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But how can researcher gather information international journals such as Nature and PNAS.
about past landscape, climate, and human acti- The OLEA-project is now on the equator of its
vities? They count on a highly versatile discipli- duration and is starting to obtain the first results
ne called palynology, consisting of the study of that will soon be published. Although the project
pollen grains and spores. This discipline relies is mainly focused on pollen analysis, it also bene-

on a simple but powerful statement: every plant fits from other collaborations as for instance with
species produces a specific pollen type, and this the ArqueoUIB research group from the University
pollen is almost eternally-resistant. So, the rese- of the Balearic Islands specialized in archaeology
archers can identify these pollen types by using and Dr Grant Snitker from the USDA Forest Ser-
a light microscope and then interpret landscape vice (USA) specialist in fire history. Undeniably,
changes, inferring climate and human causa- landscape is a very complex matter, therefore
lity. One of the main objectives of a MSCA-IF is landscape research can certainly take advantage
to gain new skills in an excellence cross-border of interdisciplinarity. OLEA will combine high-reso-
context. The LPP offer to Dr Servera-Vives an lution studies of coastal lagoon cores and archa-

excellent context to grow up as a palynologist and eological sites. This integrated approach combi-
as a researcher. This laboratory, directed by Prof ning human and natural sites offer the possibility
Mercuri, has a wide experience on Mediterranean to compare natural regional dynamics and local
cultural landscapes and its pioneering research human land-use through time. In doing so, main
is highly appreciated by international researchers methods used are pollen morphology, multi-proxy
as shown by plenty of publications on top-ranked analysis, fire history and agent-based modelling.

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