International Research Fellowship Program: Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling of Human and Ungulate Populations in Europe during Oxygen Isotope Stages 3 and 2\(60-10K BP\)

0653000银行国际研究奖学金计划使美国科学家和工程师能够在国外进行9至24个月的研究。该计划的奖项提供了联合研究的机会，以及利用国外独特或互补的设施、专业知识和实验条件的机会。该奖项将支持William E.Banks博士与法国波尔多大学Francesco d‘Errico博士合作的为期12个月的研究奖学金。该项目将评估在欧洲氧同位素阶段(OIS)3-2(约60-10K BP)快速气候变化(Dansgaard-Oeschger事件)对大型哺乳动物和人类种群的影响。这些气候波动对动物和人类种群产生了深远的影响，但人们对这种变化的狩猎采集反应知之甚少。PI将使用规则集预测遗传算法(GARP)检查它们对这些气候事件的响应。GARP是一种机器学习遗传算法，它为一个物种创建了一个生态位模型，代表了该物种维持种群停滞的环境条件。他将利用考古、地理和古气候数据来制作特定时期的生态文化生态位模型。初步分析表明，这种方法在模拟末次冰川盛期人类种群的生态文化生态位方面是有用的。这一方法有能力确定史前地理的环境和文化制约因素，以及考古记录中文化变异性的表现方式。他假设，人类群体的生态位随着快速的气候变化而扩大和缩小。他的生态文化生态位模型方法将使他能够检验这一假设，并量化和解释这种适应性变异性。

0653000BanksThe International Research Fellowship Program enables U.S. scientists and engineers to conduct nine to twenty-four months of research abroad. The program's awards provide opportunities for joint research, and the use of unique or complementary facilities, expertise and experimental conditions abroad.This award will support a twelve-month research fellowship by Dr. William E. Banks to work with Dr. Francesco d'Errico at the University of Bordeaux in France.This project will evaluate the impact of rapid-scale climatic changes (Dansgaard-Oeschger events) on large mammal and human populations during Oxygen Isotope Stages (OIS) 3-2 (ca. 60-10k BP) in Europe. These climatic oscillations had profound impacts on animal and human populations, but hunter-gatherer responses to such changes are poorly understood. The PI will examine their responses to these climatic events with the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-Set Prediction (GARP). GARP is a machine-learning genetic algorithm that creates an ecological niche model for a species representing the environmental conditions in which that species could maintain a population in stasis. He will employ archaeological, geographic, and paleoclimatic data to produce eco-cultural niche models for specific time periods. Preliminary analyses have demonstrated the utility of this approach in modeling eco-cultural niches for human populations of the Last Glacial Maximum. This approach has the capacity to identify the environmental and cultural constraints on prehistoric geography and how cultural variability is expressed in the archaeological record. He hypothesizes that the ecological niches of human groups expanded and contracted in concert with rapid-scale climatic changes. His Eco-Cultural Niche Modeling approach will allow him to test this hypothesis and quantify and interpret such adaptive variability.