Diana Tirlea

Biography

Diana’s primary interests include palaeoenvironments, alpine vegetation dynamics (e.g., changes in treeline distribution), and pollen analysis and methods (e.g., pollen deterioration).

She completed an M.Sc. in Ecology at the University of Alberta in 2011. Her thesis focused on determining if input of terrestrial-derived nutrients (pollen grains) into small alpine lakes influenced the productivity of these ecosystems. She also investigated changes in vegetation occurrence, abundance and distribution in response to changing climates.

She is currently the Assistant Curator of Quaternary Environments at the Royal Alberta Museum, where she maintains the collections and conducts research primarily focused on reconstructing past landscapes in the Canadian Rocky Mountains during the last 12,000 years (Holocene). This research is mainly conducted through analysis of subfossil pollen grains and macrofossils preserved in lake sediment and organic deposits. By identifying and counting pollen grains and macros we can get a better understanding of past vegetation and landscapes. Current projects which she is working on include analysis of pollen and macrofossils from overridden organic matter collected from a remnant glacier in Jasper National Park.

Selected Publications/Presentations

Pollen, Poop and Palaeoenvironments: Using Pollen Analysis in Cave Studies, Jasper National Park. 
Tirlea D., Alwynne B. Beaudoin, Christopher N. Jass, Greg Horne and Dave Critchley
Presented at: Thinking Mountains 2015 Interdisciplinary Mountain Studies Conference.  Canadian Mountain Studies Institutive (University of Alberta), Jasper National Park, Alberta (2015)

Freeze-dried is as good as frozen: Evaluation of differential preservation of pollen grains in stored lake sediments
Tirlea, D., Alwynne B. Beaudoin and Rolf D. Vinebrooke (2015)
Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 215: 46-56 (2015)

Evaluating Terrestrial-Aquatic Linkages in the Canadian Rocky Mountains [Electronic Resource]: Eiffel Lake and Sentinel Lake, Banff National Park
Tirlea, D.
M.Sc. Thesis.  Department of Biological Sciences, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta (Catalogue Key: 4904553) (2011)