Geert van der Plas

Research interest

The East African savanna is one of the most fascinating ecosystems on earth, providing the backdrop of our own evolution. Complex interactions between humans, climate and the East African savanna landscape persist to this day.
As a paleoecologist and palynologist I study these interactions by reconstructing the landscape of the past from pollen data obtained from lake sediments and linking these data to independent proxies for climate change and anthropogenic influence.
After having spent my PhD research looking into the more recent past (~2000 years) I will now shift my focus to the longer-term as part of the DeepChalla project. This will be a continuation of my previous work on the Lake Challa, a crater lake in the shadow of Mount Kilimanjaro. For this unique project I will reconstruct the 250k year history of vegetation change around the lake analyzing pollen samples taken from the sediment cores.

Geert van der Plas

Scientific résumé

van der Plas, G.W., Rucina, S.M., Hemp, A., Marchant, R.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Schüler, L. and Verschuren, D., 2020. Climate-human-landscape interaction in the eastern foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro (equatorial East Africa) during the last two millennia. The Holocene, DOI: doi.org/10.1177/0959683620981694

van der Plas, G. W.; Cort, G. de; Petek-Sargeant, N.; Wuytack, T.; Colombaroli, D.; Lane, P. J.; Verschuren, D. (2019): Distinct phases of natural landscape dynamics and intensifying human activity in the central Kenya Rift Valley during the past 1300 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 218, pp. 91–106. DOI: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2019.06.009

Colombaroli, D.; van der Plas, G.; Rucina, S.; Verschuren, D. (2018): Determinants of savanna-fire dynamics in the eastern Lake Victoria catchment (western Kenya) during the last 1200 years. Quaternary International 488, pp. 67–80. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2016.06.028

Marchant R., Richer S., Capitani C., Courtney-Mustaphi C., Prendergast M., Stump D., Boles O., Lane P., Wynne-Jones S., Ferro Vázquez C., Wright D., Boivin N., Lang C., Kay A., Phelps L., Fuller D., Widgren M., Punwong P., Lejju J., Gaillard-Lemdahl M.-J., Morrison K.D., Kaplan J., Benard J., Crowther A., Cuní-Sanchez A., de Cort G., Deere N., Ekblom A., Farmer J., Finch J., Gillson L., Githumbi E., Kabora T., Kariuki R., Kinyanjui R., Kyazike E., Muiruri V., Mumbi C., Muthoni R., Muzuka A., Ndiema E., Nzaba C., Olago D., Onjala D., Pas Schrijver A., Petek N., Platts P.J., Rucina S., Shoemaker A., Thornton-Barnett S., van der Plas G., Watson L., and Williamson D.(2018): Drivers and trajectories of land cover change in East Africa. Human and environmental interactions from 6000 years ago to present. Earth-Science Reviews 178, pp. 322–378. DOI: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2017.12.010

van der Plas, G. W.; Boer, E. J. de; Hooghiemstra, H.; Vincent Florens, F. B.; Baider, C.; van der Plicht, J. (2012): Mauritius since the last glacial. Environmental and climatic reconstruction of the last 38 000 years from Kanaka Crater. J. Quaternary Sci. 27 (2), pp. 159–168. DOI: 10.1002/jqs.1526

Publications in preparation

van der Plas, G.W., Rucina, S.M., Hemp, A., Marchant, R.A., Hooghiemstra, H. and Verschuren, D., in prep. Climate-human-landscape interaction in the eastern foothills of Mt. Kilimanjaro (equatorial East Africa) during the last two millennia.

Doctoral thesis

van der Plas, G.W., 2020. Climatic and anthropogenic drivers of landscape change in equatorial East Africa during the last two millennia. Doctoral thesis, Ghent, Belgium.

Conference and workshop contributions

1-5 July 2019 10th IALE World Congress, Milano, Italy, oral presentation
11-12 July 2017 REAL Final Conference, Moshi, Tanzania, oral presentation
9-13 May 2017 5th PAGES Open Science Meeting, Zaragoza, Spain, oral presentation
7-9 Sept 2016 ASAUK Conference, Cambridge, UK, oral presentation
17 Dec 2015 GAP (Ghent Africa Platform) Symposium 9, Ghent, Belgium, poster presentation
3 March 2015 BELQUA Annual Workshop, Brussels, Belgium, oral presentation
16 Dec 2014 Young Oversees Workers, Brussels, Belgium, poster presentation