IPG - Developing and Testing an Integrated Paleoscape Model for the early Middle and Late Pleistocene of the South Coast of South Africa

本研究考察了非洲南部海岸开普花卉区人类和环境对现代人类血统起源时期全球气候重大波动的耦合反应。它通过综合广泛的跨学科研究，将古人类学、行为生态学、植物学、文化人类学、地质学、地理学、海洋地球物理学、海洋学、古海洋学、计算机建模和气候科学等方面的知识和科学家协同起来。这项研究具有重要的科学意义，因为非洲南部海岸是现代人类谱系的假设起源地点之一，同时也是植物多样性和独特的开普花卉区，世界上最小的植物王国和超级丰富的海洋生态系统的所在地。有人认为，这种多样性的融合缓和了恶劣气候阶段的打击，从而在气候危机期间为第一批有行为的现代人类创造了避难所。研究团队将首次建立强冰期、中等冰期、中等间冰期和强间冰期四种气候状态的开普花卉区古景观模型，探索人类与生态系统的共同进化。然后，研究人员将使用最先进的计算机模型来模拟狩猎和采集经济的人们如何利用这些变化的环境。这些模型将产生考古学的期望，并将用考古学的数据进行检验。这项研究有许多更广泛的影响。开普花卉区是世界著名的生物多样性热点地区，该地区古老的气候和环境记录直接关系到该地区生物多样性的演变。该项目将大大提高对开普花卉区演变的理解，从而有助于深入了解气候变化如何在大范围内与多样性相互作用。开普花卉区是一个地中海型的生态系统，加利福尼亚沿海也是如此，因此这项工作将进一步了解这些系统如何应对气候变化。经验广泛的影响包括了解如何利用景观中的同位素变化来了解过去的生态群落，建立植物、动物和贝类作为开普花卉区狩猎采集者的食物资源和原材料来源的系统化知识。并产生新的和地理上更广泛的古代气候和环境序列，这将增加对世界气候系统至关重要的地区的气候和环境的理解。来自美国和南非的本科生和研究生将前往海外实地和实验室体验。该项目将在各种国际科学家和大学之间建立合作，并在南非日益扩展为重要的大陆和国际领导角色的时代，在美国和南非的科学家之间建立联系。

This research examines the coupled response of people and the environment in the Cape Floral Region on the south coast of Africa to major fluctuations in global climate during the time of the origins of the modern human lineage. It does so through an integrated widely interdisciplinary study that synergizes knowledge and scientists from paleoanthropology, behavioral ecology, botany, cultural anthropology, geology, geography, marine geophysics, oceanography, paleo-oceanography, computer modeling, and climate science. This research is scientifically important as the south coast of Africa is one of the hypothesized origin locations for the modern human lineage and at the same time is the location for the floristically hyper-diverse and unique Cape Floral Region, the world's smallest floral kingdom, and a super-rich marine ecosystem. It has been argued that this confluence of diversity softened the blow of harsh climate phases and thus created a refuge for the first behaviorally modern humans during climate crises. The research team will explore the co-evolution of people and ecosystem by creating the first paleoscape models of the Cape Floral Region for four climate states: strong glacial, moderate glacial, moderate interglacial, and strong interglacial. The researchers will then use state-of-the-art computer models to simulate how people with hunting and gathering economies would utilize these changing environments. These models will produce archaeological expectations that will be tested with archaeological data.This research has numerous broader impacts. The Cape Floral Region is a world-renowned biodiversity hotspot, and the ancient climate and environment record for this region bears directly on how this biodiversity evolved. The project will significantly improve understanding of the evolution of the Cape Floral Region and thus help provide insight into how climate change interacts with diversity on a broad scale. The Cape Floral Region is a Mediterranean-type ecosystem, as is coastal California, so the work will further understanding of how these systems respond to climate change. Empirical broad impacts include understanding how to use isotopic variation across the landscape to understand past ecological communities, building a systematized knowledge of plants, animals, and shellfish as food resources for hunter-gatherers and sources of raw materials in the Cape Floral Region, and the producing new and geographically wider sequences of ancient climate and environment that will increase understandings of climates and environments in a region crucial to world climate systems. Undergraduate and graduate students from both the US and South Africa will travel overseas for field and laboratory experiences. The project will build collaborations between a variety of international scientists and universities, and create links between scientists of the United States and South Africa during a time when the latter increasingly expands into an important continental and international leadership role.