Ecosystem archaeology: soil as a paleoecological archive.
Feb 27, 2025 — 10 a.m. to 11 a.m.
Soil is the most long-lived component of terrestrial ecosystems, preserving traces of various disturbances for millennia. Examples of disturbances that are imprinted in soil morphology are fires, extreme windstorms, herbivory, and soil cultivation. The heterogeneity of soil profiles is caused by pedoturbation, and various agents of bio-pedoturbation (local factors of soil formation). The pedoturbation agents leave distinct traces in the soil: soil trace fossils. Among such agents are plant root systems, soil-trampling animals, soil-digging animals, and human tillage implements. Co-analysis of the chronological appearance of diagnostic trace fossils, associated with certain local factors of soil formation, and macrofossils (e.g., charcoal), - the ecosystem archaeology approach, - allows us to produce site-oriented reconstructions of the ecosystem dynamics and land use history. During the seminar we will discuss examples of soil-based reconstructions of past disturbances and disturbance regimes at various scales within a broad geographical range.
About the speaker
Dr. Elena Ponomarenko
Adjunct Professor, Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics, University of Ottawa
Elena Ponomarenko, Ph. D., is an adjunct professor at the University of Ottawa and a principal at the Ecosystem Archaeology Services (Ottawa). Her main research interests are trace fossil analysis, anthracology, disturbance analysis, event stratigraphy, and their applications in archaeology, forestry, restoration ecology, and climatology.
All are welcome to attend this presentation of the Phipps-Langlois Seminars offered by the Department of Geography, Environment and Geomatics. Come, listen to a great presentation, enjoy a free coffee or tea and snacks.