Ecology of the past

Climate change and precipitation in past present and future: Mini symposium

June 13, 2016
WDG

Research Group of Palaeoecology & Landscape Ecology
Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics
University of Amsterdam

Date: 17/06/2016
Time: 13:30-16:00
Location: Amsterdam Science Park 904
For registration & full details please contact: Dr. John van Boxel

When addressing climate change the focus often is on temperature. However precipitation is a climate variable that is at least as important, but much more difficult to assess. This mini symposium will address several aspects of the changes in the precipitation climate. William Gosling shows how climates in the far past can be reconstructed using proxies. One of these proxies, biomarkers, will be discussed by Susanna Mölkänen, who uses them to reconstruct altitudinal gradients. John van Boxel discusses 20th century climate change in the Netherlands focussing on changes in precipitation extremes. The models that are used to study climate change are the topic of the presentation by Geert Lenderink from KNMI. Some of these models were also used by Emma Daniels (WUR) to study the effect of urbanisation on precipitation in the Netherlands. For anyone involved in climate change and precipitation this should be an interesting afternoon.

Outline program below:

Matthews-Bird, F., Brooks, S.J., Holden, P.B., Montoya, E. & Gosling, W.D. (2016) Inferring late-Holocene climate in the Ecuadorian Andes using a chironomid-based temperature inference model. Climate of the Past 12, 1263-1280. DOI: 10.5194/cp-12-1263-2016

Miller, C.S., Leroy, S.A.G., Collins, P.E.F. & Lahijani, H.A.K. (2016) Late Holocene vegetation and ocean variability in the Gulf of Oman. Quaternary Science Reviews 143, 120-132. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.05.010

Commemorating the life of Herb Wright

April 13, 2016
WDG

Herb Wright (1917-2015). Photo: Brigitta Ammann

Last year the pioneering and influential Quaternary scientist Herb Wright sadly passed away. His friends and colleagues have complied an ebook about his life and legacy, including publications, poems and field stories.

Click on the link to read:
“Sedimental Journeys – The Life and Legacy of Herb Wright“

van Beek, R., Gouw-Bouman, M.T.I.J. & Bos, J.A.A. (2015) Mapping regional vegetation developments in Twente (the Netherlands) since the Late Glacial and evaluating contemporary settlement patterns. Netherlands Journal of Geosciences-Geologie En Mijnbouw 94, 229-255. doi: 10.1017/njg.2014.40

SUMMARY: Examination of archaeological and palaeoecological evidence from the Twente region of the Netherlands is used to produce maps and images of past landscapes. The artists reconstructions of landscape change are particularly amazing and thought provoking.

Burn, M.J. & Palmer, S.E. (2014) Solar forcing of Caribbean drought events during the last millennium. Journal of Quaternary Science 29, 827-836. doi: 10.1002/jqs.2660

Göldel, B., Araujo, A.C., Kissling, W.D. & Svenning, J.-C. (2016) Impacts of large herbivores on spinescence and abundance of palms in the Pantanal, Brazil. Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society in press. doi: 10.1111/boj.12420

Llamas, B., Fehren-Schmitz, L., Valverde, G., Soubrier, J., Mallick, S., Rohland, N., Nordenfelt, S., Valdiosera, C., Richards, S.M., Rohrlach, A., Romero, M.I.B., Espinoza, I.F., Cagigao, E.T., Jiménez, L.W., Makowski, K., Reyna, I.S.L., Lory, J.M., Torrez, J.A.B., Rivera, M.A., Burger, R.L., Ceruti, M.C., Reinhard, J., Wells, R.S., Politis, G., Santoro, C.M., Standen, V.G., Smith, C., Reich, D., Ho, S.Y.W., Cooper, A. & Haak, W. (2016) Ancient mitochondrial DNA provides high-resolution time scale of the peopling of the Americas. Science Advances 2. doi: 10.1126/sciadv.1501385

Turner, T.E., Swindles, G.T., Charman, D.J., Langdon, P.G., Morris, P.J., Booth, R.K., Parry, L.E. & Nichols, J.E. (2016) Solar cycles or random processes? Evaluating solar variability in Holocene climate records. Scientific Reports 6, 23961. doi: 10.1038/srep23961

The dodo straightened up

March 30, 2016
Erik de Boer

New publication:

ANATOMY OF THE DODO (RAPHUS CUCULLATUS L., 1758): AN OSTEOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE THIRIOUX SPECIMENS.

