Global change and nature conservation: lessons from ecology and palaeoecology 07-GC-AMU-PIE

LECTURES
The lecture provides information about novel techniques investigating past global changes using biotic and abiotic indicators. Especially important in this context are high resolution (preferably annual) multiproxy studies revealing in detail how environmental changes – including human impact – have disturbed various types of natural ecosystems. Terrestrial archives (e.g. soils, lakes and peatlands) give an opportunity to reconstruct precisely past climatic and human induced changes. From each of those archives several biotic or abiotic proxies (e.g. pollen, plant macrofossils, chironomids) can be extracted. Consequently, those proxies are used to reconstruct past climatic variables such as temperature, precipitation or soil wetness. Furthermore, long-term ecology methods can also be used to reconstruct the land-use changes e.g. deforestation and soil erosion. The lecture presents theory, methods and several case studies of scientific research on the recent climatic changes and human impact. what is more, it also shows the importance of combination of neo-ecology and palaeoecology as the source of highly relevant information that improves palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.
PRACTICALS
Main palaeoecological methods are presented that relate to the topics presented during lectures. Students can observe and identify microfossils through the microscope. Also seeds, fruits, wood fragments and other macrofossils are presented. The students work on palaeoecological diagrams, they differentiate biostratigraphic zones, describe environmental history and discuss events in the context of climate change and human impact

Week 1 Introduction: Holocene and the last millennium perspective of the global change
Week 2 Ecology and palaeoecology: how do they interact?
Week 3 General information about methods (from the field to the laboratory)
Week 4 Natural archives of the past ecosystems: lakes, peatlands, soils, and tree rings
Week 5 Biotic versus abiotic proxies: pollen, plant macrofossils, diatoms, chironomids, tree rings, geochemistry and stable isotopes
Week 6 Multiproxy high resolution approach – case studies from different parts of the world
Week 7 Long-term ecology in conservation biology
Practicals

Identification and interpreation

1. Lake and peat deposits
2. Pollen and spores
3. Plant macrofossils
4. Testate amoebae and non-pollen palynomorphs
5. Interpretation of the diagrams