[Aqualist] Ecological Society of Australia Palaeo-sympossium

[Patrick Moss]

Just letting everyone know that myself and Craig Woodward are organizing a sympossium at the next ESA conference in Hobart (http://esa2011.org.au/index.asp?IntCatId=14) in November, 2011 called 'The Importance of the Past: The Palaeoecological context of modern landscapes' and would encourage members of AQUA to submit an abstract (the sympossium description below and abstract submissions are due July 29).

Cheers,
Patrick

The composition of present day ecological landscapes are a product of past processes that have operated over 100s, 1000s and 10,000s of years and beyond. These processes can involve a combination of natural climatic variability, the impacts of people and evolutionary change that operate over a variety of temporal and spatial scales. In particular, the late Quaternary period (last 50,000 years) has played a key role in shaping modern landscapes through the influence of abrupt climate change and the arrival of people into new environments (e.g. Australia and New Zealand). Key alterations have included significant alterations in temperature and precipitation, dramatic sea level change and the extinction of many unique plants and animals. Further, an understanding of past ecological responses to significant climatic change and human impacts can provide a great deal of insight into how they may respond to future environental change. This sympossium will examine how past environmental processes have shaped the ecological composition of modern landscapes and how this information can be utilized in the conservation and management of these landscapes in the 21st century and beyond. Particular emphasis will be given to presentations that integrate palaeoecological data (e.g. pollen, charcoal, diatom, chironmid, isotope, macrofossils etc) with conservation and/or management of ecological landscapes.
--
Dr Patrick Moss
Senior Lecturer in Physical Geography
School of Geography, Planning & Environmental Management
The University of Queensland
Brisbane QLD 4072 Australia
Phone: (+61) 7 336 56418
Fax: (+61) 7 336 56899