Paleoclimate and paleoecology

The Paleoclimate and Paleoecology working group consists of researchers from the Department of Quaternary Geology at the TalTech Institute of Geology, whose work contributes to the goals of the centre of excellence by providing reconstructions of past natural environments. The group, whose members have collaborated for a long time, has expertise covering a wide range of ecological, geographical, and sedimentological methods for studying the past. These methods can be applied to investigations of geosphere and biosphere processes, human activity, and their interactions during the end of the last glacial period and the subsequent warm period.

The group’s activities focus on high‑resolution reconstructions of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, vegetation, climate, and environmental changes—both natural and human‑induced—that have occurred in Estonia and its surroundings over the past 15,000 years, using lake, bog, and marine sediment records.

Members of the research group

Siim Veski, professor, head of the paleoclimate and paleoecology research group

Anneli Poska, senior research fellow, co‑head of the paleoclimate and paleoecology research group

Leeli Amon,  associate professor, principal investigator

Tiiu Alliksaar, senior research fellow, principal investigator

Atko Heinsalu, senior research fellow, principal investigator

Jüri Vassiljev, senior research fellow, principal investigator

Vivika Väli, Estonian University of Life Sciences, research fellow, principal investigator

Varvara Bakumenko, junior research fellow, investigator

Vladimir Karpin, doctoral student, investigator

Ivan Krivokorin, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator

Anna Lanka, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator

Eliise Poolma, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator

Merlin Liiv, lead engineer, investigator

Mark Top, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator

Elisabeth Renee Martveldt, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator

Merle Luca Marie Dorsch, doctoral student / junior research fellow, investigator