Project team
Dr Katy Roucoux
Katy is PI of the NERC Small Grant that initiated our palaeoecological research in Peru. She has previously worked extensively on fossil pollen from lake, peat and marine sediment sequences from the Iberian margin, central Germany, Greece, and Iceland, and is currently developing a project at Lake Bosumtwi, Ghana.
Dr Tim Baker
Tim is a specialist on the macroecology of tropical forests, especially in Peru and Ghana, although he has worked widely across the tropics. Tim is leading the ecological monitoring aspect of our work.
Freddie Draper
Freddie is studying for a PhD at Leeds, looking at the dynamics of wetland systems in Peru. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) in Ecology from the University of Aberdeen in 2011.
Euridice Honorio
Euridice is an experienced botanist attached to the research station at Jenaro Herrera, Peru. She has played a key role in establishing new forest plots as part of this project. Euridice is currently studying for a PhD at the University of Leeds.
Tim Jones
Tim has worked as a post-doc on our NERC-funded project and has been instrumental in developing the first high-resolution pollen record from Quistococha. He recently succesfully defended his PhD thesis, which involved reconstructing past lake-level changes at Ioannina, Greece using pollen and diatom analysis.
Tom Kelly
Tom is currently studying for a PhD at Leeds, focusing on the genesis of coupled lake-swamp systems. He recently completed the MSc in Quaternary Science at Royal Holloway.
Dr Ian Lawson
Ian is a palaeoecologist with special interests in human impact on past environments. He has worked widely across Europe and is currently working on research projects in the Congo, arctic Canada, Spain and Iceland, as well as Peru.
Dr Graeme Swindles
Graeme currently works on testate amoebae in Britain and Canada. He will be investigating testate amoebae communities in some of the ombrotrophic mires in Peru.
Project partners and colleagues
We owe a lot to our friends and colleagues outside Leeds!
The Amazon Research Team at the University of Turku, Finland
This group, especially Öuti Lähteenoja, made our work in Peru possible by sharing information about newly-discovered peatlands near Iquitos. We continue to work closely together.
Instituto de Investigaciones de la Amazonia Peruana (IIAP)
IIAP is a key research institute based in Iquitos, and has offered invaluable scientific and logistical support and local expertise.
The Palaeoenvironmental Change Research Group at the Open University
This group, especially Dr Will Gosling, has offered invaluable help and support throughout the project so far.
Other friends who have helped along the way
- Ruby Jurczyk, who won an RGS Fieldwork Apprenticeship enabling her to help us with fieldwork in 2010
- The Quaternary Palaeoecology Laboratory at the University of Edinburgh
- The Carbon in Peatlands research group at the University of Leicester
- Roberto and everyone at San Jorge village