Details of Award
NERC Reference : NE/N000277/1
Quaternary Palaeoecology Advanced Training Short Course
Training Grant Award
- Lead Supervisor:
- Dr T C B Hill, The Natural History Museum, Earth Sciences
- Grant held at:
- The Natural History Museum, Earth Sciences
- Science Area:
- Earth
- Freshwater
- Marine
- Terrestrial
- Overall Classification:
- Freshwater
- ENRIs:
- Biodiversity
- Environmental Risks and Hazards
- Global Change
- Science Topics:
- Palaeobiology
- Quaternary Science
- Palaeoenvironments
- Systematics & Taxonomy
- Ecosystem Scale Processes
- Abstract:
- Quaternary Palaeoecology has been identified as a valuable short course to fill a clear gap in current NERC-led training initiatives. This short course successfully obtained NERC ATSC funding in 2014, received over 30 applications and subsequently successfully trained 12 PhD and postdoctoral students (11 of which were NERC funded students) in the principles and applications of Quaternary Palaeoecology. Reconstructing past environments is a key initiative within current attempts to i) contextualise contemporary environmental change, ii) model the Earth's climate and iii) predict future climate and associated environmental change. These themes are a concise reflection of the typical research themes/priorities highlighted by the newly formed DTPs, where themes associated with understanding environmental change and reconstructing past environments were encountered in the majority of the DTP descriptors. Over 10% of the PhD project proposals currently on offer within the London DTP alone involve palaeoenvironmental reconstructions and/or the application of biological proxies to understanding systems change. Palaeoenvironmental research is of critical importance due to the relative lack of reliable documented climate records predating the 20th century. This has resulted in the use of biological climate 'proxies', often preserved within sedimentary archives, to provide qualitative and quantitative reconstructions of the past, in terms of climate and environmental conditions. As the majority of biological proxies within Quaternary strata are extant species, ecological research has ensured that a detailed understanding of species abundance and diversity is available that can then be applied to the sedimentary records. The Natural History Museum is ideally suited to the delivery of this course due to a combination of the taxonomic expertise available, supported by the relevant world-class collections housed within the museum. As students are expected to work with complex multi-source palaeoecological datasets, where the subsequent analysis and interpretation of such empirical data will vary considerably depending on its provenance, there is a need for palaeoecologists to be suitably trained in the application of a wide range of palaeoenvironmental indicators. This course will therefore provide an overview of key taxonomic groups often utilised in palaeoecological studies, with a focus on terrestrial (freshwater) environments. A suite of biological proxies will be reviewed during the five day short course, including beetles, chironomids, diatoms, pollen, and vertebrates. Each day will be dedicated to a different group, with morning lectures reviewing taxonomy and environmental gradients in terms of palaeoecological reconstructions. The afternoon sessions will be dedicated to the provision of bespoke laboratory microscopy and desk-based activities, with the students being introduced to relevant NHM reference collections and learn the taxonomic skills required to differentiate between species.
- NERC Reference:
- NE/N000277/1
- Grant Stage:
- Completed
- Scheme:
- Doctoral Training
- Grant Status:
- Closed
- Programme:
- Advanced Training
This training grant award has a total value of £17,829
FDAB - Financial Details (Award breakdown by headings)
| Total - Other Costs |
|---|
| £17,829 |
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