Postcard from the Field: Matthew Adeleye, Australia

From Matthew Adeleye (PhD candidate) Australian National University, Australia: My research focuses on understanding landscape changes and drivers of change on the Bass Strait islands, southeast Australia, using sedimentary fossil pollen, non-pollen palynomorphs and charcoal records. Specifically, I am interested in understanding pattern and timing of indigenous land-use change, as well as changes in vegetation and fire regime in the area during the Holocene. The field photo features one of my coring sites and me labeling a surface moss sample, which is also being analyzed to better understand how modern pollen at each site represents present vegetation in order to better reconstruct past vegetation changes in the area.