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)

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)
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
- Sandra Kistl
- Werner Kofler
Emeriti and retired staff
- Klaus Oeggl
Guest researchers
- Andrea Seim (Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, Germany)
- Jing Wu (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China)
- Esra Ergin (Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)
- Marie-Claire Ries (Institute of Archaeology, University of Innsbruck)
- Xiuxiu Ren (College of Earth and Environment Science, Lanzhou University, China)
Research Assistants
- Emma Antoine
- Jet Vessies
- Ugo Bisson
- Andréa Julien
- Caterina Röhm