Open to: Academic | Alumni | Public | Student
Admission: Free
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Speaker information

Alistair Seddon, Young Research Talent Fellowship, University of Bergen

Palaeoecology uses plant remains preserved in lake sediments to reconstruct ecological change over thousands of years. Sediments are natural data- loggers; they are the only way to obtain empirical information relevant for understanding long-term ecological dynamics and offer unique insights into environmental systems that cannot be achieved using ‘standard’ ecological research methods. Thus, the 'ecological time machine' is a vital tool to aid understanding of the factors responsible for ecosystem change.

Drawing examples from his own work and others, Alistair will present his own perspective of how the information extracted from sediments can be used to improve understanding of a range of key ecological processes. Second, he will consider how key components of the Ecological Time Machine (e.g. the methods used to extract information from sediments) can be further developed to improve reconstructions and any associated ecological inferences.

Contact

Anson Mackay
+44 (0)20 7679 0558 | a.mackay@ucl.ac.uk

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