Alastair Wills

Contact

• workClive Granger Building
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• lgyaw8@nottingham.ac.uk

Biography

I am a Geography PhD student at the University of Nottingham, where I have been studying since my undergraduate degree. My research focuses on applying novel modelling techniques alongside biogeochemical analyses to reveal the extents of ancient Indigenous food plant practices in southeastern Australia throughout the Holocene.

Research Summary

My specialisations are within palaeoecology, specifically in Palynology-the study of pollen and spores-and how the pollen record can inform us about ancient land cover and land use. I employ… read more

Current Research

My specialisations are within palaeoecology, specifically in Palynology-the study of pollen and spores-and how the pollen record can inform us about ancient land cover and land use. I employ mechanistic models that correct several biases within the pollen records of lakes and bogs, which act as regional archives of vegetation history, to glean a more realistic representation of ancient land cover and land usage. Additionally, I utilise Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) to differentiate pollen taxa with shared physical shapes, textures, and sizes (morphologies) using their absorption spectrum of infrared light. These taxa are within the Poaceae family and Cichorioideae subfamily (Asteraceae family), which at a family level have undifferentiated pollen morphologies but are important families as a food plant source for ancient Indigenous communities.