come from on the basis of the micro-fossil assemblages (pollen and phytoliths) that they contain. The study sites all come from the area around Hilversum (Netherlands) and (could) include: heathland, pine forest, mix-deciduous forest, and birch woodlands. In addition, just to make it more interesting, one group has samples taken from the medieval palaeosol that is found locally.
Next week is field work week and the students will then need to parameterise the vegetation around the Hilversum area in such a way that they: (i) get a representative sample the variation across the landscape, and (ii) can compare the vegetation data with their micro-fossil data. Then, following the number crunching in the third week of the course, we will find out if the different groups can identify the correct study site from which there samples came…
The Palaeoecology course at the University of Amsterdam is part of the BSc Biology program, it is also frequently taken by students on the BSc Future Planet Studies degree. We also welcome students from other programs, such as BSc Béta-Gamma, and international exchange students.
During the Mapping Ancient Africa workshop in Rome I conducted short interviews with the scientists involved. The first of these, Alfred Houngnon can be viewed here, below are four more, and more will follow as I get them uploaded. I hope they provide interesting insights into the diverse range of skills and backgrounds our scientists have.
Interview 2: Busisiwe Hlophe (University of the Witwatersrand)
Interview 3: Angela Effion (University of the Witwatersrand)
Interview 4: Bahru Zinaye Asegahegn (University of Cologne)
Interview 5: Michela Leonardi (University of Cambridge)
To find out more about the Mapping Ancient Africa project click here.
The second part of the Mapping Ancient Africa session at the INQUA Rome congress contained eight talks. Busisiwe Hlophe (University of the Witwatersrand) kicked us off by showing us the power of looking at wood anatomy preserved in charcoal microfossils to determine the nature of past vegetation and climate. RahabKinyanjui (National Museums of Kenya) presented phytolith work from archaeological sites revealing a mixed woody and grassy vegetation associated with archaic Homo sapiens in Kenya.
Three talks from the Cape Region in South Africa then followed with Saul Manzano (University of Leon), StellaMoscher (University of Utah), and Asithandile Ntsondwa (Nelson Mandela University) using various palaeo ecological approaches to explore climate, vegetation and fire regime shifts during the Holocene. Adele Julier (University of Portsmouth) then took us a little further north to Namibia to think about the challenges of parameterising modern pollen-vegetation relationships in arid regions. The final southern African talk was given by Gemma Poretti (University of Cape Town) explored a new approache to tracking change in past rainfall patterns using charcoal material.
We invite you to join us on an incredible journey through the heart of Ecuador, where a group of adventurous students from Florida Institute of Technology embarked on a life-changing experience as part of the Neotropical Archaeoecology summer field course. Buckle up as we delve into the marvels of nature, indigenous cultures, and unforgettable experiences. Let’s dive right in!
Unveiling the Andes
Our adventure began with a breath-taking visit to the Paramo at Cayambe-Coca National Park. Paramos are high altitude (3000-4000 metres) wet grasslands above the tree line and below the snow line within the equatorial Andes. Our tour guides Patricio and Byron gave us information about the local vegetation, focusing on the Polylepis tree (locally known as “paper tree”), which is unique to this sort of habitat. They also told us about some of the fascinating wildlife that can be seen here, such as the Andean Bear (Tremarctos ornatus) and the Andean Puma (Puma concolor).
We then descended through the cloud forest (3,600–3,400 meters) and lower montane rainforest (3,400–2,500 meters). Across these various habitats, we documented changes in hummingbird abundance and recorded their behaviour at four different feeder points: Guango Lodge, La Brisa, San Isidro Lodge, and Cascada el Hollin. The sheer diversity of hummingbird species left us in awe, and we marvelled at their iridescent feathers and incredible agility.
We explored a waterfall near San Isidro Lodge (https://cabanasanisidro.com), and we were able to observe pre-Inca pottery. At the lodge we also saw a diverse array of bird species, which was delightful! The forest’s nightlife brought us close encounters with a group of nocturnal monkeys, and to our surprise, we stumbled upon a very rare mountain tapir. The following morning we saw a small agouti (a small rodent) prowling around the lodge, and ended our adventures in the cloud forest on a high note.
San Isidro waterfall and some of the animal diversity we observed
My name’s Alfred Houngnon, native of Benin Republic in West Africa. I hold an agricultural engineering degree in “Rangeland Management and Conservation” (Abomey-Calavi University). After gaining relevant field experience, I obtained a French Government Bursary to pursue an MSc degree in “Tropical Plant Biodiversity” at Montpellier (France). There, I learned about how to use indicators of past environmental and climatic change to give insights into projected future change.
It was a great scientific experience to participate in-person at the XXI INQUA Congress 2023 in Rome (Italy). This opportunity came under the supervision of William Gosling, and with the support of the Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) project funded by INQUA’s Palaeoclimate commission (PALCOM). I have been working with Will for a number of years and published a first paper related to this work in 2021; a checklist of vascular plants from a ‘relict’ forest in Benin (Houngnon et al., 2021). A second manuscript is under development and was accepted for poster and oral presentation at INQUA 2023 congress that brought together around 4000 abstracts.
