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

Emily Beverly博士被授予EAR博士后奖学金，在密歇根大学开展研究和教育计划。贝弗利博士将通过使用多种代用物来了解古土壤（古土壤）的地球化学特征，重建东非维多利亚湖地区大约10万至3.3万年前的古环境条件。这些数据将与原位化石和中石器时代的文物一起使用，以深入了解人类是在潮湿还是干燥时期迁出非洲的问题。该教育计划将侧重于让本科生参与研究。此外，贝弗利博士还将继续努力，通过参加密歇根大学的“女性在数学、工程和科学方面更出色”（F.E.M.M.E.S.）项目，鼓励和指导年轻的女性科学家。研究者将为4到6年级的女孩组织一个与这项调查相关的活动，目的是增加她们对STEM领域的兴趣和对她们作为科学家能力的信心。最后，贝弗利博士将与全球学习和观察造福环境项目（GLOBE）合作，鼓励非洲当地学校开展科学教育。一种新的三氧同位素替代方法将与更传统的同位素替代方法和非同位素体积地球化学方法相结合，用于分离蒸发对水平衡的影响。对这些代用物在现代塞伦盖蒂土壤中的互补研究将为古环境解释奠定基础，并允许人类居住景观的干旱重建，以帮助评估长期干旱对人类进化和现代塞伦盖蒂生态系统出现的作用。三氧同位素的加入将提供一种重建蒸发的方法，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，东非的拟议研究将为解释这些地球化学指标提供关键的校准数据，并扩展气候敏感地区的现代土壤数据。

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.