Syllabus
Course plan
Lesson
Topic 1
Introduction to long time scales 2
Climate change and large scale ecosystem change 3
Excursion 4
Humans and environmental change 5
Disturbances 6
Local vegetation reconstruction 7
Pollen determinations 8
Seed - fruit determination 9
Charcoal and fire 10
Multi-proxy data collection 11
Palaeoecological synthesis 12
Conclusions: project completion and Future Earth
Annotation
Learning outcomes
The participants will get familiar with the main principles of carrying out scientific research in the field of Quaternary palaeoecology. They will be able to understand the long-time scales in ecology and explain the main drivers behind the ecosystem changes (climate, human impact, succession). They will also be able to list the main stages of the Quaternary, particularly the Holocene, define main ecological processes and recognize the most important subfossil finds (pollen grains, seeds/fruits). They will be able to find a suitable locality for sampling as well as to understand and explain the principles of the main research methods. The knowledge will be applied to sample, separate, recognize and identify subfossil plant remains in a real situation. Connections between the found groups of subfossil remains will be described, including analyzing their significance. Furthermore, the participants will be able to interpret the gathered data, draw simple environmental reconstructions and evaluate these results in a broader context. As an outcome of this course, the students will be able to design their own research ideas in the field of Quaternary palaeoecology and answer their previously asked questions.