January 10, 2024
Applications are invited for a fully-funded three-year PhD to commence in October 2024 with Adele Julier (University of Portsmouth, UK).
The project will focus on disentangling the history of human ignited and natural fire regimes in Britain. This will be achieved through the analysis of charcoal fragments extracted from sedimentary sequences.
For full details click here.
Deadline: 19 January 2024
December 20, 2023
I am delighted to be able to report that Alfred Houngnon (University of Abomey-Calavi, Benin) has been awarded an INQUA Fellowship for 2024 to develop his research into past environmental change in the Dahomey Gap. This research will link up my laboratory, at the Institute of Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam), and the group of Dr Mireille S.S. Toyi (Laboratory of Applied Ecology, University of Abomey-Calavi). Below, and in the associated video report, Alfred explains the project and what he hopes to achieve during the project.
The Dahomey Gap project is designed to gain new insights on the West African palaeoenvironments using pollen, charcoal and dung fungal spore records to reconstruct past vegetation, fire and animal abundances. These empirical data will then be compared against paleoclimate models. Specifically, we will explore the interactions between fire, animals and vegetation around the Ewe-Adakplame forest in the south east of Benin Republic and highlight the role humans would have previously played in the modification of the landscape for millennia.
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November 2, 2023
Open access:
McMichael, C.N.H., Levis, C., Gosling, W.D., Junqueira, A.B., Piperno, D.R., Neves, E.G., Mayle, F., Peña-Claros, M. & Bongers, F. (2023) Spatial and temporal abilities of proxies used to detect pre-Columbian Indigenous human activity in Amazonian ecosystems. Quaternary Science Reviews 321, 108354. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108354
September 11, 2023
Open access:
Nascimento, M.N., Beltran, J., Bressers, C., van Delft, J., Vermeulen, J., de Ron, S., Bruijn, A., Raczka, M.F., Maezumi, S.Y., Gosling, W.D., Bush, M.B. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2023) Charcoal abundance measurements are affected by freeze-drying. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 629, 111790. DOI: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2023.111790
August 29, 2023
Open access:
Nascimento, M.d.N., McMichael, C.N.H., Kleijwegt, Z., Åkesson, C., Gredal, C., Maezumi, S.Y., Bush, M.B. & Gosling, W.D. (2023) Fire in the clouds: How changing land use shaped an Andean biodiversity hotspot. Quaternary Science Reviews 317, 108278. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108278
August 18, 2023
On Wednesday 19 July 2023 the Mapping Ancient Africa session of the INQUA Rome congress took place. We were delighted to have an full program of speakers despite some late cancellations. The first session featured seven speakers.
The first two talks focused on southern Africa. The first talk by Liviu Giosan (Woodshole Oceanographic Institute) focused on new sediment cores extracted from the Okavango – Makgadikgadi region and new efforts to obtain sediment cores that can provide information on the dispersal of hominins. Brian Chase (CNRS) then looks us to the Karoo highlighting recent findings that suggest that this currently arid region was more habitable in the past and that a proliferation of stone tools suggests past peoples utilised the region extensively (Carr et al., 2023).
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August 16, 2023
Gosling, W.D. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2023) The use of micro infrared spectroscopy in reconstructing past ecological and environmental change. Reference Module in Earth Systems and Environmental Sciences (ed. by R. Bradshaw) Elsevier. DOI: 10.1016/B978-0-323-99931-1.00087-8
July 16, 2023
The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) project has a double session of talks and a poster session at the INQUA congress in Rome 2023. Our session will be on Wednesday 19 July. Unfortunately a number of the originally planned speakers could not make it to Rome due to a combination of not obtaining visas, logistical challenges and ill health. We wish them all well and hope that they will continue to be involved in the project. Further, many thanks to all those who have agreed to step up and give a presentation at a late notice. Below is an updated schedule correct as of Sunday 16 July based on the information contained on the INQUA Rome App; if you are aware of any further problems or changes please let me know ASAP!
If you are at the INQUA Rome congress please come along to our talks and posters in Session 64: Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, Vegetation & Humans.
June 20, 2023
Open access:
van der Sande, M.T., Bush, M.B., Åkesson, C.M., Berrio, J.C., Correia Metrio, A., Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Maezumi, S.Y., McMichael, C.N.H., Montoya, E., Mosblech, N.A.S., de Novaes Nascimento, M., Peña-Claros, M., Poorter, L., Raczka, M.F. & Gosling, W.D. (2023) Warming, drought, and disturbances lead to shifts in functional composition: A millennial-scale analysis for Amazonian and Andean sites. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16818
June 8, 2023
Open access:
Strandberg, N.A., Edwards, M., Ellison, J.C., Steinbauer, M.J., Walentowitz, A., Fall, P.L., Sear, D., Langdon, P., Cronin, S., Castilla-Beltrán, A., Croudace, I.W., Prebble, M., Gosling, W.D. & Nogué, S. (2023) Influences of sea level changes and volcanic eruptions on Holocene vegetation in Tonga. Biotropica. DOI: 10.1111/btp.13231
Ecology of the past 