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 2025 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.
Ecology of the Past blog contributor Nina Witteveen was awarded the Hugo de Vries prize on 13 June 2025 at the Botanic Gardens in Nijmegen. The Hugo de Vries prize is awarded by the KNbv (Royal Dutch Botanical Society) and the Stichting Hugo de Vries fonds (Hugo de Vries foundation) for the best PhD thesis in Botany defended at a Dutch University. This years prize was awarded to Nina for her thesis“Long-term Forest Recovery in Amazonia: Insights from Phytolith Analysis” (University of Amsterdam) which was completed under the supervision of Crystal McMichael.
Palynologische Kring: Jaarvergadering en lezingenmiddag
Date: 20 June 2025 / 20 juni 2025
Location: Minnaertgebouw, Utrecht Science Park
13.15: arrival / inloop
13.30-14.30: Annual meeting / Jaarvergadering
14.30-14.55: Tobias Vervaart MSc (Universiteit Utrecht): Introducing PhD project ‘Looking back to plan ahead: unfolding the natural heritage of Dutch landscapes’.
14.55-15.15: coffee break
15.15-15.40: Yannick Bats MSc (Universiteit Utrecht): Impact of chemical treatments on the molecular and stable carbon isotopic composition of sporomorphs.
15.40-16.10: Prof Dr. Corrie Bakels (Faculteit der Archeologie, Universiteit Leiden): Results from stable isotope analysis applied to charred grain preserved in two storage rooms found in Tell Damiyah, Jordan.
16.10-16.35: Dr. Otto Brinkkemper (Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed): The optimal sample size of cereal grains for stable isotope research.
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.
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:
During the Mapping Ancient Africa writing workshop in Kenya (3-6 June 2024) Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr conducted a series of short interviews with the scientists attending. Below you can find part 2 (of 2) of the interviews with the participants in the workshop. Watch the videos to find out their scientific stories and top tips for academic writing. Watch all the Mapping Ancient Africa videos on the Mapping Ancient Africa YouTube Playlist.
The participants (part 2 of 2)
Ruth Kiely (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Husna Mashaka (Arizona State University, USA & National Museums of Kenya, Kenya)
On Friday 24 May 2024 the Palynologische Kring (Dutch palynological society) held a seminar series and laboratory workshop at the Institute for Biodiversity & Ecosystem Dynamics (University of Amsterdam). During the afternoon we had the annual meeting of the society, the presentation of our MSc Thesis prize, four seminars and two laboratory demonstrations. The MSc thesis prize “Florschütz Award” was won by Caroline Goossens (VU Amsterdam) for her thesis entitle: “An Eemian-Early Weichselian sequence in the Amersfoort Basin, the Netherlands”; the project was supervised by Natalie Van der Putten, Cees Kasse and Jeroen Schokker. We hope that Caroline will present her thesis at a future Palynologishe Kring meeting.
Teye Aukes presenting on the diatoms of ancient Rome
The talk series was kicked off by Nina Witteveen (University of Amsterdam) who presented part of her PhD thesis (currently awaiting defense), entitled: “Long-term forest recovery in Amazonia insights from phytolith analysis”. Nina discussed the impact of past peoples on the vegetation of Suriname based on her work identifying phytoliths in soil samples collected at varying distances from an archaeological site. The second talk was given my Amanda Henry (Leiden University) who demonstrated how the analysis of starch grains extracted from archaeological context can provide insights in to past diets. She used these evidences to suggest that early humans and Neanderthals had a similar diversity of plants in their diets. The third talk was given by University of Amsterdam MSc researcher Teye Aukes and focused upon his identification of diatoms from an swampy lagoon environment near Ostia (Italy). He drew conclusions from these data about the antiquity of salt production in ancient Rome. The final talk was given online by Welmoed Out (Moesgaard Museum) who presented a detailed analysis of inter- and intra-analyst variability in phytolith morphometric analysis.
After the seminars we moved upstairs to the microscope laboratory where Nina Witteveen and Ana Smuk (University of Groningen) showed off phytoliths from their study site in South America and the Netherlands.
Some of the Palynologische Kring members enjoying some refreshment after the event.
Amazonian rainforests are incredibly biodiverse and provide global ecosystem services, but are threatened by fires, which completely alter ecosystem function and structure. Fires, especially in western Amazonia, almost always have an anthropogenic origin. However, much is unknown about the long-term recovery and multi-generational successional processes following fire events. Due to the long lifespan of tropical trees, past fires may have left ecological legacies in modern forest composition in Amazonia. The goal of this thesis is to investigate how past fire events impact successional trajectories of past vegetation change and whether these fire events and related human impacts have left ecological legacies in modern Amazonian forests. I specifically focus on western Amazon and changes in palm abundances and composition through time, as palms were an economically important plant family to past peoples. I compared lake charcoal records across the Amazon Basin and found fire was least prevalent in western Amazonia. On a local scale, very limited evidence of past disturbances was present in forest plots in northwestern Amazonia. Palm abundances have been increasing since the mid-Holocene, but this increase is not related to past fire events. Past fire likely have left low to none ecological legacies in these forest plots. Modern trait composition across western Amazonia is associated with past fire events, but more research is necessary to disentangle relationships between past fire, soils, and modern vegetation. Overall, western Amazonia likely contains the least intense ecological legacies in comparison with the rest of Amazonia.
Poaceae (the grass family) is one of the most diverse angiosperm families on Earth, comprising close to 12,000 species. The history of grass-dominated biomes extends back over 20 million years, yet the spatial and temporal development of these biomes and the underlying drivers remains unresolved. This thesis addresses these questions in South America, focusing on modern grass pollen and ancient samples dating from the early Miocene to the present. The thesis reveals several key points: (i) Grass pollen size varies significantly both among genera and species and within species. Pollen size shows no correlation with (a)biotic factors, indicating its limited utility as a generally applicable proxy for reconstructing past vegetation and climate; (ii) Grass pollen exhibits high diverse on surface ornamentation. The morphotypes identified by descriptive terminology are well-supported by a combination of SEM images of pollen surface patterns and computational image analysis. The findings reveal that pollen sculpture is unrelated to (a)biotic variables but is diverse across the phylogeny; (iii) Tropical grass pollen morphology suggests a gradual rather than punctuated evolution, based on the trend toward a less dense ornamentation of the exine since c. 23 Ma. The changes in the exine of grass pollen since the early Miocene might be driven by evolutionary processes (evolutionary drift and/or directional selection), and potentially immigration at the continental scale. In summary, the thesis reveals the trajectory of grass pollen morphological changes over time and examining the drivers that have contributed to their evolution and geographical expansion at the continental scale.
Ecology of the past 