The Palaeoenvironmental Research Unit (PRU) is a small, active, high-achieving research group in the School of Geography and Archaeology, NUI Galway. Since start-up in the Department of Botany in the early 1980s, it has been involved in researching long-term environmental change, with particular emphasis on the last 15 000 years.

The main areas of expertise are chironomid and pollen analyses.
The web pages follow relate to fossil pollen research.

For an overview and details regarding reseach areas other than pollen analysis see listings at the School of Geography and Archaeology pages. 

The focus of the PRU / pollen section) is on Late-glacial, i.e. the final phase of the last glaciation; c. 15 000 to 11 500 BP (Before Present), and Holocene (post-glacial) environments in western Ireland. This has mainly involved detailed investigations of peat and lake-sediment cores. Long-term woodland dynamics, climate change and the long-term effects of human activity on terrestrial and lake ecosystems are of particular interest.

The PRU / pollen laboratory is located at 12 Distillery Road (entrance road to the main campus from the Newcastle Rd (at AIB bank).

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