PhD Project

Palynological studies of the grasslands and assessment of the grassland -
dynamics in space and time

Poaceae belong to one of the most complex angiosperm monocot family. Grassland communities are dominated by Poaceae members. If only large contiguous chunks of grasslands are counted, these biomes cover 31% of the Earth’s terrestrial Surface. There are different types of grasslands depending on location, such as savanna , parámo, pampa, steppe, or prairie. Spatial variations of grassland ecosystems in tropical, subtropical or temperate climates, as well as changes in composition of grassland vegetation, and locations and shifts of boundaries play an important role in past climate reconstruction.

In my PhD Project, I am working on the palynological studies of selected Poaceae species from Khyber pukhtoonkhwa Province in Pakistan, as well as some selected species from other regions. The aim of the project is to study pollen morphology of grasses in varying environmental conditions and along an elevational transect. We are also interested in finding whether there is variation in the pollen morphology of C3 and C4 grasses? We will also focus on finding a co-relation between pollen morphology and polyploidy in Poaceae family.

I am an employ of Abdul Wali Khan University Mardan, Pakistan. I have been granted an overseas Faculty development Scholarship by Awkum to complete my PhD in the the Department of Palynology and Climate dynamics at the Albrecht-von-Haller Institute for Plant Sciences, Goettingen University.

PhD Student: Farooq Jan
Supervision: Prof. Dr. Hermann Behling; Lisa Schüler