Geological and Paleoanthropological Data Harmonization Workshop

当一个项目或地点的研究结果可以与其他相关研究地点的数据进行比较时，它们通常对潜在现象提供更多的信息。为了有意义，这种比较可能需要共享的词汇，方法和数据格式，以及跨研究小组的合作。这个基于实地的研讨会将汇集地质学家和古人类学家，讨论最佳实践和协议，用于比较研究地点的数据，使用埃塞俄比亚阿瓦什盆地的几个上新世和早更新世人类化石地点。研讨会还将为未来跨越单个项目边界的合作项目产生新的研究问题。参与者将包括研究生，早期职业科学家，国际学者和STEM学科代表性不足的群体。该研讨会的一个组成部分将有助于NSF支持的PaleoCore项目，帮助综合和标准化地质测绘数据，并创建一个可供任何其他地质项目使用的模板。该奖项由国际科学与工程办公室共同资助。人类起源和进化研究的一个主要障碍是，实地研究往往在空间有限的项目区域内进行。这些项目区域的边界很少基于更广泛的生态或地质限制，这些限制阻碍了总体研究问题的形成，这些问题对于理解人类进化及其在更大时空尺度上的背景至关重要。对于地质学家来说，进行区域间和区域内的比较可能具有挑战性，因为他们并不总是直接了解来自相邻研究项目区域边界的信息，而这些边界上的露头是连续的。因此，研究人员没有有效和全面地解决更广泛的区域规模的研究问题。本次研讨会反映了这样一种想法，即通过更好的沟通、协作和透明的数据共享，可以在理解人类进化的地质背景方面取得实质性进展。在阿瓦什河谷下游没有一个地点/研究项目保存完整和连续的上新世和早更新世沉积物序列。然而，当它们结合在一起时，它们在复杂的裂谷环境中包含了令人印象深刻的早期人类栖息地的时空覆盖。有巨大的潜力，使用这些项目领域的综合记录，以评估裂谷如何演变，并探讨气候，构造，人类进化和古生态学之间的相互作用在阿法尔。讲习班还将产生一份报告，讨论在不同但相关的研究地点规划和开展研究的最佳做法。

Research findings from one project or site are usually more informative about underlying phenomena when they can be compared with data from other relevant research sites. To be meaningful, such comparisons may require shared vocabulary, methods, and data formats, in addition to collaboration across research groups. This field-based workshop will bring together geologists and paleoanthropologists to discuss best practices and protocols for comparing data across research sites, using several Pliocene and early Pleistocene hominin fossil locations in the Awash basin of Ethiopia. The workshop will also generate new research questions for future collaborative projects that span beyond individual project boundaries. Participants will include graduate students, early career scientists, international scholars, and groups underrepresented in STEM disciplines. A component of this workshop will contribute to the NSF-supported PaleoCore project by helping to synthesize and standardize geological mapping data and creating a template that can be used by any other geological project. This award is co-funded by the Office of International Science and Engineering.A major impediment to the study of human origins and evolution has been that field studies are often conducted within the bounds of spatially restricted project areas. These project area boundaries are rarely based on broader ecological or geological constraints, and these limitations impede the formulation of overarching research questions that are critical for understanding hominin evolution and its context over larger scales of time and space. For geologists, conducting inter- and intraregional comparisons can be challenging as they do not always have direct knowledge of information from adjacent research project areas boundaries across which outcrops are contiguous. As a result, researchers have not effectively and comprehensively addressed broader regional-scale research questions. This workshop reflects the idea that substantial progress could be made in understanding the geological context of human evolution through better communication, collaborative work, and transparent data sharing. No one location/research project in the lower Awash River valley preserves a complete and continuous sequence of Pliocene and early Pleistocene sediments. When combined, however, they encompass an impressive temporal and spatial coverage of early hominin habitats within a complex rifting environment. There is tremendous potential to use the combined record from these project areas to evaluate how rifting has evolved and to explore the interplay between climate, tectonics, hominin evolution, and paleoecology in the Afar. The workshop will also result in a report that discusses best practices for planning and conducting research across separate but related research sites.