The remote and geologically young island of Mauritius developed a high biodiversity while for its geographical location Pleistocene climate must have experienced strong wet-dry alternations, causing dynamically changing ecosystems. Climate variability is driven by several factors including glacial/interglacial temperature change, long term wet/dry changes, and superposed fast changes from millennial to El Niño time scales. Together with a research team of amongst others paleo-ecologist, physical geographers and climatologists, Prof. dr. Henry Hooghiemstra of the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED) successfully applied for funding from The Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research for a PhD project to study environmental dynamics of the island.

In the research project the team, consisting of the PhD student and the main applicants and supervisors Prof. Hooghiemstra and Dr. Bas van Geel, will reconstruct the dynamics during the last 20 kyr of Mauritius' ecosystems (wet montane forest, raingreen forest, dry forest, savanna) and the dynamic abiotic coastal environment. The team will evaluate how the mosaic of volcanic landscapes and gallery forests along the drainage systems has fascilitated conservation of biodiversity during climatologically unfavourable periods, and the impact of the rising sea-level on terrestrial ecosystems. The possible role of the Indian Ocean hot water pool as a factor stabilizing environmental change will be addressed.

Natural ecosystems became rapidly degraded after Europeans arrived in AD 1638; the dodo became extinct. The 4000 years old dodo graveyard will be placed in a long-range record of changing regional and local conditions and we expect to better understand the reasons why this exceptional concentration of dodo-skeletons was formed. We will make a baseline study of the natural setting just before human impact (pre-1600 AD) that serves as a blueprint for management and restoration. Remnants of riverine gallery forest are now the reservoirs of terrestrial biodiversity left and we will elaborate on the hypothesis that under natural conditions such forests allowed a dynamic respons on climate variability.

Follow the links below to visit the webpages of Prof. Hooghiemstra's research group, to download the full version of the project proposal or to read more about the vacancy for the PhD position on the project.