Crystal McMichael | Ecology of the past

Palynologische Kring: Spatial patterns in palaeoecology meeting
Date: Thursday 4 April
Location: Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE), Amersfoort

13:30 – 14:00 Otto Brinkkemper (RCE): Spatial patterns in the Dutch archaeobotanical dataset
14:00 – 14:30 Marjolein Gouw-Bouman (Utrecht University): Spatial patterns of the Dark Age reforestation

Break

15:00 – 15:30 Thomas Giesecke (Utrecht University): Research and education of vegetation change in four dimensions – developments of the European Pollen Database in Neotoma
15:30 – 16:00 Crystal McMichael (University of Amsterdam): Ancient human disturbances may be skewing our understanding of Amazonian ecology

Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed

Job: Post-doctoral researcher in Neotropical Palaeoecology
Location: Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam
Duration: 3 years
Deadline for applications: 15 January 2018

We are seeking to recruit a Neotropical palaeoecologist to join the recently funded “The past peoples of Amazonia: Assessing ecological legacies” project (PI Dr. Crystal McMichael, funding NWO, based within the Department of Ecosystem & Landscape Dynamics). The project aims to reconstruct cultural histories from lake sediments in northwestern Amazonia, and link past human activities with modern ecological observations. The project involves analyzing microfossils (including pollen, phytoliths, and charcoal), and the development of a transfer function that estimates past human impacts in tropical forest systems.

We are particularly looking for a candidate with expertise and experience, in:

Fieldwork in remote areas.
Neotropical pollen.
Quantitative analysis, including familiarity with R and Geographical Information Systems.
Academic publication.

For more details and how to apply click here.