We encourage submissions to the following INQUA 2015 congress session, 27th July-2nd August 2015, Nagoya, Japan. The deadline for the submission of abstracts is the 20th December 2014: inqua2015.jp Long-term palaeoecological perspectives of biodiversity, community dynamics and ecological function Many species are well-preserved in lake and peat sediments, sometimes covering the whole spectrum of trophic levels, including small and large-bodied organisms. These represent both autochthonous as well as allochthnous communities living in the vicinity of the palaeoecological catchment. Palaeoecologists can thus explore the formation, development and dynamics of biological communities over long temporal periods and address a range of key ecological and conservation questions. These include issues such as how does biodiversity differ in response to changing environmental conditions (e.g. climate change, human activities, ecological changes brought about by species extinctions) and whether these change over diverse time-scales. However, not only can we examine changing past biodiversity but since plant and animal species influence the processes that maintain ecosystem stability, we can also link biodiversity changes to ecological functions. For instance, changing species mi! xes (e.g. via local extinctions and extirpations) and community dynamics (e.g. whole scale community changes or changes in dominance of species) can trigger a cascade of ecological changes across multiple trophic levels and states. A consideration of taphonomic processes also remains integral to the reconstruction of past ecosystem dynamics, yet biasing may exist between different biological proxies and in different sedimentary contexts. For some groups, taxonomic issues also present significant challenges to understanding long-term community changes, although for others, new approaches to taxonomy or analytical advances (e.g. DNA analysis) have the potential to enhance ecological interpretations. In this session we solicit papers that address these themes, dealing with all types of biological proxy records from palaeoecological and palaeolimnological contexts, with particular attention to methodological developments minimizing the effects of the fragmentary nature of the fossil record (e.g. novel modelling methods) and to the different time-scales that apply to Quaternary studies. We look forward to your submissions!
Posted on: Fri, 19 Dec 2014 10:39:05 +0000