Research Group
Vegetation Modelling
Our research group studies the long-term trends (decades to millennia) of environmental and societal changes. More particularly, we focus on the impact of climate and land use on i) pollen production and dispersal and ii) vegetation dynamic and plant diversity to better understand the current and future environmental conditions. For this purpose, we use modelling schemes to combine biological proxies (e.g. pollen, archaeobotanical remains, eDNA and tree rings), modelled data (e.g. climate, dynamic vegetation and land use) and historical/archaeological data. The aim is to better understand the mechanisms behind the interactions between vegetation, climate and anthropogenic activities through time.
![Past and present vegetation, climate and land use interactions in mountain regions (e.g. The Alps and Pyrenees in Europe and the Tian Shan in Central Asia)](/media/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/80/f2/80f26c7e-3a8b-4088-b29c-0a277063ed16/research_group_vegetationmodelling_mountainlandscape.jpg__576x576_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg)
Past and present vegetation, climate and land use interactions in mountain regions (e.g. The Alps and Pyrenees in Europe and the Tian Shan in Central Asia)
![Mitarbeiterinnen des Pollenwarndienstes](/media/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/36/0f/360fc694-a291-40d2-acaf-be69773e985a/group_pollenwarndienst.png__576x576_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.png)
Pollenwarndienst Tyrol: Measuring the pollen load in the air of Tyrol to inform pollen allergy sufferers about the levels of allergenic burden
![Past and present vegetation, climate and land use interactions in arid and semi-arid regions (e.g. Central Asia)](/media/filer_public_thumbnails/filer_public/bf/a8/bfa8629e-f305-4355-85a2-04e61cc5b2cf/research_group_vegetationmodelling_semi-arid_landscape2.jpg__576x576_q85_crop_subsampling-2_upscale.jpg)
Past and present vegetation, climate and land use interactions in arid and semi-arid regions (e.g. Central Asia)
Main research topics
- Past and present vegetation, climate and land use interactions
- Historical forest management and Holocene vegetation dynamic
- Pollen monitoring and pollen-based vegetation modelling
- Spatial and temporal vegetation and land use maps
Projects
- Pollen monitoring for pollen allergy sufferers – Land Tirol 2021-2022
- Pollen-based past land cover reconstruction in Central Asia – Max-Planck-Institute (Germany) 2017-2022
- Socio-political and climatic factors for food insecurity in early modern northern Europe – Swedish Research Council (Sweden) 2018-2023
- Jordaens Van Dyck Panel Paintings Project – Fonds Baillet Latour (Belgium) 2017-2022
- Development of pollen-based past vegetation modelling in mountain regions
Academic staff
Administrative and technical staff
- Tamara Döllinger
- Andreas Gross
- Sandra Suttner (on maternity leave)
- Werner Kofler
Emeriti and retired staff
- Klaus Oeggl
Guest researchers
- Uwe Berger (AZ Pollen Research GmbH, Vienna)
- Esra Ergin (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
- Xiuxiu Ren (Lanzhou University, China)
- Andrea Seim (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany)
Research Assistants
- Lukas Dirr
- Maria Dohle
- Genoveva Herl
- Matilde Körbächer
- Friederike Westrich
- Ugo Bisson
- Andréa Julien
- Matilde Körbächer
- Christian Moritz