Leon P. A. M. Claessens, Hanneke J. M. Meijer, Julian P. Hume, and Kenneth F. Rijsdijk (Editors) Society of Vertebrate Paleontology Memoir 15, Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology Vol. 35, Supplement to No. 6, 187 pages.

Caspian Sea mini symposium

March 9, 2016
WDG

Research Group of Palaeoecology & Landscape Ecology
Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics
University of Amsterdam

Date: 01/04/2016
Time: 15:00-18:00
Location: Amsterdam Science Park 904
Registration: Contact Prof. dr. Henry Hooghiemstra or Dr. Carina Hoorn to book your place and receive location details

15:00-15:30
Frank Wesselingh & the PRIDE team
How high can you get? Mountain uplift driving diversification in Pontocaspian lakes before humans bring down the unique aquatic biota?

15:30-16:00
Christiaan van Baak
Mediterranean-Paratethys connectivity during the late Miocene to recent

– 16:00-16:15 tea/coffee break –

16:15-17:15
Keith Richards
Studies in Caspian palynology: Vegetation, climate and sea level change

17:15-18:00
Questions and discussion

New literature review published open access:

Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Vuille, M., Behling, H., Carson, J.F., Gosling, W.D., Hoyos, I., Ledru, M.P., Montoya, E., Mayle, F., Maldonado, A., Rull, V., Tonello, M.S., Whitney, B.S. & Gonzalez-Arango, C. (2016) Climate variability and human impact in South America during the last 2000 years: Synthesis and perspectives from pollen records. Climate of the Past 12, 483-523. doi: 10.5194/cp-12-483-2016

European Conference of Tropical Ecology 2016

February 26, 2016
WDG

European Conference of Tropical Ecology
Georg-August-Universität Göttingen
23-26 February 2016

This is my first time attending the European Conference of Tropical Ecology and my second visit to Germany. The conference attracted c. 350 delegates; big enough to have plenty of interesting science, and yet small enough to find everyone you wanted to. The keynote speakers chosen to head the days provided some exciting insights into various new developments across the tropics, including: the importance of biogeography (Richard Corlett), metabolism and carbon cycles (Yadvinder Malhi), diversity and resilience (Lourens Poorter), tropical peatlands (Sue Page), agricultural landscapes (Ravi Prabhu), and mutualism of figs and fig wasps (Martine Hossaert-McKay).

From the many other interesting talks five in particular grabbed my attention, these were:

Lahr, M.M. et al. (2016) Inter-group violence among early Holocene hunter-gatherers of West Turkana, Kenya. Nature 529, 394-398. doi: 10.1038/nature16477

Rademaker, K., Hodgins, G., Moore, K., Zarrillo, S., Miller, C., Bromley, G.R.M., Leach, P., Reid, D.A., Yepez Alvarez, W. & Sandweiss, D.H. (2014) Paleoindian settlement of the high-altitude Peruvian Andes. Science 346, 466-469. doi: 10.1126/science.1258260

da Silva, S.G. & Tehrani, J.J. (2016) Comparative phylogenetic analyses uncover the ancient roots of Indo-European folktales. Royal Society Open Science 3. doi: 10.1098/rsos.150645

Veenendaal, E.M. et al. (2015) Structural, physiognomic and above-ground biomass variation in savanna-forest transition zones on three continents – how different are co-occurring savanna and forest formations? Biogeosciences 12, 2927-2951. doi: 10.5194/bg-12-2927-2015