[Biography] [Departmental Website] [Publications] [Contact Info] Biography: I use sediment stratigraphies to reconstruct past environmental conditions using sedimentological and palaeoecological methods. By studying the past we can start to understand how ecosystems will respond to future climatic and land-use changes and other anthropogenic effects. My recent research interest focuses on characterising past climatic, vegetation, and […]
Field Diary Special Issue: Call for Contributions
The Field Diary is a digital open-access newsletter that highlights and promotes the human perspective of conducting fieldwork anywhere in the world by all groups working for companies, government, development/conservation/missionary NGOs, security, graduate students, and academia. The first issue of the Field Diary brought together a collection of fieldwork-themed stories from many parts of the world including, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and New […]
REAL Visits Mount Suswa Conservancy
March 31st is one of my most favourite field visits. It was most honourable to have almost the entire REAL group visit one of my field sites – Mount Suswa, after a conservation training in Nairobi. Not only was visiting Suswa a break from the city, it was an opportunity to visit a conservancy, one conservation […]
Field Diary 2: Call for Contributions
The first issue of the Field Diary brought together a collection of fieldwork-themed stories from many parts of the world including, Kenya, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and New Zealand. It is available here: http://www.real-project.eu/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Field-Diary-issue-1.pdf The Field Diary is a digital open-access newsletter that highlights and promotes the human perspective of conducting fieldwork anywhere in the world by all groups working for companies, government, development/conservation/missionary […]
World Universities Network (WUN)
World Universities Network (WUN) The WUN Global Africa Group has been identified as one of WUN’s Cross-Cutting themes. These themes intersect with all four Global Challenges and are seen as vital to understanding and addressing them. Cross-Cutting themes are selected based on identifed research strengths across WUN.The group brings together expertise and resources from across Africa and members […]
Historical ecology studies in Amboseli
Ongoing studies by REAL project members aim to unravel the history of ecosystem change and human-environment interactions in the Amboseli region of Kenya, just north of Mount Kilimanjaro at the Kenya-Tanzania border. A new article in the Global Land Project Newsletter explores some of the preliminary insights that can be found at: Courtney Mustaphi, C […]
Reconstructions of biomass burning
from sediment charcoal records to improve data-model comparisons New publication: Marlon, J. R., Kelly, R., Daniau, A.-L., Vannière, B., Power, M. J., Bartlein, P., Higuera, P., Blarquez, O., Brewer, S., Brücher, T., Feurdean, A., Gil-Romera, G., Iglesias, V., Maezumi, S. Y., Magi, B., Mustaphi, C. J. C., and Zhihai, T.: Reconstructions of biomass burning from sediment charcoal records to improve data-model comparisons, Biogeosciences Discussions., 12, 18571-18623, doi:10.5194/bgd-12-18571-2015, 2015. Abstract. The location, timing, spatial extent, and frequency of wildfires are changing rapidly […]
Videos of YorNight in York, UK
A photo gallery of European Researchers’ Night in York shows how REAL members and colleagues from the University of York demonstrated their research initiatives t the public!
Recent environmental changes in Eastern Mau and Amboseli, Kenya
Research update on current REAL projects in the Amboseli area and Eastern Mau Forest published in the British Institute for Eastern Africa‘s 2014-2015 Annual Report. The PDF can be viewed here. Esther N. Githumbi, Rebecca Kariuki, Colin J. Courtney Mustaphi, Rebecca Muriuki, Stephen M. Rucina, Rob Marchant. 2015. Recent environmental changes in Eastern Mau and […]
Quadcopter Ndege footage from Kenya and Tanzania
Ndege means ‘bird’ in Kiswahili. Here we expose some footage from Kenya and Tanzania where REAL members from the University of York have been doing fieldwork in 2014 and 2015. This video was edited by Quinn Asena.
Charity challenge – Dig Deep UK!
Next summer a group of daring University of York students will be climbing Mt Kilimanjaro – and you can be there! Mount Kilimanjaro is one of the most impressive sights in Africa and climbing it is one of the all time great achievements. It’s the largest freestanding mountain in the world and the trek encompasses terrains from jungle […]
YorNight science outreach
September 25, 2015 King’s Manor, City of York, UK European Union showcase of science Members of the REAL project participated in the European researchers’ night showcasing ongoing science funded by the European Commission.
New paper: Spatial variability of recent macroscopic charcoal deposition
Courtney Mustaphi, C.J., Davis, E.L., Perreault, J.T., Pisaric, M.F.J. 2015. Spatial variability of recent macroscopic charcoal deposition in a small montane lake and implications for reconstruction of watershed-scale fire regimes. Journal of Paleolimnology 54 (1): 71–86. DOI: 10.1007/s10933-015-9838-2 [Video summary]