Dr Macarena Cárdenas

I am a palaeoecologist and plant lover. Biologist in formation, with a Master’s and PhD in environmental change and palaeoenvironmental reconstruction. I first started working in palaeoecology during my BSc (Hons) and I have been working in this area ever since. My research interests are around paleobotany, palaeoecology, palaeo-ethnobotany, and I like to integrate knowledge to understand long-term vegetation dynamics, understand the interaction between climate change, human and ecosystems and to evaluate resilience of both human and vegetation when facing climate change.

My previous research has been focused in understanding climatic events/changes and human impact in Central and Southern Patagonia and on hyper-diverse Amazonian ecosystems. Those projects involved understanding palaoenvironmental megafauna extinction and human arrival during the last deglaciation (c. 17,000 cal yrs BP), and the massive landscape disturbance during the European settlement (c. 1890 AD) both in in Southern Patagonia. I also worked in determining for the first time the environmental characteristics of the environment in western Amazonia area during the previous Interglacial-Glacial cycle. In my current research, ‘Jê Landscapes of Southern Brazil’, I am focusing on understanding the creation and transformation of southern east Brazil landscapes and their relationship with the emergence of social complexity during the past two millennia. Visit the project’s facebook page by clicking here.

To read Macarena’s blog posts, click here.