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Beyond Decline: Heathland and the Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change in Bronze Age Orkney (2025)
Book Chapter
Farrell, M., & Bunting, J. (2025). Beyond Decline: Heathland and the Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change in Bronze Age Orkney. In M. Løvschal, & K. Grønneberg (Eds.), A place for the heathlands?: human-heath relations in deep-time and contemporary perspectives. Jutland Archaeological Society

In this paper, we explore how Enlightenment thinking might have influenced environmental archaeological narratives about heathland development, and human interactions with heathlands, using Orkney as a case study. The archaeological record of Orkney... Read More about Beyond Decline: Heathland and the Dynamics of Cultural and Environmental Change in Bronze Age Orkney.

Assessing the suitability of pollen dispersal and deposition model: A model-empirical data comparison study in the spruce (Picea schrenkiana) forest edge of Tian Shan Mountains, northwestern China (2024)
Journal Article
Fang, Y., Yang, X., Zhao, Y., Li, Y., Ma, C., Chen, B., & Bunting, M. J. (2025). Assessing the suitability of pollen dispersal and deposition model: A model-empirical data comparison study in the spruce (Picea schrenkiana) forest edge of Tian Shan Mountains, northwestern China. Quaternary science reviews, 350, Article 109151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2024.109151

Montane ecotones such as the forest-steppe transition are highly sensitive and responsive to climate change. Thus, reconstructing changing ecotone position is a valuable tool for reconstructing past climate change in mountainous regions, although ide... Read More about Assessing the suitability of pollen dispersal and deposition model: A model-empirical data comparison study in the spruce (Picea schrenkiana) forest edge of Tian Shan Mountains, northwestern China.

Conservation priorities for development: survey of UK public's views on brownfield sites and biodiversity (2024)
Journal Article
Macgregor, C., Deutz, P., Bunting, J., & Mayes, W. (2024). Conservation priorities for development: survey of UK public's views on brownfield sites and biodiversity. People, Place and Policy, 18(3), 135-163. https://doi.org/10.3351/ppp.2024.4947649325

Policies prioritising the repurposing of abandoned land ('brownfield sites'), in order to spare undeveloped sites, are widely perceived to limit damage to biodiversity. However, brownfield sites can be of significant ecological value, providing scarc... Read More about Conservation priorities for development: survey of UK public's views on brownfield sites and biodiversity.

Ten simple rules to bridge ecology and palaeoecology by publishing outside palaeoecological journals (2024)
Journal Article
Schafstall, N., Benito, X., Brugger, S. O., Davies, A. L., Ellis, E., Pla-Rabes, S., Bonk, A., Bunting, M. J., Chambers, F. M., Flantua, S. G. A., Fletcher, T. L., Greiser, C., Hernández, A., Gwinneth, B., Koren, G., Marcisz, K., Montoya, E., Quesada-Román, A., Ratnayake, A. S., Sabatier, P., …Suárez-Mozo, N. Y. (2024). Ten simple rules to bridge ecology and palaeoecology by publishing outside palaeoecological journals. PLoS Computational Biology, 20(10), Article e1012487. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1012487

Owing to its specialised methodology, palaeoecology is often regarded as a separate field from ecology, even though it is essential for understanding long-term ecological processes that have shaped the ecosystems that ecologists study and manage. Des... Read More about Ten simple rules to bridge ecology and palaeoecology by publishing outside palaeoecological journals.

Airborne microplastic monitoring: developing a simplified outdoor sampling approach using pollen monitoring equipment (2024)
Journal Article
Chapman, E., Liddle, C. R., Williams, B., Hilmer, E., Quick, L. J., Garcia, A. G., Suárez, D. C., White, D., Bunting, M. J., Walker, P., Cabaneros, S. M. S., Kinnersley, R., Hansen, M. F., Atherall, C. A., & Rotchell, J. M. (2024). Airborne microplastic monitoring: developing a simplified outdoor sampling approach using pollen monitoring equipment. Journal of hazardous materials, 480, Article 136129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhazmat.2024.136129

A novel, yet simple, airborne microplastic (MP) sampling approach using global pollen monitoring equipment was applied to identify, characterise and quantify outdoor airborne MPs for the first time. Modification of Burkard spore trap tape adhesive pr... Read More about Airborne microplastic monitoring: developing a simplified outdoor sampling approach using pollen monitoring equipment.

