Late Holocene Vegetation and climate dynamics inter-related to human and volcanic impacts in the mountainous regions in Sumatra, Indonesia

The planned fieldwork for my thesis will be concentrated on a detailed study and analysis of Mt. Kerinci and its surrounding area. I will work on a sediment core taken from a mountainous area in the KSNP with the aim to investigate the interaction between the volcanic deposition and the rainforest ecosystem changes to understand their long-term disturbance regime. The core was already taken from Danau Belibis, a small lake west of Mt. Kerinci. I will carry out a palaeoecological multi-proxy analysis including pollen and spore to reconstruct vegetation dynamics, macro-charcoal to receive information about the fire regime, loss on ignition (LOI) to measure the organic material content and XRF scanning. As a result, information about strength of the eruptions, deposition of volcanic material, airflows, impact of volcanic eruptions on vegetation and local climate, as well as conclusions about estates and their agricultural activity can be obtained.