The PhD fellow will be part of the interdisciplinary project “SAVECAVE: baselines for conservation from threatened cave archives” funded by the Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences sustainability initiative. In this project we will compile an extensive record of Holocene palaeobiological and archaeological cave material from Fennoscandia based on catalogued and newly excavated sub-fossil material, in order to refine the chronology of Fennoscandian faunal dynamics in response to Holocene human activity. Faunal material will be identified using both osteological analyses and bulk-bone metabarcoding to maximise taxonomic resolution. Prehistoric succession and dynamics of community composition with specific focus on currently red listed taxa will be evaluated. Communication of the scientific importance and fragility of Nordic cave environments with their faunal remains and artefacts is an important part of the project, with the ultimate goal to provide a rationale for strengthened conservation management and legislation for caves and associated contexts.
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