Researching ecosystem change in Amazonia and Africa
Katy Roucoux and Ian Lawson visited the pollen labs at Kew and Edinburgh in a quest for reference material to help pin down some of the pollen identifications from core QT-2010-1. The team has already compiled a substantial electronic database of pollen morphotypes and the LTFD reference collection is growing. Katy and Ian also discussed … Read more
Katy, Tom and Ian spent the morning working with an environmental SEM to produce images of fossil material from Quistococha, and some modern fern spores. The aim is to refine the pollen taxonomy by comparing SEM images of the fossil material with modern reference material.
Katy, Ian, Tom, Freddie and other colleagues at Leeds attended a one-day meeting organised by Sofie Sjorgersten and gave presentations of their work.
Freddie has joined us at Leeds to study for a PhD, having just completed a BSc (Hons) in Ecology at Aberdeen. He co-organised an expedition to work on Peruvian forests as part of his BSc. Freddie will be working under the supervision of Katy Roucoux, Tim Baker and Ian Lawson on the past and present … Read more
This summer saw the completion of our second round of fieldwork in the Peruvian Amazon. Tom Kelly, Ian Lawson and Katy Roucoux spent three weeks in Loreto, continuing their work on the peat swamp at Quistococha and surveying the wetlands around Jenaro Herrera on the Rio Ucuyali. The majority of this work will form part … Read more
Ian Lawson, as co-I with Simon Lewis (PI), Sue Page (co-I) and Andy Baird (co-I), has been awarded a NERC CASE doctoral training grant that will pioneer peatland research in the Cuvette Centrale of the Congo Basin. The CASE partner is WCS Congo, represented by Paul Telfer. Quantifying tropical peatland area and carbon storage in Central … Read more
Tom Kelly and Ian Lawson have been awarded a grant-in-kind from NERC for six radiocarbon dates in support of Tom’s project. The grant is worth £3480.
Katy Roucoux, Tim Jones and Ian Lawson visited our project partner Dr Will Gosling at the Open University to discuss the interpretation of our initial pollen data from Quistococha, and to discuss approaches to tropical pollen taxonomy.
Graeme Swindles and Katy Roucoux have been awarded a research grant from the Royal Society. This is the first major grant to be leveraged from the initial NERC project. It will enable Graeme to join the team in Peru in July 2011 where he will be looking at testate amoebae.
Tom was kindly hosted by our friends at the University of Turku, Finland, where he spent time sampling their herbarium collections of ferns. He also gave a presentation about the project to the Amazon Research Team. Tom is making a special study of fern spore taxonomy as part of his PhD research.