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John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology

John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology
John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology
We describe the career of John Birks as a pioneering scientist who has, over a career spanning five decades, transformed palaeoecology from a largely descriptive to a rigorous quantitative science relevant to contemporary questions in ecology and environmental change. We review his influence on students and colleagues not only at Cambridge and Bergen Universities, his places of primary employment, but also on individuals and research groups in Europe and North America. We also introduce the collection of papers that we have assembled in his honour. The papers are written by his former students and close colleagues and span many of the areas of palaeoecology to which John himself has made major contributions. These include the relationship between ecology and palaeoecology, late-glacial and Holocene palaeoecology, ecological succession, climate change and vegetation history, the role of palaeoecological techniques in reconstructing and understanding the impact of human activity on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and numerical analysis of multivariate palaeoecological data.
climate change, ecosystem history holocene, late-glacial, numerical data analysis, palaeoecology, palaeolimnology
0959-6836
3-16
Batarbee, R.H.
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Lamb, H.F.
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Bennett, K.D.
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Edwards, M.E.
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Bjune, A.E.
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Kaland, P.E.
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Berglund, B.E.
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Lotter, A.F.
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Seppä, H.
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Willis, K.J.
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Herzschuh, U.
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Birks, H.H.
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Batarbee, R.H.
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Lamb, H.F.
4b3d8ab5-2f41-4ca8-8d66-2e9ebf699cbe
Bennett, K.D.
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Edwards, M.E.
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Bjune, A.E.
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Kaland, P.E.
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Berglund, B.E.
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Lotter, A.F.
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Seppä, H.
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Willis, K.J.
b8691dc6-3e4f-413e-8e45-fe91e7cbfd80
Herzschuh, U.
262db7ae-4ddc-4e39-92a9-fbe7b8a7b252
Birks, H.H.
83d1e71a-5cc3-4dd9-a75d-3c007e5e096d

Batarbee, R.H., Lamb, H.F., Bennett, K.D., Edwards, M.E., Bjune, A.E., Kaland, P.E., Berglund, B.E., Lotter, A.F., Seppä, H., Willis, K.J., Herzschuh, U. and Birks, H.H. (2015) John Birks: Pioneer in quantitative palaeoecology. [in special issue: At the Frontiers of Palaeoecology: a Special Issue in Honour of H. John B. Birks] The Holocene, 25 (1), 3-16. (doi:10.1177/0959683614556390).

Record type: Article

Abstract

We describe the career of John Birks as a pioneering scientist who has, over a career spanning five decades, transformed palaeoecology from a largely descriptive to a rigorous quantitative science relevant to contemporary questions in ecology and environmental change. We review his influence on students and colleagues not only at Cambridge and Bergen Universities, his places of primary employment, but also on individuals and research groups in Europe and North America. We also introduce the collection of papers that we have assembled in his honour. The papers are written by his former students and close colleagues and span many of the areas of palaeoecology to which John himself has made major contributions. These include the relationship between ecology and palaeoecology, late-glacial and Holocene palaeoecology, ecological succession, climate change and vegetation history, the role of palaeoecological techniques in reconstructing and understanding the impact of human activity on terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems and numerical analysis of multivariate palaeoecological data.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 23 September 2014
e-pub ahead of print date: 9 December 2014
Published date: January 2015
Keywords: climate change, ecosystem history holocene, late-glacial, numerical data analysis, palaeoecology, palaeolimnology
Organisations: Palaeoenvironment Laboratory (PLUS)

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 377210
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/377210
ISSN: 0959-6836
PURE UUID: 8ef4193b-cf75-452e-9a64-0c6def7d167c
ORCID for M.E. Edwards: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-3490-6682

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Date deposited: 02 Jun 2015 14:39
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:13

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Contributors

Author: R.H. Batarbee
Author: H.F. Lamb
Author: K.D. Bennett
Author: M.E. Edwards ORCID iD
Author: A.E. Bjune
Author: P.E. Kaland
Author: B.E. Berglund
Author: A.F. Lotter
Author: H. Seppä
Author: K.J. Willis
Author: U. Herzschuh
Author: H.H. Birks

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