Landscape and conservation palaeoecology.
Research Area
I use fossil proxies in sedimentary sequence to understand the different roles of people and climate in shaping terrestrial ecosystems over centuries to millennia, and how this knowledge can assist in addressing contemporary biodiversity management issues. The proxies I use mainly include pollen, charcoal, sediment geochemistry and non-pollen palynomorphs such as testate amoebae, algal and fungal spores, diatoms etc. The ecosystem features I investigate mainly include changes in past terrestrial vegetation, wetland development and carbon accumulation, and fire regimes in context of climate change and human land use, ranging from the last few hundred years to over the last 50,000 years. I pay special attention to local communities' lived experiences in study areas, incorporating their cultural perspectives with palaeo data interpretation to better understand past human-ecosystem/landscape interactions and present-day implications. My current research is strongly motivated by present biodiversity management challenges; therefore, I work closely with land managers/local/indigenous communities to target my research questions to specific management needs or local interests. I currently work closely with the Wildlife Trust BCN, UK and the Tasmanian Aboriginal community in Australia.
Project Interests
I am interested in developing an urban palaeoecology project to assist ongoing wetland management efforts in Cambridge. The aim of this is to understand how city wetlands have responded to anthropogenic pressure in the last few centuries to assess their resilience and use this knowledge to predict the future of highly protected wetlands of significant ecological value under future climates and growing anthropogenic pressure in the broader region, especially those at risk of the impact of future urban sprawl. This project will be in partnership with the Cambridge City Council Nature Reserve.
