Proposed Workshop: "African Climate Change and Human Evolution"

拟议研讨会：“非洲气候变化与人类进化”

• 批准号: 1251788
• 负责人: Peter DeMenocal
• 金额: $ 2万
• 依托单位: Columbia University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2012
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2012-09-01 至 2013-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1251788&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Proposed; Workshop; African; Climate; Change

ABSTRACTThis proposal supports a two day workshop to investigate new lines of inquiry into the question ?Did African climate change shape human evolution?? Eighteen world experts in this discipline were assembled at Lamont in April 2012 to clarify the boundary conditions of the question and where advances can be made. The question carries with it some specific and novel lines of investigation so a workshop format would invite the most productive opportunity to advance this question. The meeting focused on Pliocene-Pleistocene East African climate trends, their variability, and evidence for evolutionary and adaptive changes in African mammalian taxa. The recent NSF funded NRC report on ?Understanding Climate?s Influence on Human Evolution? recommends ?a new level of integration of disciplines and training of scholars in ways that motivate the growth of a richly collaborative enterprise.? This workshop enabled these collaborations by gathering specialists from diverse disciplines with the expressed purpose of developing a research path forward to tackle this first order problem.

摘要该提案支持一个为期两天的研讨会，以研究对问题的新探究路线。非洲的气候变化影响了人类的进化吗？2012年4月，该学科的18位世界专家聚集在拉蒙特，以澄清该问题的边界条件和可以取得进展的地方。这个问题带有一些具体和新颖的调查路线，因此研讨会形式将邀请最有成效的机会来推进这个问题。会议的重点是上新世-更新世东非气候趋势、它们的可变性，以及非洲哺乳动物类群进化和适应变化的证据。最近NSF资助的NRC关于？理解气候?对人类进化的影响？建议吗?学科整合和学者培训达到一个新的水平，以促进一个富有协作性的企业的发展。这次研讨会聚集了来自不同学科的专家，旨在为解决这一一级问题开辟一条研究道路，从而实现了这些合作。