Investigating the early human settlement of Iceland with ancient soil DNA

该项目旨在确定是否可以通过分析土壤中的古代(数百年)DNA(ADNA)来检测和描述冰岛早期的人类聚居地。冰岛是人与环境相互作用的重要模式系统，但人类定居的时间和生态影响存在争议：土壤中的aDNA为解决这些问题提供了一种新的方法。为了概括冰岛的经验，我们需要了解人类第一次定居冰岛的时间，以及这一事件是否早于目前接受的公元874年(冰岛语中的Landnám)。我们还需要了解在定居点的早期阶段将人口数量扩大到高度的空间和时间分辨率对生态的影响。最后，为了从土壤aDNA重建生态变化，我们需要了解土壤中DNA的流动性和持久性。为了确定是否可以通过土壤中的aDNA分析来探测和描述冰岛早期人类聚居地，我们将1)分析冰岛三个考古遗址的土壤aDNA，2)追踪实验应用的外来DNA的命运。为了解决人类第一次在冰岛定居的时间，我们将分析来自兰德南之前土壤的DNA，目标是那些只能与人类一起到达冰岛的分类群。为了评估在定居点早期阶段扩大的人口对生态的影响，我们将在兰德纳姆之后立即分析土壤中的aDNA，并将我们的推论与来自可靠的代理的推论进行比较。为了研究DNA在土壤中的迁移性和持久性，我们将使用现代的外来DNA来测试地块，并在六个月的时间里反复测试它在不同土壤深度的存在和丰度。总体而言，该项目将解决冰岛早期人类殖民的长期问题，并测试一项具有巨大潜力的全新世古环境重建的创新技术。

This project aims to establish if early human settlement of Iceland can be detected and described through the analysis of ancient (centuries-old) DNA (aDNA) in soil. Iceland is an important model system for human-environment interactions, but the timing and ecological impacts of human settlement are contested: aDNA in soil offers a novel approach to these problems. To generalise the Icelandic experience, we need to understand when humans first settled Iceland and if this event was earlier than the currently accepted date of 874 CE (Landnám in Icelandic). We also need to understand the ecological impact of expanding human populations in the early phases of settlement to a high degree of spatial and temporal resolution. Finally, to reconstruct ecological change from soil aDNA, we need to understand the mobility and longevity of DNA in the soil.To establish if early human settlement of Iceland can be detected and described through the analysis of aDNA in soil, we will 1) analyse soil aDNA from three archaeological sites in Iceland and 2) track the fate of experimentally applied exotic DNA. To address when humans first settled Iceland, we will analyse aDNA from pre-Landnám soils, targeting taxa that can only have arrived in Iceland with humans. To assess the ecological impact of expanding human populations in the early phases of settlement, we will analyse aDNA from soils immediately post-Landnám, comparing our inferences with those derived from well-established proxies. To investigate the mobility and longevity of DNA in the soil, we will apply modern, exotic DNA to test plots and, over a period of six months, repeatedly test for its presence and abundance at different soil depths.Overall, the project will address long-standing questions about the early human colonisation of Iceland and the test an innovative technique with huge potential for Holocene palaeoenvironmental reconstruction.