Climate-related research
Humans are putting increasing pressures on the world's ecosystems. We are already seeing strong impacts of habitat loss and changes in nutrient cycling whereas climate change is likely to have increasingly strong impacts during the next century. These current trends can only be understood with reference to the past. Our palaeoecological research has contributed to the understanding of impacts of acidification (i.e. the "Acid Rain" debate), eutrophication, and climate change. We complement these long-term data with experiments and correlative studies to understand the ecological processes controlling responses to environmental change.
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Palaeoecology in the 21st century
Making better use of the natural long-term ecological observatory with high-specification equipment
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Reconstructing past climates
Quantitative reconstructions of past climate change on time scales that are longer than those of instrumental data are important aspects of palaeoclimatology and need to be underpinned by robust numerical methods.
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4°C and beyond
Responses revealed in the fossil record for times when there was rapid temperature change and/or high CO2 levels and how these can inform future conservation strategies
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Future climate change on alpine ecosystems
Alpine ecosystems are expexted to be disproportionately impacted by climate change under global warming and EECRG researchers are conducting experiments and analysing data from previously studied sites in an attempt to quantify these likely impacts.
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Oribatid mites as palaeoecological indicators
Oribatid mites are tiny (0.13-1.00 mm) and flightless, with a hard darkly pigmented chitinous exoskeleton. They usually form different associations with plant species and communities, partly due to food availability, soil type, and moisture content.
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What midges can tell us about climate
Non-biting midges (chironomids) are common organisms in many sources of freshwater, ranging from high-altitude glacier streams to the water-lily ponds in the Museum’s botanical garden. At EECRG, midges are at the focus of a major research project on climate change, ecology and improved methodology.
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Monsoon changes in Tibet
How changes in monsoon intensity affects the vegetation and hence livelihoods on the Tibetan Plateau
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Modern pollen deposition studies
Providing a more objective basis for the interpretation of pollen diagrams
