EAR-PF: Mapping the effects of drought on human evolution and East African ecosystems during the late Pleistocene using triple oxygen isotopes and bulk geochemistry in paleosols

艾米丽贝弗利博士已被授予博士后奖学金，在密歇根大学开展研究和教育计划。通过使用多种替代物了解古代土壤（古土壤）的地球化学特征，贝弗利博士将重建东非维多利亚湖地区约10万至3.3万年前的古环境条件。这些数据将与原地化石和中石器时代文物一起使用，以深入了解人类是否在潮湿或干燥时期迁移出非洲。教育计划将侧重于让本科生参与研究。此外，贝弗利博士将继续努力，鼓励和指导年轻的女科学家参加女性更擅长数学，工程和科学（F.E.M.M.E.S.）密歇根大学的一个项目。调查员将组织一个与这项调查有关的活动，为4至6年级的女孩提供帮助，目的是增加对STEM领域的兴奋感，并对他们作为科学家的能力充满信心。最后，Beverly博士将与全球学习和观察造福环境（地球仪）计划合作，鼓励非洲当地学校的科学教育。将使用新的三重氧同位素替代物，结合更传统的同位素替代物来隔离蒸发对水平衡的影响。和非同位素整体地球化学方法。这些代理人在现代塞伦盖蒂土壤的补充研究将锚的古环境的解释，并允许重建干旱的景观被人类占据，以帮助评估长期干旱对人类进化的作用和现代塞伦盖蒂生态系统的出现。三重氧同位素代用指标的增加将提供一种重建蒸发的手段，并将扩大从古土壤中提取古环境和古气候数据的能力。此外，拟议在东非进行的研究将为解释这些地球化学代用指标提供关键的校准数据，并扩大气候敏感地区现有的现代土壤数据。

Dr. Emily Beverly has been granted an EAR Postdoctoral Fellowship to carry out research and education plans at the University of Michigan. Using geochemical characteristics of ancient soils (paleosols) understood through the use of multiple proxies, Dr. Beverly will reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions in the Lake Victoria region in East Africa from about 100,000 to 33,000 years ago. This data will be used with in situ fossils and Middle Stone Age artifacts to bring insights to the question of whether humans migrated out of Africa during a wet or dry period. The education plan will focus on engaging undergraduate students in research. In addition, Dr. Beverly will continue her efforts to encourage and mentor young female scientists by participating in the Females Excelling More in Math, Engineering, and the Sciences (F.E.M.M.E.S.) program at the University of Michigan. The investigator will organize an event related to this investigation for girls in 4th through 6th grade with the goal of increasing excitement about the STEM fields and confidence in their abilities as scientists. Lastly, Dr. Beverly will partner with the Global Learning and Observations to Benefit the Environment (GLOBE) Program to encourage science education in local African schools.A new triple oxygen isotope proxy will be used to isolate the influence of evaporation in the water balance in combination with more traditional isotopic proxies and non-isotopic bulk geochemical methods. Complimentary studies of these proxies in modern Serengeti soils will anchor the paleoenvironmental interpretations and allow for the reconstruction of aridity for landscapes occupied by humans to help evaluate the role of long-term drought on human evolution and the emergence of the modern Serengeti Ecosystem. The addition of the triple oxygen isotope proxy will provide a means to reconstruct evaporation and will expand the ability to extract paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data from paleosols. In addition, the proposed study in East Africa will provide key calibration data for interpreting these geochemical proxies and expand modern soil data available in a climate sensitive region.