Dr. Ramesh Glückler

Last week I attended a workshop organized by the European COST Action "PalaeOpen" and the Institute of Evolutionary Science in Montpellier, France, diving into the stewardship of paleoecological data in Neotoma. One great outcome on behalf of the charcoal proxy community: The first sedimentary charcoal dataset was uploaded to the Global Paleofire Database as a new constituent database to Neotoma, using the new recommended format and controlled vocabulary! Find this first dataset (of many more to come) here! 

Organized within the framework of the Horizon Europe project "Past to Future" at the Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, this workshop brought together Earth system and climate modelers, paleoecologists, and archaeologists, to discuss shared needs and collaboration roadmaps. Thanks to the local organizers and all participants for the great exchange and exciting new research opportunities!

Last week I attended the IBFRA 2026 Conference in Québec City, Canada. A great chance to meet with researchers interested in the ecology of the boreal biome from across 15 different countries! In a talk I introduced the compilation of long-term fire histories across the boreal zone I am currently leading, and a poster focused on recent publications on paleofire and fire-vegetation modelling in the Republic of Sakha, eastern Siberia. Besides the scientific input, networking, new cooperations, and food for thought, the conference enabled me to get up close and personal with the (hemi)boreal forests of eastern Canada (see photo below)!