Trait-based approaches as ecological time machines: Developing tools for reconstructing long-term variation in ecosystems (2023)
Journal Article
Brown, K. A., Bunting, M. J., Carvalho, F., de Bello, F., Mander, L., Marcisz, K., Mottl, O., Reitalu, T., & Svenning, J. C. (2023). Trait-based approaches as ecological time machines: Developing tools for reconstructing long-term variation in ecosystems. Functional ecology, https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.14415

Research over the past decade has shown that quantifying spatial variation in ecosystem properties is an effective approach to investigating the effects of environmental change on ecosystems. Yet, current consensus among scientists is that we need a... Read More about Trait-based approaches as ecological time machines: Developing tools for reconstructing long-term variation in ecosystems.

The Virtual Palaeosciences (ViPs) project: resources for online learning in or out of a pandemic (2022)
Journal Article
Hutchinson, S. M., Bacon, K. L., Bunting, M. J., & Hurrell, E. R. (2022). The Virtual Palaeosciences (ViPs) project: resources for online learning in or out of a pandemic. Journal of geography in higher education, https://doi.org/10.1080/03098265.2022.2129599

The Virtual Palaeosciences (ViPs) project is a collaborative initiative bringing palaeoscientists together to locate, access and share online educational resources (OERs). It began as a response to the 2020 shift to online learning when the COVID-19... Read More about The Virtual Palaeosciences (ViPs) project: resources for online learning in or out of a pandemic.

Landscapes for Neolithic people in Mainland, Orkney (2022)
Journal Article
Bunting, M. J., Farrell, M., Dunbar, E., Reimer, P., Bayliss, A., Marshall, P., & Whittle, A. (2022). Landscapes for Neolithic people in Mainland, Orkney. Journal of world prehistory, 35(1), 87-107. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10963-022-09166-y

Neolithic occupation of the Orkney Islands, in the north of Scotland, probably began in the mid fourth millennium cal BC, culminating in a range of settlements, including stone-built houses, varied stone-built tombs and two noteworthy stone circles.... Read More about Landscapes for Neolithic people in Mainland, Orkney.

Land management explains major trends in forest structure and composition over the last millennium in California's Klamath Mountains (2022)
Journal Article
Knight, C. A., Anderson, L., Bunting, M. J., Champagne, M., Clayburn, R. M., Crawford, J. N., Klimaszewski-Patterson, A., Knapp, E. E., Lake, F. K., Mensing, S. A., Wahl, D., Wanket, J., Watts-Tobin, A., Potts, M. D., & Battles, J. J. (2022). Land management explains major trends in forest structure and composition over the last millennium in California's Klamath Mountains. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(12), Article e2116264119. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2116264119

For millennia, forest ecosystems in California have been shaped by fire from both natural processes and Indigenous land management, but the notion of climatic variation as a primary controller of the pre-colonial landscape remains pervasive. Understa... Read More about Land management explains major trends in forest structure and composition over the last millennium in California's Klamath Mountains.

Do Local Habitat Conditions Affect Estimates of Relative Pollen Productivity and Source Area in Heathlands? (2022)
Journal Article
Bunting, M. J., & Farrell, M. (in press). Do Local Habitat Conditions Affect Estimates of Relative Pollen Productivity and Source Area in Heathlands?. Frontiers in ecology and evolution, 10, Article 787345. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2022.787345

Relative Pollen Productivity is an essential parameter for quantitative reconstruction of past land cover from pollen records, but published studies have produced a range of different values for the same taxa. Heathland habitats have limited plant di... Read More about Do Local Habitat Conditions Affect Estimates of Relative Pollen Productivity and Source Area in Heathlands?.

Pollen productivity estimates from KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa (2021)
Book Chapter
Hill, T. R., Duthie, T. J., & Bunting, J. (2021). Pollen productivity estimates from KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa. In J. Runge, W. D. Gosling, A.-M. Lézine, & L. Scott (Eds.), Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics – The African Pollen Database (259-274). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766-16

Pollen assemblages from sedimentary sequences reflect the landscapes surrounding the basin at the time of deposition, however the translation of pollen records into estimates or maps of past landcover is complex. Models of the pollen-vegetation relat... Read More about Pollen productivity estimates from KwaZulu-Natal Drakensberg, South Africa.

Modern pollen studies from tropical Africa and their use in palaeoecology (2021)
Book Chapter
Julier, A. C., Manzano, S., Razanatsoa, E., Razafimanantsoa, A. H., Githumbi, E., Hawthorne, D., Oden, G., Schüler, L., Tossou, M., & Bunting, J. (2021). Modern pollen studies from tropical Africa and their use in palaeoecology. In J. Runge, W. D. Gosling, A.-M. Lézine, & L. Scott (Eds.), Quaternary Vegetation Dynamics – The African Pollen Database (317-348). CRC Press. https://doi.org/10.1201/9781003162766-21

Modern pollen studies are valuable for the calibration of pollen records and contribute to the understanding of past vegetation dynamics. Here, we present a qualitative review of available published and (where possible) unpublished modern pollen stud... Read More about Modern pollen studies from tropical Africa and their use in palaeoecology.

