Palaeoecology

Over the last two decades or so, the greater part of the palaeoecological research has had a geographical emphasis upon Scotland, the North Atlantic, and Scandinavia. Our research however, also covers a much wider geographical area including Spain, South Africa, South America, Russia and the Falkland islands.

Some examples of our recent research projects:

1. The Falkland Islands

^{Photos: Views across a Falkland peat bog and some of the island residents - a sealion and gentoo penguins.}

Sediment samples were extracted from the Falkland islands for macrofossil, testate amoebae , charcoal and carbon content analysis as part of a Leverhume funded project entitled ‘Falkland Island peatland as a mirror to understand Future European peatlands’. Directed by Dr. Dmitri Mauquoy. Peatlands are valuable ecosystems which take up and store carbon, mitigating the effects of climate change by taking greenhouse gases out of the atmosphere. One of the consequences of recent climate change and human disturbance is that peatlands are now becoming more fire prone due to drainage, higher summer temperatures and reduced precipitation. The aim of this project is to understand the relationship between long-term peatland carbon accumulation rates, burning disturbance, the types of former peat forming plants and climate change across the Falkland Islands. The analysis will help us to understand not only the impacts of climate change to Falkland peatlants but also how such peatlands in the Northern Hemisphere may likely change in the future.

^{Map of theproposed study sites on the Falkland Islands andresults from a pilot study}

2. The Island of Mull - Inner Hebrides western Scotland

^{Photos: Boat trip from Oban to Mull and examples of peat coring on Mull}

On the island of Mull sediment cores were extracted from different locations using a Russian peat corer for fossil pollen analysis. The aim was to reconstruct the vegetaion history to determine the different types of native woodland that may have once been present thousands of years ago, but which are no longer present today, inorder to help local communities restore the native woodland on the island.

3. Rhynie, Aberdeenshire in eastern Scotland

We also maintain links with The James Hutton Institute and a range of UK and International colleagues whose interests span a variety of disciplines including:

• Archaeology
• Biology
• Chemistry
• Geology
• History
• Physics
• Scandinavian Studies