Ecosystem Change & Palaeoclimate

Welcome to the terrestrial climate and ecosystem change research group of the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam.

Our major research topic is concerned with the reconstruction of climate and ecosystem change of various temporal (10-10000 years) and spatial scales (catchment areas to continents) from the study of organism remains preserved in bogs, lake sediments, and in permafrost deposits.

Our objects comprise

• analysis of natural climate variability and its consequences for past ecosystems
• quantification of past environmental change via the investigation of contemporary environmental and ecological relationships
• evaluation of pre-historic and historic human impacts on ecosystems

Our projects are based on rigorous study designs, which imply a careful selection of methods and study sites, a thorough interpretation of the data obtained, and an inter-disciplinary discussion of the results.

Methods applied include the analysis of fossil remains (pollen grains and spores, plant macrofossils, chironomids, diatoms and ostracods), statistical data evaluation and statistical modelling.

Most of our study sites are located in the circum-polar area or in continental Asia. Our study area comprises regions such as Yakutia, Central Mongolia, Inner Mongolia (China), and the north-eastern, central and south-eastern Tibetan Plateau.