Are modern pollen assemblages from soils and mosses the same? A comparison of natural pollen traps from subtropical China (2021)
Journal Article
Fang, Y., Bunting, M. J., Ma, C., & Yang, X. (2022). Are modern pollen assemblages from soils and mosses the same? A comparison of natural pollen traps from subtropical China. CATENA, 209(1), Article 105790. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2021.105790

This study investigated the pollen spectra from 46 pairs of soil and moss samples (pairs collected within a 1 m2 squared area). The samples were collected from six common subtropical vegetation communities in the Meiling Mountains, southeast China, w... Read More about Are modern pollen assemblages from soils and mosses the same? A comparison of natural pollen traps from subtropical China.

Brownfield sites promote biodiversity at a landscape scale (2021)
Journal Article
Macgregor, C. J., Bunting, M. J., Deutz, P., Bourn, N. A., Roy, D. B., & Mayes, W. M. (2022). Brownfield sites promote biodiversity at a landscape scale. Science of the Total Environment, 804, Article 150162. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.150162

Repurposing of brownfield sites is often promoted, because it is perceived that protecting the “green belt” limits damage to biodiversity; yet brownfield sites provide scarce habitats with limited disturbance, so conversely are also perceived to be e... Read More about Brownfield sites promote biodiversity at a landscape scale.

Linking modern pollen accumulation rates to biomass: Quantitative vegetation reconstruction in the western Klamath Mountains, NW California, USA (2021)
Journal Article
Knight, C., Baskaran, M., Bunting, M. J., Champagne, M., Potts, M., Wahl, D., Wanket, J., & Battles, J. (2021). Linking modern pollen accumulation rates to biomass: Quantitative vegetation reconstruction in the western Klamath Mountains, NW California, USA. Holocene, 31(5), 814-829. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683620988038

Quantitative reconstructions of vegetation abundance from sediment-derived pollen systems provide unique insights into past ecological conditions. Recently, the use of pollen accumulation rates (PAR, grains cm−2 year−1) has shown promise as a bioprox... Read More about Linking modern pollen accumulation rates to biomass: Quantitative vegetation reconstruction in the western Klamath Mountains, NW California, USA.

Relative pollen productivity estimates for alpine meadow vegetation, northeastern Tibetan Plateau (2019)
Journal Article
Qin, F., Bunting, M. J., Zhao, Y., Li, Q., Cui, Q., & Ren, W. (2020). Relative pollen productivity estimates for alpine meadow vegetation, northeastern Tibetan Plateau. Vegetation History and Archaeobotany, 29(4), 447-462. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00334-019-00751-4

A promising method of reconstructing past vegetation from pollen records uses mathematical models of the relationship between pollen and vegetation. These can be calibrated using the extended R-value (ERV) approach on datasets of modern pollen assemb... Read More about Relative pollen productivity estimates for alpine meadow vegetation, northeastern Tibetan Plateau.

Opening the woods: towards a quantification of Neolithic clearance around the Somerset Levels and Moors (2019)
Journal Article
Farrell, M., Bunting, M. J., Sturt, F., Grant, M., Aalbersberg, G., Batchelor, R., Brown, A., Druce, D., Hill, T., Hollinrake, A., Jones, J., Tinsley, H., Bayliss, A., Marshall, P., Richer, S., & Whittle, A. (2020). Opening the woods: towards a quantification of Neolithic clearance around the Somerset Levels and Moors. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, 27(2), 271-301. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-019-09427-9

© 2019, The Author(s). Environmental reconstructions from pollen records collected within archaeological landscapes have traditionally taken a broadly narrative approach, with few attempts made at hypothesis testing or formal assessment of uncertaint... Read More about Opening the woods: towards a quantification of Neolithic clearance around the Somerset Levels and Moors.

Novel methods of estimating relative pollen productivity; a key parameter for reconstruction of past land cover from pollen records (2019)
Journal Article
Fang, Y., Ma, C., & Bunting, M. J. (2019). Novel methods of estimating relative pollen productivity; a key parameter for reconstruction of past land cover from pollen records. Progress in physical geography, 43(6), 731-753. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309133319861808

Reconstructing land cover from pollen data using mathematical models of the relationship between them has the potential to translate the many thousand pollen records produced over the last 100 years (over 2300 radiocarbon-dated pollen records exist f... Read More about Novel methods of estimating relative pollen productivity; a key parameter for reconstruction of past land cover from pollen records.