[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/6172\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n      3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n      \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n        \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n  \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EAncient DNA and pollen in fossilised urine towers reveal climate change\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAccording to Dr Brian Chase, of the EU-funded HYRAX project, the urine is probably the strongest fossil evidence that scientists have to work with for the southern African region. That\u2019s because he can get a wide variety of fossils from any one site.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe thing with hyraxes is they always urinate in the exact same place, meaning that over thousands of years it builds up into a fossilised tower called a midden, which can be up to two metres tall.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018From any piece of the midden sample you can get stable isotopes (forms of elements used for dating, and indicators of past climate and vegetation), ancient DNA, pollen, phytoliths. Each one of these provides part of the picture,\u2019 said Dr Chase, from\u0026nbsp;France\u2019s national research centre CNRS.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Not only can you see what happened in terms of climate and vegetation change, but also how these changes are a response to changes in the global climate system. And that\u2019s of very critical importance.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Chase\u2019s results can be used to improve climate change models which will lead to more accurate predictions of future climates.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EDrones\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHis data-collecting team explores Namibia and South Africa looking for hyrax colonies, and locate the fossilised urine using drones, as hyraxes generally live in cliffs.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETo get up to the midden involves abseiling and rock climbing. So reaching a potential site can take a full day, and if the scientists don\u2019t find anything there, it\u2019s a lot of wasted effort.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018When a day in the field is costing EUR 500, a drone that costs EUR 400 suddenly makes a lot of sense. Fly up, fly back, download the images and look at the movie right away,\u2019 said Dr Chase.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EWithin the middens, Dr Chase and his team find pieces of pollen which can tell us a lot about vegetation in climates past. This pollen would have stuck to the coats of the hyrax as they roamed the South African grasslands and then been brushed off onto the urine towers. There\u2019s no microbial activity in the middens so the pollen is perfectly preserved.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The results that we\u2019ve gotten have just been phenomenal,\u2019 Dr Chase said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\n\n\n\n\n\u003Csection\n  class=\u0022ecl-gallery\u0022\n    data-ecl-auto-init=\u0022Gallery\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-visible-items=\u00228\u0022\n  data-ecl-gallery\n\u003E\u003Cul class=\u0022ecl-gallery__list\u0022\u003E\u003Cli\n  class=\u0022ecl-gallery__item\u0022\n  \n\u003E\u003Ca\n    href=\u0022\u0022\n    data-ecl-gallery-item\n    class=\u0022ecl-gallery__item-link\u0022\n    id=\u0022ecl-gallery-item-ecl-gallery-1346485216-0\u0022  \u003E\u003Cfigure class=\u0022ecl-gallery__image-container\u0022\u003E\u003Cpicture\n  class=\u0022ecl-picture ecl-gallery__thumbnail\u0022\n  \n\u003E\u003Cimg \n          class=\u0022ecl-gallery__image\u0022\n                  alt=\u0022\u0022\n          \u003E\u003C\/picture\u003E\u003Cpicture\n  class=\u0022ecl-picture ecl-gallery__picture\u0022\n  \n\u003E\u003C\/picture\u003E\u003Cfigcaption\n        class=\u0022ecl-gallery__description\u0022\n        data-ecl-gallery-description\n      \u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-gallery__caption\u0022\u003EDriftwood fossils are telling scientists where ice used to be and how it has moved during the Holocene Era. Image: Dr Marc Macias-Fauria.\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\u003C\/figure\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__footer\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__info\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__info-total\u0022 id=\u0022ecl-gallery-1346485216-info\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong data-ecl-gallery-count\u003E0\u003C\/strong\u003Emedia items\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cbutton\n  class=\u0022ecl-button ecl-button--ghost ecl-gallery__view-all\u0022\n  type=\u0022submit\u0022\n   data-ecl-gallery-all data-ecl-gallery-collapsed-label=\u0022See\u0026#x20;all\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-expanded-label=\u0022Collapse\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022ecl-gallery-1346485216-info\u0022\n\u003ESee all\u003C\/button\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdialog\n  class=\u0022ecl-gallery__overlay\u0022\n  \n  data-ecl-gallery-overlay\n\u003E\u003Cheader class=\u0022ecl-gallery__close\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-header\u003E\u003Cbutton\n  class=\u0022ecl-button ecl-button--ghost ecl-gallery__close-button\u0022\n  type=\u0022submit\u0022\n   data-ecl-gallery-close\n\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-button__container\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-button__label\u0022 data-ecl-label=\u0022true\u0022\u003EClose\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Csvg\n  class=\u0022ecl-icon ecl-icon--s ecl-button__icon\u0022\n  focusable=\u0022false\u0022\n  aria-hidden=\u0022true\u0022\n   data-ecl-icon\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022\/themes\/contrib\/oe_theme\/dist\/ec\/images\/icons\/sprites\/icons.svg#close\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/button\u003E\u003C\/header\u003E\u003Csection class=\u0022ecl-gallery__slider\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__slider-media-container\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-media\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\u003Cfooter class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-footer\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-container\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-container\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__pager\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-counter\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan data-ecl-gallery-overlay-counter-current\u003E0\u003C\/span\u003E  \/  \u003Cspan data-ecl-gallery-overlay-counter-max\u003E0\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-actions\u0022\u003E\u003Ca\n  href=\u0022\u0022\n  class=\u0022ecl-link ecl-link--standalone ecl-link--inverted ecl-link--icon ecl-gallery__share\u0022\n   data-ecl-gallery-overlay-share\n\u003E\u003Cspan \n      class=\u0022ecl-link__label\u0022\u003EShare\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Csvg\n  class=\u0022ecl-icon ecl-icon--fluid ecl-link__icon\u0022\n  focusable=\u0022false\u0022\n  aria-hidden=\u0022true\u0022\n  \u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022\/themes\/contrib\/oe_theme\/dist\/ec\/images\/icons\/sprites\/icons.svg#share\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\n        class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-description\u0022\n        data-ecl-gallery-overlay-description\n      \u003EDriftwood fossils are telling scientists where ice used to be and how it has moved during the Holocene Era. Image: Dr Marc Macias-Fauria.\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/footer\u003E\u003C\/dialog\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn Europe too, pollen is shedding light on the past \u2013 and illuminating the future. There\u2019s a whole European Pollen Database which collects both fossilised and modern pollen records all across Northern Europe, from Iceland to Russia.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Luke Mander of the EU-funded MioVAT project is using pollen to map how grasslands have evolved over time. He focuses on the grassland pollen of the Miocene Epoch, which stretched from 23 to five million years ago. During this time, grasslands first appeared on earth.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ENow, grasses are found in almost all habitats on earth \u2013 in fact, there are over 11 000 species of grass.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EFuture climate change\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt\u2019s important that scientists understand as much about vegetation as possible, because many of our medicines, remedies and foods come from plants. Added to that, understanding how past climates operated is essential for theories about future climate change to be formed.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAlthough Dr Mander\u2019s research focuses specifically on the Miocene, he thinks that there\u2019s potential for researchers to make the link between what happened in the past and what\u2019s happening now.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The crucial contribution of the fossil record is the ability to examine the evolutionary process in these times and that gives us a route to thinking about very broad, long-term controls on the composition of vegetation on planet earth,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Marc Macias-Fauria, who worked on the EU-funded ECOCHANGE project, agrees. \u2018The fossil record provides a unique source of information about what has happened,\u2019 he said.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ELike MioVAT, ECOCHANGE studied fossilised pollen. One of its main results was to work out how fossil pollen and ecological modelling can be used together to track climate-related changes in trees.\u003Cspan\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022text-center text-blue font-bold text-2xl w-full lg:w-1\/2 border-2 border-blue p-12 my-8 lg:m-12 lg:-ml-16 float-left\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Cspan class=\u0022text-5xl rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n  \u003Cp class=\u0022font-serif italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The fossil record provides a unique source of information about what has happened.\u2019\u0026amp;nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\n  \u003Cfooter\u003E\n    \u003Ccite class=\u0022not-italic font-normal text-sm text-black\u0022\u003EDr Marc Macias-Fauria, University of Oxford, UK\u003C\/cite\u003E\n  \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Macias-Fauria\u2019s research also found that factors other than climate alone, such as geology and geomorphology, had a much larger impact on\u0026nbsp;the positioning of many types of plants -\u0026nbsp;including trees on the Rocky Mountain range -\u0026nbsp;than previously thought.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAdded to that, ECOCHANGE\u2019s research at the Oxford Long-term Ecology Lab, led by Prof. Kathy Willis, gave scientists a better idea of how species react to changing environments. This is important when constructing climate change models, which try to predict how the planet will react as the earth warms up.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMoving on from ECOCHANGE, Dr Macias-Fauria is now working on driftwood fossils \u2013 these fossils, found in the Arctic regions, can tell us how sea ice moved in the past.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018By analysing these pieces of wood \u2013 of which there are thousands in the Arctic, we can start creating a map of where the ice was, and how it was moving over the last ten to twelve thousand years \u2013 the Holocene Epoch,\u2019 he said. \u003Cdiv class=\u0022moreinfoblock\u0022\u003E\n  \u003Ch3\u003EEuropean Pollen Database\u003C\/h3\u003E\n  \u003Cp\u003EThe European Pollen database is a non-profit database available free-of-charge to the scientific community. It was first set up in the 1980s to provide a structure for archiving, exchanging, and analysing pollen data from throughout Europe.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIt holds over 1800 pollen sequences from almost 1500 different sites, which comes to well over one million individual pollen counts.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThe database is hosted by the Mediterranean Institute of Marine and Terrestrial Biodiversity and Ecology.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EFor more information, you can visit their website here: \u003Ca href=\u0022http:\/\/www.europeanpollendatabase.net\/\u0022\u003Ehttp:\/\/www.europeanpollendatabase.net\/\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n            \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n      Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n    \u003C\/div\u003E\n  \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-d-pfnwd2xeviuldmnkg3kqjudgtx82zm1ef2viwg7bm\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-d_PfNWD2XEvIuLDMNkg3kqJUdgtx82Zm1ef2viWg7BM\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]