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Lookup NU author(s): Emeritus Professor Steve Juggins, Dr Andrzej Witkowski
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
Priority question exercises are becoming an increasingly common tool to frame future agendas in conservation and ecological science. They are an effective way to identify research foci that advance the field and that also have high policy and conservation relevance. To date, there has been no coherent synthesis of key questions and priority research areas for palaeoecology, which combines biological, geochemical and molecular techniques in order to reconstruct past ecological and environmental systems on time-scales from decades to millions of years. We adapted a well-established methodology to identify 50 priority research questions in palaeoecology. Using a set of criteria designed to identify realistic and achievable research goals, we selected questions from a pool submitted by the international palaeoecology research community and relevant policy practitioners. The integration of online participation, both before and during the workshop, increased international engagement in question selection. The questions selected are structured around six themes: human-environment interactions in the Anthropocene; biodiversity, conservation and novel ecosystems; biodiversity over long time-scales; ecosystem processes and biogeochemical cycling; comparing, combining and synthesizing information from multiple records; and new developments in palaeoecology. Future opportunities in palaeoecology are related to improved incorporation of uncertainty into reconstructions, an enhanced understanding of ecological and evolutionary dynamics and processes and the continued application of long-term data for better-informed landscape management.Synthesis. Palaeoecology is a vibrant and thriving discipline, and these 50 priority questions highlight its potential for addressing both pure (e.g. ecological and evolutionary, methodological) and applied (e.g. environmental and conservation) issues related to ecological science and global change.
Author(s): Seddon AWR, Mackay AW, Baker AG, Birks HJB, Breman E, Buck CE, Ellis EC, Froyd CA, Gill JL, Gillson L, Johnson EA, Jones VJ, Juggins S, Macias-Fauria M, Mills K, Morris JL, Nogues-Bravo D, Punyasena SW, Roland TP, Tanentzap AJ, Willis KJ, Aberhan M, van Asperen EN, Austin WEN, Battarbee RW, Bhagwat S, Belanger CL, Bennett KD, Birks HH, Ramsey CB, Brooks SJ, de Bruyn M, Butler PG, Chambers FM, Clarke SJ, Davies AL, Dearing JA, Ezard THG, Feurdean A, Flower RJ, Gell P, Hausmann S, Hogan EJ, Hopkins MJ, Jeffers ES, Korhola AA, Marchant R, Kiefer T, Lamentowicz M, Larocque-Tobler I, Lopez-Merino L, Liow LH, McGowan S, Miller JH, Montoya E, Morton O, Nogue S, Onoufriou C, Boush LP, Rodriguez-Sanchez F, Rose NL, Sayer CD, Shaw HE, Payne R, Simpson G, Sohar K, Whitehouse NJ, Williams JW, Witkowski A
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Ecology
Year: 2014
Volume: 102
Issue: 1
Pages: 256-267
Print publication date: 01/01/2014
Online publication date: 16/12/2013
Acceptance date: 12/11/2013
Date deposited: 09/01/2015
ISSN (print): 0022-0477
ISSN (electronic): 1365-2745
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.12195
DOI: 10.1111/1365-2745.12195
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