Collaborative Research: Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arctic-like Environments across the Pleistocene-Holocene Transition

在整个人类历史上，气候变化一直影响着人类和社会。该项目调查了人类行为是如何受到极端气候变化事件的影响的，特别是在上一个冰期过渡到当前的间冰期（即全新世）时发生的大规模突然变暖。该项目将重点关注新英格兰北部的人类和气候，在那里，气候变暖推动了从苔原植被到森林环境的快速转变。了解新英格兰北部的气候和生态系统是如何随着时间和空间的变化而变化的，因为它从开放的苔原过渡，将提供一个有价值的视角来研究现代北极地区在树线及以上地区如何随着预测的未来变暖而变化。该项目将导致对人类长期历史的新理解，包括对快速气候和环境变化的适应。这些信息将通过纪录片、新闻文章以及当地和土著社区、K-12教师和高中学生参与研究活动的方式传递给更广泛的受众。在新英格兰北部，大约11700年前的新仙女木期（YD）结束的标志是迅速变暖，从开放的苔原和云杉公园环境（一种与今天北极部分地区非常相似的环境）过渡到封闭的冠层森林。人类的生计也发生了变化，但这些变化的细节却没有得到很好的解决。结合考古学、古湖泊学和古生态学的方法，这次合作将确定在YD末，新英格兰北部由变暖驱动的环境变化（如造林）在多大程度上对应于人类的适应性反应，如假设的流动性减少和区域人口减少。研究人员将量化过去的温度变化，并利用湖泊沉积物重建古环境条件，重点是昆虫（chironomid）和花粉分析。他们将开发出高分辨率的年表，用于研究yd时代的槽点时期和全新世早期的古印度晚期石器工业。然后，他们将把这些年代久远的记录结合起来，评估气候、植被、人类流动性、定居模式和技术变化的相对时间。项目成果将与研究地点附近的居民和更广泛的受众共享，该项目将培训研究机构的地球科学、新闻学和纪录片专业的学生。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Climate change has influenced people and societies throughout human history. This project investigates how human behavior was influenced by an extreme climate change event, specifically the large and abrupt warming that occurred when the last ice age transitioned to the current interglacial period, known as the Holocene Epoch. This project will focus on humans and climate in northern New England, where the warming drove a rapid transition from tundra vegetation to a forested environment. Understanding how climate and ecosystems changed over time and space in northern New England, as it transitioned from open tundra, will provide a valuable perspective into how modern Arctic areas at and above treeline may change with projected future warming. The project will result in a new understanding of long-term human history, including adaptations to rapid climate and environmental changes. This information will be conveyed to a broader audience through documentary films, news articles and the involvement of local and Indigenous communities, K-12 teachers, and high school students in research activities.In northern New England, the end of the Younger Dryas (YD) ∼11,700 years ago was marked by rapid warming and the transition from open tundra and spruce parkland environments – an environment that is closely analogous to parts of the Arctic today - to closed canopy forest. Human livelihoods also transformed, but the details of these changes are poorly resolved. Combining methods from archeology, paleolimnology and paleoecology, this collaboration will determine the extent to which warming-driven environmental changes (e.g., afforestation) in northern New England at the end of the YD corresponded to human adaptive responses, such as hypothesized reduced mobility and regional depopulation. The researchers will quantify past temperature changes and reconstruct paleoenvironmental conditions using lake sediments, with a focus on insect (chironomid) and pollen analyses. They will develop high-resolution chronologies for the YD-age Fluted-Point-Period and early Holocene-age Late Paleoindian Period stone tool industries. They will then combine these well-dated records to evaluate the relative timings of changes in climate, vegetation and human mobility, settlement patterns and technology. Project results will be shared with residents near study sites and broader audiences, and this project will train geoscience, journalism, and documentary film students at the researchers’ institutions.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.