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Ecological and Environmental Change Research Group
MSc project

The ecological time machine

Alistair Seddon

Flow chart with time represented by a tardis and a group of four photos of people working in the field and lab and a sediment core linking to a pollen diagram
Photo:
Alistair Seddon

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We can use sediments like an ecological time machine to address key questions relating to ecological and evolutionary responses to environmental change.

Sediments are the only way to obtain empirical information about ecological processes that occur on decadal/centennial tiemscales (e.g. tree generation times).

Potential projects include:

  • Tree population modelling across abrupt climate-change events
  • Developing new methods to improve species identification from sediments
  • Understanding how exposure to UV-B radiation influences speciation and extinction rates by studying past events in the fossil record

 

Interested? Contact Alistair Seddon