Interview 1: Alfred Houngnon (AGIR)
The bursary from the MAA project allowed me to also attend the MAA Rome workshops held at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (12-13 July 2023). During the workshops, I was trained in two novel approaches to palaeoclimate modeling. The first based on interfacing paleoclimate models through the “pastclim” R package (Michela Leonardi), and the second on reconstructing palaeoclimates on the basis of ancient pollen data using the “CREST” program (Manu Chevalier). The workshops helped me to sharpen the communication of my ideas and in so doing strengthened the manuscript in preparation for submission to an international journal for publication.
The June 2023 meeting of the Dutch palynological society (Palynologische Kring) took place at the offices of the Dutch National Cultural Heritage Agency (Rijksdienst Cultureel Erfgoed) in Amersfoort. The focus of this meeting was the past forest landscape of the Netherlands. The meeting included the annual report of the society, three scientific talks, and a prize giving for the best MSc thesis.
Presentation of Jos Bazelmans showed the huge amount of woody material extracted from Dutch peat bogs.
The scientific part of the meeting was kicked off my Roy van Beek who presented results from his ongoing project on the peatlands of the Netherlands which suggest peatland expansion occurred between 5500 and 3500 years ago (van Beek et al., 2023). The second talk was by our host, Otto Brinkkemper, and traced the history of woodlands across the Netherlands on the basis of macrofossil finds; including huge tree stumps remarkably preserved in peatlands (Bazelmans et al., 2021; Kooistra et al., 2006). The final talk was given by Jos Bazelmans who showed the remarkably high volume of tree stumps that have been recovered from the Netherlands, and how tree rings from these 100s of record are being used to reconstruct forest histories and past climate change. It was interesting to hear that the average age of the tree stumps found was around 250 years, and that some of the trees had lived to around 400 years in exceptional cases.
Kelly with her proud supervisors Stefan Uitdehaag (right), and I (left)
The final section of the meeting was the prize giving. Corrie Barkels, on behalf of the independent judging panel, announced Kelly van Leeuwen as the winner for her thesis entitled “Using soils samples and footwear to improve forensic palynology”. Her thesis was conducted at the University of Amsterdam as part of her MSc Earth Sciences degree and was conducted in collaboration with the Netherlands Forensic Institute. Congratulations Kelly!
On Tuesday 16 May 2023 a small team of researchers from the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam) visited the Maashorst (Netherlands) to visited an area “re-wilded” with European Bison (Bison bonasus). In addition to the bison the area is also now home to Tauros and Exmoor Ponies The purpose of the trip was to collect soil surface samples to examine for dung fungal spores. Certain fungi grow only on the dung of herbivores and the spores of these fungi can be preserved in the sedimentary record (for more information see Lee et al., 2022). Analysis of dung fungal spore diversity through the sedimentary record can therefore provide insights into the changes in the amount of dung (animals) in the landscape in the past. The purpose of this sampling effort was to see if we can quantify how many, and what type, of spores are representative of this group of bison. This information will help us to be able to interpret ancient records of fungal spores in more detail.
Special thanks to Maurice van Doorn (Gemeente Maashorst) for showing us around.
Bison statueTauros on the moveStudents collecting dataBison enjoying the sun
The European Geophysical Union General Assembly is taking place in Vienna this week (23-28 April 2023). Thousands of scientists from around the world have come together at the Austria Centre to discuss the latest discoveries related to our understanding of how the Earth system functions. This year I choose to travel to EGU by train from Amsterdam. It was not until later that I discovered that #Train2EGU was a “thing” (see photos below). I was not able to stay in Vienna for the whole congress so I am now back in Amsterdam. However, my time at the congress was excellent:
Listening to a wide range of talks (including sessions on past environmental change in Africa, the role of fire in shaping ecosystems and landscapes, and how we can develop new methods to extract information from sedimentary records),
Holding in-person scientific meetings with colleagues to try and figure out what the datasets mean on various projects (mainly focused on wiggly lines generated from long lake records), and
Meeting up with friends and colleagues who I had not seen for many years…
I hope all those still at EGU are having fun. While I see the necessity of scientists to get together in the same physical space to advance our field I also see the tension with the environmental impacts of travel. Getting together at big congresses such as this maybe the most travel efficient way to solve this conundrum? Anyway, I hope at least people think about their travel plans and I for one enjoyed by #Train2EGU experience; all connections met and – apart from 1 hour of very crowded conditions after leaving Frankfurt – a very pleasant experience in which I could easily work / sleep / eat.
The course “Landscape Dynamics in an era of change: Learning from the past to face the future” took place in the Drakensberg Mountains of South Africa between 5 and 15 March 2023. The course was run by the Graduate School for Production Ecology and Resource Conservation (PERC) and participants were drawn from universities in the Netherlands and South Africa. The main goal of the course was to investigate the past and current dynamics of the region and predict possible futures in an inter- / trans-disciplinary context. Consequently the content of the course was incredibly diverse including: geology, geomorphology, palaeoecology, cultural history, vegetation studies, soil science, farming systems and forestry. These topics were integrated into four group projects centered on invasive species, rewilding, commercial farming and small scale farming.
Ecology of the past 