Nature recovery in the European palaeoecological record

Director of Studies: Professor Ralph Fyfe  

2nd Supervisor:  Dr Jessie Woodbridge  

3rd Supervisor: Professor Stephen Shennan, University College London, Institute of Archaeology 

Applications are invited for a 3.5 years PhD studentship. The studentship will start on 1 October 2025 

The recovery of nature is a pressing global issue. Nature recovery is difficult to predict, and different recovery strategies are implemented from tree planting to diverse forms of rewilding. Across Europe, humans transformed the vegetation of the continent through forest clearance for agriculture over millennia [1,2]. However, within that long-term transformation, multiple major population collapses occurred, in prehistory and the historic period. These collapses offer unparalleled opportunities as ‘long term’ experiments to understand natural nature recovery: reductions in population and land use pressure should result in ecological change [3]. This PhD project will develop detailed long-term data using palaeoecology and archaeology to assess past ecological recovery, using pandemics as disrupters to past human systems.    

The project will focus on two time periods: the early Neolithic, and the medieval Black Death. The first has been characterised by “boom-and-bust” cycles of population growth and collapse [5], likely driven by plague [4]. The Black Death removed up to 50% of the population of Europe, with different impacts across the continent [3]. This project will therefore provide a critical assessment of how ecosystems adapted and responded to associated reductions in land-use pressure, focussing on recovery and resilience (do systems return to pre-existing conditions or states?), temporality (what sort of timescales do systems change or regenerate over) and stability (can, or do, systems reach equilibrium states?). The project will analyse the nature of pre-pandemic land use and economic/ecological systems, drawing on the archaeological/historical literature, to understand how landscape preconditioning influences recovery.

The supervisory team will provide training in pollen analysis, multivariate statistics, and demographic modelling using archaeological radiocarbon dates. You will attend training courses on vegetation, climatic and modelling. You will learn to use a range of programmatic approaches to integrate and analyse diverse datasets. The project will involve analyses of existing databases, and training will be provided in working with open palaeoecological and archaeological data.

We seek an enthusiastic individual with a 2:1 degree grade or above within Geography, Environmental Science, archaeological science or related disciplines.  Experience of palaeoecology, long-term ecology or environmental archaeology is desirable. 

Fyfe RM, Woodbridge J and Roberts CN (2015) From forest to farmland: pollen-inferred land cover change across Europe using the pseudobiomization approach Global Change Biology 21, 1197-1212 https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.12776  

Githumbi E, Fyfe RM, Gaillard MJ, Trondman AK, Mazier F, Nielsen AB et al (2022) European quantitative pollen-based land-cover reconstructions for the Holocene: methodology, mapping and potentials Earth System Science Data 14, 1581-1619 https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-1581-2022  

Izdebski A, Guzowski P, Poniat R, Masci L, Palli J, Fyfe R et al (2022) Palaeoecological data indicates land-use changes across Europe linked to spatial heterogeneity in mortality during the Black Death pandemic Nature Ecology & Evolution, 6(3), 297-306 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01652-4  

Seersholm FV, Sjögren KG, Koelman J, Blank M, Svensson EM, Staring J et al (2024) Repeated plague infections across six generations of Neolithic Farmers. Nature. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-07651-2  

Shennan S, Downey SS, Timpson A, Edinborough K, Colledge S, Kerig T et al (2013) Regional population collapse followed initial agriculture booms in mid-Holocene Europe. Nature communications 4, 2486. http://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms3486 

Applicants should have a first or upper second class honours degree in Archaeology, Geography, Earth, Environmental, or Biological Science or a relevant Masters qualification. 

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum English requirements for the programme, IELTS Academic score of 6.5 (with no less than 5.5 in each component test area) or equivalent.  

Successful candidates who meet UKRI’s eligibility criteria will be awarded a fully-funded ARIES studentship of fees, maintenance stipend (£19,237 p.a. for 2024/25) and research costs.  

A limited number of ARIES studentships are available to International applicants. Please note however that ARIES funding does not cover additional costs associated with relocation to, and living in, the UK. 

NB: The studentship is supported for 3.5 years of the four-year registration period. The subsequent 6 months of registration is a self-funded ‘writing-up’ period. 

ARIES is committed to equality, diversity, widening participation and inclusion in all areas of its operation. We encourage applications from all sections of the community regardless of gender, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, and transgender status. Projects have been developed with consideration of a safe, inclusive, and appropriate research and fieldwork environment. Academic qualifications are considered alongside non-academic experience, with equal weighting given to experience and potential. 

For further information, please visit www.aries-dtp.ac.uk.

If you wish to discuss this project further informally, please contact Professor Ralph Fyfe .

Please see our apply for a postgraduate research programme page for a list of supporting documents to upload with your application. 

For more information on the admissions process generally, please visit our Apply for a postgraduate research programme page or contact the Doctoral College .

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview after the deadline. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications.  Applicants who have not received a response within six weeks of the closing date should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.