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

这项研究探讨了非洲南海岸开普花卉区的人与环境对现代人类起源时期全球气候重大波动的耦合反应。 它通过一个综合的广泛的跨学科研究，协同知识和科学家从古人类学，行为生态学，植物学，文化人类学，地质学，地理学，海洋生物物理学，海洋学，古海洋学，计算机建模和气候科学。 这项研究在科学上具有重要意义，因为非洲南海岸是现代人类谱系的假设起源地之一，同时也是植物多样性和独特的开普花区的所在地，这是世界上最小的植物王国，也是超级丰富的海洋生态系统。 有人认为，这种多样性的融合缓和了恶劣气候阶段的打击，从而为第一批行为现代人在气候危机期间创造了避难所。 该研究小组将通过为四个气候状态创建开普花卉区的第一个古景观模型来探索人类和生态系统的共同进化：强冰期，中度冰期，中度间冰期和强间冰期。 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如何利用这些不断变化的环境。 这些模型将产生考古学的预期，将与考古数据进行测试。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，该地区的古代气候和环境记录直接影响着生物多样性的演变。 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广泛的范围内与多样性相互作用。 开普花卉区是一个地中海型生态系统，因为是沿海加州，所以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使用同位素变化的景观，以了解过去的生态社区，建立一个系统化的知识，植物，动物和贝类作为食物资源的狩猎采集者和原料来源在开普花卉区，以及产生新的和地理上更广泛的古代气候和环境序列，这将增加对一个地区气候和环境的了解对世界气候系统至关重要。 来自美国和南非的本科生和研究生将前往海外进行实地和实验室体验。 该项目将建立各种国际科学家和大学之间的合作，并在南非日益扩大成为重要的大陆和国际领导角色的时候，在美国和南非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.