The annual PhD thesis prize from the Koninklijk Nederlandse Botanische Vereniging (Royal Dutch Botanical Association) is now open. The prize of EURO 5000 will be awarded to the best PhD thesis defended between January and December 2024 at a Dutch university. The subject matter of the thesis is broadly defined within the field of botany, and includs topics such as taxonomy, (palaeo- / macro-) ecology, and cell biology.
The aim of this thesis was to provide insight into past human activities in Amazonia, and the long-term forest recovery that followed, using phytolith analysis. The first part of this thesis focused on improving phytolith analysis as a proxy for vegetation changes in Amazonia. The morphological variation of 24 Amazonian palm phytoliths were assessed (Chapter 2) to improve the taxonomic resolution of palm phytolith identification, and results indicate the potential to differentiate Euterpe, Bactris, Oenocarpus, Attalea, Iriartea deltoidea, and Socratea exorrhiza. Chapter 3 demonstrated that phytolith assemblages (from terrestrial soil cores) varied across a gradient of (modern) human disturbance in Surinamese rainforests. In Chapters 4-6, we developed beta regression and GLM models to predict forest cover and biomass changes within 200 m and 1 km of Amazonian lakes, respectively, using grass phytoliths. Applying these innovations in Chapters 5-6 demonstrated that past human activities were on localized scales in Suriname and temporally heterogenous in Ecuador. Palm enrichment of Attalea, Oenocarpus and Astrocaryum occurred within 0 km, 1 km, and 8 km of an archaeological site in Suriname (Chapter 5). In Ecuador, forest cover and biomass ranged between 48-84% and 77-247 Mg/ha, respectively, and the largest decreases (between 1000-1255 CE) were paired with fires (Chapter 6). Overall, the type, intensity, timing, and frequency of disturbances are important factors influencing long-term forest recovery and ecological legacies in Amazonia.
Ivory, S.J., MacDougal, E., Mason, A., Pereboom, E., Garelick, S., Ficken, K., Wooller, M.J., Nakileza, B. & Russell, J. (2024) Highland forest dynamics across equatorial East Africa during the end of the African humid period. Quaternary International. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2024.10.007
Zuccarelli Freire, V.N., Ziegler, M.J., Caetano-Andrade, V., Iminjili, V., Lellau, R., Rudd, R., Stokes, F., Viegas, D.H., Antonosyan, M. & Jha, D.K. Addressing the Anthropocene from the Global South: Integrating Paleoecology, Archaeology and Traditional Knowledge for COP Engagement. Frontiers in Earth Science 12, 1470577. DOI: 10.3389/feart.2024.1470577
INQUA fellow Alfred Hougnon continues his research into past environmental change in the Dahomey Gap (Benin). In the fourth video documenting his progress a short background to the project, and insights into field work, are given. Field work took place near the Ewe-Adakplame forest in the south east of Benin and involved the recovery of sediments using a Russian corer. The video also shows how interactions and engagement with the local community was developed during the research expedition.
To find out more above Alfreds project read posts on:
After visiting the SASQUA conference and presenting my work there (see SASQUA Conference post), we travelled to the University of Kwa-Zulu Natal in Pietermaritzburg (UKZN), where I would be staying for three weeks. During this period, my goal was to meet with local experts and to visit my site of study in the Drakensberg mountains. This would help me gain more insight into the environment I’m studying and provide me with an opportunity to collect more samples.
Pietermaritzburg
After the SASQUA congress finished, we flew from Port-Elisabeth to Durban. This would be my first time in one of the highly urbanised parts of South-Africa. We drove about an hour from Durban to Pietermaritzburg, better known locally as PMB, and I immediately noticed the stark difference between the countryside of the Western cape and the urbanised areas of Kwa-Zulu Natal. The city was rough around the edges and felt generally less safe than the laid-back countryside. Luckily, my accommodation was located in one of the better neighbourhoods close to campus. Macho the adorable dog of the AirBnB owners further assured my feeling of safety.
The European Conference of Tropical Ecology will take place in Amsterdam between 24 and 28 February 2025. The event will be centered around thematic oral and poster sessions. There are twenty-three different thematic sessions organized into seven broad topics:
Ecology of the past 