Research group Palaeoecology and Landscape ecology P

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Research groupPalaeoecology and Landscape
ecology(PL)

• Temperate
• Palaeoecology Van Geel, Van Mourik
• Landscape ecology Kooijman, Sevink
• Tropics
• Palaeoecology Hooghiemstra, Van Boxel
• Vegetation ecology Duivenvoorden, Cleef

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Palaeoecology Landscape ecology

• Rationale
• To understand present-day climate and ecosystems,
  and to anticipate future change, we need a
  reference
• This reference is the record of past changes
  found in peat archives and sediment sequences

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Main research activities of P L

• study of records of past climate change inferred
  from vegetation change at different time-scales
• Neogene (25 Ma gt),
• Pleistocene (2.5 Ma gt),
• Holocene (10 ka gt),
• Anthropogene (2 ka gt)
• study of the present status and dynamic history
  of ecosystems

• societal relevant research nature conservation,
  Kyoto Protocol

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Main Research Topics 1 Reconstruction of
ecosystem dynamics and climate change
Van Geel, Hooghiemstra et al.

• Temperate Europe Siberia
• Tropics Mexico to Bolivia (20N 20S)
• rainforest, dry forest, savanna, montane forest,
  páramo
• Subjects
• biotic setting floral evolution,
  biostratigraphy, vegetation change
• abiotic setting basin development, landscape
  development, sedimentary and geochemical
  processes
• mechanisms at work orbital forcing, solar forcing

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Main Research Topics 1 (continued) Data
synthesis, data-model comparisons
Hooghiemstra, Van Boxel et al.
Pollen taxa ? Ecological groups ?
Ecosystems
PFTs Biomes

• Aims
• calibration of model output by geological data
  (international BIOME project)
• inverse modeling studies (effects of pCO2,
  temperature, precipitation) sensitivity studies
  ? improved site selection

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Main Research Topics 1 (continued)
Reconstruction of ecosystem dynamics
Duivenvoorden, Kooijman

• Tropics plant diversity
• Are Amazonian forests so species rich owing to
  many different niches being filled by numerous
  phylogenetically different taxa?
• Temperate nutrients

Significance of substrate / pH for availability
of nutrients
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Main Research Topics 2 Development of new
methodologies
Van Geel

• Common practice
• palynologists use only traditional fossil types
• a large number of unknown fossils are ignored
• Identification of unknowns reveals a wealth of
  information about past natural and anthropogenic
  environments
• abundance of herbivores
• intensity of fire
• euthrophication of water (cyanobacteria)
• Aim improve the quality of palaeo-environmental
  reconstructions

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Main Research Topics 2 (continued)
Development of new methodologies
Van Geel, Hooghiemstra Duivenvoorden

• Problematic wiggles in the 14C calibration
  curve has been turned into an advantage 14C AMS
  wiggle match dating delivers greater
  chronological precision the role of the Sun in
  climate change can be evaluated
• BioTime
• how representative are pollen spectra for plant
  diversity?
• how did plant diversity vary in the past with
  climate change

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Main Research Topics (3) Interaction
between biotic abiotic components in the
geo-ecosystems
All group members

• Proxies
• biotic pollen, nonpollen palynomorphs diatoms,
  Corg, charcoal,
• abiotic grain size analysis, inorganic
  geochemistry (elements)
• physical ?14C (solar activity)
• stable isotopes (?13C) and biomarkers
• Aim place climate change-driven vegetation
  change in its abiotic environment.
• Keeping in mind
• uplift
• basin development
• regimes of sediment transport
• diagenesis

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Project acquisition 2000 2006

• WOTRO-DGIS 7 projects
• WOTRO-Fellowships 1 project
• WOTRO-Integrated Programme 1 project
• NWO-ALW 11 projects
• AlBan 1 project
• EU 2 projects
• Tropenbos-NUFFIC-
• COLCIENCIAS 2 projects
• IBED 3 projects
• Externally funded PhD projects 2 projects

28 projects
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Cooperation

• Netherlands
• Centre for Isotope Research
• Free University Amsterdam
• Netherlands Institute Sea Research (NIOZ)
• Netherlands Institute Applied Geology (NITG)
• Netherlands Centre Luminiscence Dating (NLG)
• RING / ROB
• Ministry of Agriculture and Nature Management
• Universities of Nijmegen and Wageningen

• International
• Colombia Universidad Nacional,
• Bogotá/ Medellín /Leticia
• Colombia Universidad de los Andes
• Peru Universidad Nacional para la Amazonia
• Ecuador Pontífica Universidad Católica
• México Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM)
  ECOSUR
• Latin American Pollen Database (LAPD) community
• Germany Göttingen, Potsdam, Greifswald
• UK Bristol, Gloucestershire, Leeds, Leicester,
  Nottingham, Southampton, York
• Ireland Dublin
• Finland Helsinki, Turku
• Sweden Royal Botanical Museum, Stockholm
• Denmark Aarhus
• Estonia Tallin
• Canada Regina

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A research highlight
Torres, Hooghiemstra

• A novel 3.2 Ma terrestrial record of Pleistocene
  ice-ages from the Bogotá Basin

Vivianite
Volcanic ash
586 m deep bore hole Funza-2 at 2550 m altitude
XRF- scanner
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A research highlight
Depositional environments
Lacustrine
Fluvio-lacustrine
Fluvial
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A research highlight
Torres, Hooghiemstra
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Future Research

• Non-pollen palynomorphs
• Solar forcing of climate change
• Basins of Bogotá Fúquene harvesting the huge
  data sets of fine-resolution pollen records ??
  ESPM

• Amazonia plant diversity and ice age
  environments
• GIS applications for calibrating paleodata to
  modern data in regional syntheses ?? CBPG
• Societal relevant research
• Nature restoration and conservation supported by
  paleo-data ?? EPS
• Forensic studies
• IPCC related research ?? ESPM