Theme: Palynology and the Global Climate Change Challenge
Date / time: 24 September 2026, 10:00-11:30 West African Time (UTC+1)
Location: Open online (see links below)
The Palynological Association of Nigeria (PAN) will host a webinar to celebrate the life and work of pioneering African palynologists Prof. Margaret A. Sowunmi (1939-2025). The theme of the webinar will be Palynology and the Global Climate Change Challenge. It is a great honor for me to have been invited to give the keynote address by Prof. Peter Adegbenga Adeonipekun (University of Lagos, Nigeria) who is President of the society. I look forward to taking part in this event and hearing the contributions from Prof. A.I. Olayinka (University of Ibadan, Nigeria) and Prof. Frank Neumann (North-Western University, South Africa). The event is open to join online, see details on the filer below.
Post holiday, and pre-teaching, I was searching around for recent studies on the environmental history of Africa and came across the following which hopefully are also of interest to Mapping Ancient Africa enthusiasts. If you have a paper that would be nice to highlight here, please get in contact and I will be happy to include it.
Bengo, M. D., Gomat, H.-Y., Bita, A. M., Ifo, S. A., Maley, J., & Giresse, P. (2026). High-resolution study of the Late Holocene from pollen of a marine core in the Gulf of Guinea (Cameroon): Paleoenvironmental and ecological dynamics in Central Africa during the last 2,500 years. Open Journal of Forestry, 16(01), 83–105. https://doi.org/10.4236/ojf.2026.161006
Effiom, A. C., Neumann, F. H., Scott, L., & Bamford, M. K. (2025). Morphology and ecological significance of Holocene palynomorphs from the Indian Ocean Coastal Belt Biome of South Africa. Palynology, 49(3), 2428382. https://doi.org/10.1080/01916122.2024.2428382
Garbe, P., Behl, M., Es-Senussi, A., Lange-Athinodorou, E., & Meister, J. (2026). Holocene vegetation dynamics and agricultural development at ancient Bubastis (Egypt): Insights from phytolith analysis. Frontiers in Environmental Archaeology, 5, 1778152. https://doi.org/10.3389/fearc.2026.1778152
García-Morato, S., Sánchez-Goñi, M. F., Urrego, D. H., & d’Errico, F. (2026). Climatic variability, vegetation dynamics, and cultural innovation in Southern Africa during the Middle Stone Age. Communications Earth & Environment, 7(1), 75. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-025-03051-0
Gunnell, Y., Mietton, M., Defive, E., Andriamitia, J., Montade, V., Jouannic, G., Voldoire, O., Ramanantsoa, A., Blondeau, S., Nicoud, G., & Rasoanimanana, R. R. (2026). Peat deposits as records of Quaternary tectonics and landscape dynamics in the semi-volcanic highlands of Madagascar. CATENA, 273, 110414. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2026.110414
Sylvestre, F., Melles, M., Wennrich, V., Dinies, M., Chalié, F., Swingedouw, D., Dallmeyer, A., Shi, X., Claussen, M., Jaeschke, A., Cocquyt, C., Karls, J., Kuper, J., Mallaye, B., Mazur, J.-C., Paillès, C., Rirongarti, R., Rethemeyer, J., Ritter-Prinz, B., … Kröpelin, S. (2026). Decadal-scale droughts disrupted the African Humid Period in the Sahara. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-026-10336-7
Also, new volume of Palaeoecology of Africa coming soon, check out the contents list:
By Bouwe Groeneveld (MSc Biological Sciences, track Ecology & Evolution, University of Amsterdam)
From data to reality
Last year, between April and June, I worked on my bachelor project on the fire history of a site in South Africa called Giant’s Castle. From the Netherlands, I analysed sediment cores by counting charcoal fragments and looking at their shape to determine whether they likely came from grass or wood. The results were largely what you would expect in a mountain grassland. Most of the charcoal came from grasses. At the same time, there were clear changes in the composition of the fuel reflected in the charcoal record. I linked the increase in fire activity to the presence of people, and also observed shifts in the types of fuel being burned over time. It felt like slowly unravelling a story from the past. But it also remained abstract. I was working with numbers, figures, and photos of a place I had never actually been to. I had a sense of it, but it did not fully feel real. A year later, I was standing there myself.
From analysis to experience
For my MSc research, I returned to the same system, but this time physically. In the meantime, I had already expanded my earlier work by looking at dung fungal spores, as an indicator for grazing animals, and pollen to reconstruct vegetation dynamics. But to describe vegetation properly, you really have to see it. After a five-day workshop, which I described in a previous blogpost, I spent a weekend at the home of Prof. Trevor Hill and Prof. Jemma Finch. That weekend turned into something like a crash course in South African life. It even included watching their son play a cricket match. What stood out most to me was how much more outdoor-oriented life felt compared to what I am used to in the Netherlands. After that, I was introduced to the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Pietermaritzburg, where I spent three weeks working in the lab. Interesting work, but I had really come for something else. The field.
