Francesc Burjachs

Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social

Humanities

Born on 3rd August 1955 in Blanes, Catalonia. Dissertation on Paleopalynology, Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB, 1985). DEA on Quaternary, MNHN-IPH, Paris (1986). PhD in Biological Sciences (UAB, 1990). Contributor of the Botany Department (UAB, 1979-1990). Director and co-director of several archaeological excavations. Hired researcher at Institute of Earth Sciences Jaume Almera, CSIC, Barcelona (1990-1998). Research Assistant at Catholic University of Louvain-La-Neuve (1994). Associate Professor at University Rovira i Virgili (URV), Tarragona since 1998. ICREA Research Professor at URV (2001-2007) and at the Catalan Institute of Human Palaeoecology and Social Evolution (IPHES) since 2008. Training stages of palynological research abroad: CRA, Sophia Antipolis, France (1978) with Prof. M. Girard; IPH, Paris (1985-1987) with Prof. J. Renault-Miskovsky, and University La Sapienza, Roma (1991) with Prof. M. Follieri. He has published more than 340 papers and reports.


Research interests

My investigation seeks to understand the climatic changes that happened along human evolution. This information is important to appreciate some of the factors which have influenced our evolution towards the current species. More precisely, my work is developed in the science of Palynology, which basically consists in the study of the fossil pollen trapped in the soil that our ancestors stepped on. In this way, we can describe the landscape in which they lived, the climate they endured, the vegetables they ate, etc.

Selected publications

- Brisset E, Burjachs F, Ballesteros-Navarro BJ & Fernández-López de Pablo J (2018). ‘Socio-ecological adaptation to Early-Holocene sea-level rise in the western Mediterranean’. Global and Planetary Change, vol. 169, pp 156-167.

- Fernández-López de Pablo J, Jones SE & Burjachs F Eds 2018, 'Late Glacial to Early Holocene socio-ecological responses to climatic instability within the Mediterranean basin', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 184, pp 1-224 (15 March 2018).

- Revelles J, Burjachs F, Palomo A, Piqué R, Iriarte E, Pérez-Obiol R & Terradas X 2018, ‘Human-environment interaction during the Mesolithic - Neolithic transition in the NE Iberian Peninsula. Vegetation history, climate change and human impact during the Early-Middle Holocene in the Eastern Pre-Pyrenees’, Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 184, pp 183-200.

- Jones SE, Burjachs F, Ferrer-García C, Giralt S, Schulte L & Fernández-López de Pablo J 2018, 'A multi-proxy approach to understanding complex responses of salt-lake catchments to climate variability and human pressure: A Late Quaternary case study from south-eastern, Spain', Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 184, pp 201-223.

- Piqué-Huerta R, Revelles J, Burjachs F, Caruso-Fermé L & Pérez-Obiol R 2018, ‘Interdisciplinary approach to the landscape and firewood exploitation during the Holocene at La Garrotxa (Girona, NE Iberia)’. Quaternary International, vol. 463 (part B), pp 401-413.

- Vacchi M, Ghilardi M, Melis RT, Spada G, Giaime M, Marriner N, Lorsheid Th, Morhange Ch, Burjachs F & Rovere A (2018). New relative sea-level insights into the isostatic history of the Western Mediterranean. Quaternary Science Reviews, vol. 201, pp 396-408.


Selected research activities

- Co-organiser of Session #420: Sensitivity and resilience of human communities to coastal environmental changes during the Early to Mid-Holocene. 24th Annual Meeting of the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA).

- Guest Editor, Quaternary Science Reviews.

- Researcher of PALEODEM (ERC-Consolidator Grant-683018).