Cape Town, South Africa
uct.ac.za
The paleoscience symposium "Using long-term data for sustainability, resilience and biodiversity conservation" will be held from 9:00-17:00 on 26 March 2020 in Cape Town, South Africa.
*Update 12 March 2020 - symposium cancelled*
In light of the COVID-19 WHO recommendations, the symposium has been cancelled. Questions can be directed to the organizer Lindsey Gillson (details at bottom of page).
Venue
*Change of venue*
Lecture Theatre 4a
RW James Building
University Avenue North, Upper Campus
University of Cape Town
Directions: https://www.uct.ac.za/main/contacts/directions
Logistics
The event is free. Accommodation and travel at own expense. A vegetarian lunch will be provided.
Please call at the Visitor's Reception, Upper Campus, if you require a visitor's parking disc.
This symposium is being held in conjunction with the PAGES Scientific Steering Committee (SSC) annual general meeting, which will be held from 24-25 March 2020. Find out more about that meeting here.
Description
Many of the transformations and challenges facing the environment and society are linked to human activities. The challenge now is to use human ingenuity to create, conserve and restore environments and landscapes that meet the needs of people at the same time as safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystem services, and retaining adaptive capacity. This challenge requires an interdisciplinary approach in order to understand the interplay, trade-offs and complexities of competing human and biological imperatives.
In the face of this complexity, examining past variability can help in defining realistic future scenarios and in shaping ecosystem management that builds resilience and sustains ecosystem services. In this symposium, we consider how a past-present-future perspective can contribute to biodiversity conservation and sustainability.
Program
9:00: Muthama Muasya, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town. "Welcome and introduction"
9:05: Marie-France Loutre, Executive Director, PAGES. "Overview of PAGES – what we do and what can we do for you?"
9:20: Boris Vannière, Director of Research, Chrono-environnement, CNRS - Université de Franche-Comté, France. "Driving environmental policies with past ecosystem and climate knowledges"
9:45: Paul Valdes, School of Geographical Sciences, University of Bristol, UK. "Modelling past climate and biodiversity change"
10:10: Cherie Dirk, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Sustainable Land-use management insights from the fossil record and system dynamics modelling"
10:35: Coffee break
11:05: Mike Evans, Geology Department, University of Maryland, USA. "Overview of the PAGES 2k Network projects, and the need more ecosystem studies within the 2k framework"
11:30: Willy Tinner, Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Switzerland. "Prehistoric land-use change and its long-term legacy for future European vegetation dynamics"
11:55: Saul Manzano, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Vegetation recovery after overexploitation? The recent history of the Colline Metalifere (Tuscany, Italy)"
12:20: Estelle Razanatsoa, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Palaeoecological insight of the tropical dry forest in Madagascar: history, resilience and conservation"
12:45: Lunch
13:45: William Bond, Department of Biological Sciences, University of Cape Town. "A key role for palaeoecology in conserving and managing open ecosystems"
14:10: Adele Julier, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Palaeoecology and fire management in Bwabwata National Park, Namibia"
14:35: Tsilavo Razafimanantsoa, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Vegetation change, herbivory activities and fire history in the forest-grassland mosaic of Central highlands Madagascar during the Holocene: Implications for biodiversity conservation"
15:00: Blas Valero Garcés, Instituto Pirenaico de Ecología (IPE), Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), Spain. "Recent biogeochemical changes in Pyrenean lakes: how 20th century trends compare with previous Holocene changes"
15:25: Aster Gebrekirstos, World Agroforestry Centre (ICRAF). "Reconstructing climate change and its impacts for developing resilient and sustainable management actions and policy decisions"
15:50: Lindsey Gillson, Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town. "Thanks and close"
16:00-17:00: Tea and Social.
Registration
Please register by Monday 16 March: https://tinyurl.com/s7l6c22
Further information
Contact meeting organizer Lindsey Gillson: lindsey.gillsonuct.ac.za (lindsey[dot]gillson[at]uct[dot]ac[dot]za)
This symposium is brought to you by PAGES, in association with the Plant Conservation Unit, University of Cape Town; the University of Cape Town; and Anthropocene journal.