morphometrics | Ecology of the past

PhD Thesis: Morphometrics of modern and fossil Poaceae pollen from South America

December 19, 2023
WDG

On November 17, 2023, Caixia Wei (魏彩霞) accomplished a pivotal milestone by successfully defending her thesis titled “Morphometrics of Modern and Fossil Poaceae Pollen from South America” at the distinguished Agnietenkapel (University of Amsterdam). During the defense ceremony, Caixia showcased her professional knowledge and expertise in the field of paleoecology in a relaxed and cheerful manner. The committee members, promoters (Carina Hoorn, William Gosling, Phillip Jardine), and attendees (~50 people) responded with frequent smiles, laughter, and numerous rounds of applause! After the defense, a delightful reception and dinner were held, where Caixia was showered with an abundance of hugs, kisses, heartfelt wishes, and thoughtful gifts. These wonderful memories will support Caixia on her journey ahead…

For a glimpse into the event, you can watch Caixia’s insightful 10-minute project presentation here:

Additionally, most of Caixia’s thesis is available for download at this link:

Wei, C. (2023) Morphometrics of modern and fossil Poaceae pollen from South America. PhD Thesis, University of Amsterdam.

New insights from a Poaceae pollen morphological study in the Amazon

November 8, 2022
WDG

Open access:

Wei, C., Jardine, P.E., Gosling, W.D. & Hoorn, C. (2023) Is Poaceae pollen size a useful proxy in palaeoecological studies? New insights from a Poaceae pollen morphological study in the Amazon. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 308, 104790. DOI: 10.1016/j.revpalbo.2022.104790

AFQUA 2018 – day 4

July 17, 2018
WDG

AFQUA: The African Quaternary environments, ecology and humans
2^ndInternational Conference and Workshops
14-22 July 2018-07-15 National Museum, Nairobi, Kenya

Day 4

Yesterday (day 3) was excursion day of the AFQUA conference (photos to follow). Day 4 of the meeting was back in the National Museum Nairobi and kicked off with a session on “African archaeological landscapes”. The opening talk reviewed the career of Karl Butzer who coined the term ‘geoarchaeology’ back in the 1970’s when writing about his work integrating geological, archaeological and anthropological information (C.A. Cordova). Two talks then followed highlighting work on Lake Makagadikgadi from the perspective of archaeology and landscapes (D.S.G Thomas) and geochemical fingerprinting of stone tools to determine their source (D.J. Nash).

To take us up to lunch Boris Vanniere and Daniele Colombaroli gave a ‘double header’ plenary talk highlighting the exciting advances in the development of the Global Charcoal Database and how understanding past fire histories in Africa is key to interpreting environmental change. The after lunch session continued the palaeo-fire theme with records from Lake Botswana (C.E. Cordova), Lake Bosumtwi (W.D. Gosling – me), and Madagascar presented (A. Razafimanantsoa); as well as work on the usefulness of the morphometric’s of charcoal in determining the plant of origin (L.Bremond).

In the final session of the day we were back to “Southern Africa” as a theme. Under which banner we were “boggled” by sea-surface and sub-surface temperature reconstructions (M.A. Berke), shown how to extract climate records from Hyrax middens (B.M. Chase) and given insights into the past flora of the Cape Floristic region from fossil pollen records spanning 130,000 years (L.J. Quick).