• YorNight 2020
• YorNight 2018
• YorNight 2015
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• YorNight 2014

Rob Marchant

"My research and teaching interests focus on the theme of vegetation dynamics and ecosystem change. In particular, I use palaeoecology, vegetation modelling, archaeological, biogeographical and ecological data to determine the role of past events in shaping the present day composition and distribution of tropical vegetation. My interest in tropical environments was sparked by a Royal Geographical Society-sponsored expedition to study seagrass and coral ecosystems off Zanzibar. I conducted my PhD research at the University of Hull producing a 50,000-year record of forest history from Bwindi-Impenetrable Forest, Uganda to understand forcing mechanisms (climatic, human and ecological) responsible for sedimentary and vegetation change. In 2003 I took a Marie-Curie research fellowship in the School of Botany, Trinity College, Dublin where I have been developing and using a pollen database for Ireland. My main research area remains in tropical environments and I am currently working on projects in Colombia, Amazonia, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda."