time | Ecology of the past

European Conference of Tropical Ecology (2026)

February 27, 2026
WDG

The European Conference of Tropical Ecology is organised on behalf of the Society for Tropical Ecology. To find out more about the society click here.

The 9th European Conferenc of Tropical Ecology took place in Passau (Germay) between the 23 and 27 February 2026. The theme of the meeting was “Species-Ecosystems-People” and it brought together around 250 tropical ecology researchers from around the globe to discuss the latest research in the field. The meeting ran very smoothly – credit to Christine Schmitt and her team at the University of Passau – and I enjoyed the conference very much. I followed sessions focused on topics ranging from climate change impacts and change through time, through human-environment interactions, to traits, and recovery and restoration.

It was great to see a good contingent of tropical palaeoecologists present. With Rob Marchant (York University) providing a key note spanning past environmental change through to socio-ecological systems, entitled: “Embedding the past for balanced future tropical mountain social ecological systems”. Palaeoecological talks and posters came from around the world, including Bolivia, Cuba, Brazil, Seychelles, and Democratic Republic of Congo. All provided new insights and suggested high potential for revealing novel information about past ecosystems and the drivers of change.

To find out more about the talks check out the abstract booklet which is available via the conference web site: https://gtoe2026-passau.de/book-of-abstracts.html

Spatial and temporal abilities of proxies used to detect pre-Columbian Indigenous human activity in Amazonian ecosystems

November 2, 2023
WDG

Open access:

McMichael, C.N.H., Levis, C., Gosling, W.D., Junqueira, A.B., Piperno, D.R., Neves, E.G., Mayle, F., Peña-Claros, M. & Bongers, F. (2023) Spatial and temporal abilities of proxies used to detect pre-Columbian Indigenous human activity in Amazonian ecosystems. Quaternary Science Reviews 321, 108354. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2023.108354

Job: PhD in Macroecology/Palaeoecology

September 12, 2018
WDG

There is a vacancy for a 3 or 4-year PhD position at the University of Bergen’s Department of Biological Sciences.

The successful candidate will be primarily responsible for developing tests for evaluating the effect of humans through space and time on species range sizes and developing analyses to compare diversity patterns and range sizes from different data sources in mountainous regions, interpretation of pollen-stratigraphical data for reconstructing range size through time, and applying mapping techniques to assess the patterns over time and space.

Special requirements for the position:

The successful candidate must have knowledge and experience of quantitative analyses of ecological or palaeoecological data (preferably using the statistical software R), as well as documented skills in one or more research fields relevant to the position.
Experience with large databases and some experience with geospatial analysis software, such as in ESRI ArcGIS, QGIS or R is an advantage.
It would be beneficial to have a background in one or more of the following research fields: biogeography, macroecology, palaeoecology, mountain biodiversity, community ecology, applied statistics, numerical ecology.

Main PhD Supervisor: Prof. John-Arvid Grytnes. Co-supervised by: Dr. Suzette Flantua

To find out more click here.