The annual Dutch Earth & Environmental Science conference took place at the NH Noordwijk Conference Centre Leeuwenhorst in Noordwijkerhout amoung some of the many Dutch flower fields.
Before the conference was a “Strategic evening” which provided an opportunity to meet scientists from other universities and organisations, and to discuss topical issues. This included a presentation of the recently completed “Earth & Environmental Science Vision” document (which can be dowloaded from the AMW Raad [Earth & Environmental Science Council] web page).
On the first day of the conference proper I was involved in chairing two sessions on “Palaeoclimate”. These sessions covered a wide range of topics, proxies and time periods, and included work on the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, tipping points, and the Younger Dryas period. Excitingly for chairing these sessions I recieved a pair of NWO NAC socks!
On the second day of the conference – sporting my new NAC socks – I presented our recently published work on landscape openness in the pre-farming European landscape. This was centred upon the recent publication of the palaeoecological record from Well-Aijen (Limburg, the Netherlands) which was the culmination of many years, and many students, research (Gosling et al., 2025). It was great to get positive feedback from the Dutch scientific community on this study. The session also included exciting work on reconstructing past climate from pollen data using the CREST model (Chevalier, 2022) and the extraction of biodiversity data from sedimentary pollen records.
As well as the science talks the meeting had posters, exhibitors, workshops (I attended the one of scientific drilling) and social events (pub quiz, bowling, dancing). The atmosphere was very friendly and it was very easy to meet new people. The area around is very pretty and I even managed to get out for a short run on one of the days. I would recommend this event to anyone working in Earth or environmental sciences in the Netherlands.
References
Chevalier, M. (2022). crestr: An R package to perform probabilistic climate reconstructions from palaeoecological datasets. Climate of the Past, 18(4), 821–844. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-18-821-2022
Gosling, W. D., de Wolf, I. K., Witteveen, N. H., de Zwaan, S. B., van Teulingen, C., Föllmi, D., Thissen, W., Vink, V. B., Woutersen, A., Philip, A. L., van Herk, M. J., Nascimento, M. N., Prins, M. A., & McMichael, C. N. H. (2025). Herbivory and vegetation openness in a pre-farming European landscape. Plant Ecology & Diversity, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2025.2576566
Gosling, W. D., de Wolf, I. K., Witteveen, N. H., de Zwaan, S. B., Van Teulingen, C., Föllmi, D., Thissen, W., Vink, V. B., Woutersen, A., Philip, A. L., van Herk, M. J., Nascimento, M. N., Prins, M. A., & McMichael, C. N. H. (2025). Herbivory and vegetation openness in a pre-farming European landscape. Plant Ecology & Diversity, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/17550874.2025.2576566
This manuscript has been developed over many years through the contributions of many MSc and BSc students based at the University of Amsterdam.
Mapping Ancient Africa Quaternary International special issue article #8
Open access:
Neumann, F. H., Finch, J., Hahn, A., Miller, C. S., Scott, L., Schefuß, E., Dupont, L., Cawthra, H. C., & Engelbrecht, F. (2025). Vegetation and climate dynamics in a 16,600-year marine sequence offshore Mozambique in Delagoa Bight, south-eastern Africa. Quaternary International, 747, 109956. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109956
To find the complete list of articles in the Mapping Ancient Africa special issue of Quaternary International click here.
Mapping Ancient Africa Quaternary International special issue article #7
Open access:
Gosling, W.D., Chevalier, M., Fischer, M.L., Holewijn, M., Finch, J., Gil-Romera, G., Hill, T., Houngnon, A., Leonardi, M., Manica, A., & Kaboth-Bahr, S. (2025). A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period. Quaternary International744, 109933. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2025.109933
Gosling, W.D., Chevalier, M., Lothar Fischer, M., Holewijn, M., Finch, J. M., Gil-Romera, G., Hill, T. R., Houngnon, A., Leonardi, M., Manica, A., & Kaboth-Bahr, S. (2025). Code from: A multi-model approach to the spatial and temporal characterization of the African Humid Period. Figshare. https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.29608400.V1
To find the complete list of articles in the Mapping Ancient Africa special issue of Quaternary International click here.
I was delighted to be invited to give a seminar as part of the Max Planck Institute for Geoanthropology “Human Palaeo-systems Research Group” series. In case you missed it the seminar is will soon be available to watch online (click here).
To see the full list of seminars in the series click here.
Chevalier, M., Gosling, W.D., Hooghiemstra, H., Cartapanis, O., Chase, B.M. & Kaboth-Bahr, S. (2025) Eccentricity-driven glacial climate variability and its influence on speciation in the tropical Andes. Quaternary Science Advances 100278. DOI: 10.1016/j.qsa.2025.100278
The next seminar series of the Palynologische Kring (Dutch palynological society) will take place on 24 January 2025, at the Auditorium of TNO Utrecht. If you would like to attend please register by emailing the society (link).
PROGRAMME
13.00-13.15 Arrival
13.15-13.45 Irene Waajen (TNO): Re-evaluation of Early Weichselian pollen zones with new insights from the North Sea.
Ecology of the past 