Impact of Holocene land use and climate change upon Brazil's Atlantic Forest biodiversity hotspot

巴西热带大西洋森林（AF）的生物多样性异常丰富，由于几个世纪的森林砍伐，它处于极度濒危状态，其原始森林覆盖面积仅剩不到20%。虽然没有亚马逊河那么出名，但它被列为全球“生物多样性热点”，突显了它在全球的重要性和保护的优先性。自然资源保护主义者面临的一个关键挑战是，面对日益严重的火灾、干旱和森林砍伐，如何在未来最好地维持森林生态系统的功能和生物多样性（Wilson et al. 2019, 2021）。该项目可以通过古生态学与建模相结合，提供对长期恢复力、临界点和环境可持续性的见解，从而帮助解决这一挑战。它主要集中在AF的南部，跨越沿海热带雨林和以“巴拉那松”为主的高地森林。这棵标志性的松树是一种“活化石”，是侏罗纪时期恐龙和近几千年来人类的主要食物来源。这个博士项目的总体目标是确定古代人类社会和气候变化是如何通过全新世（过去12000年）塑造南部AF的生物多样性、土地覆盖和火灾制度的。为了实现这一目标，将采取一种新的跨学科方法：基于实验室分析的沼泽沉积物花粉和木炭化石重建全新世植被和火灾历史2. 基于主体的模型（ABM）量化前哥伦布时期土地利用影响；3. 与现有古气候和考古资料的对比以确定全新世人类-气候-环境关系。

Brazil's tropical Atlantic Forest (AF) is exceptionally biodiverse and critically endangered due to centuries of deforestation, with less than 20% of its original forest cover remaining. Although less famous than its Amazon cousin, its designation as a global 'Biodiversity Hotspot' highlights its global importance and conservation priority. A key challenge for conservationists is how best to maintain AF ecosystem functioning and biodiversity in the future, in the face of increasing fire, drought, and deforestation (Wilson et al. 2019, 2021). This project can help address this challenge by providing insights into long-term resilience, tipping points, and environmental sustainability via palaeoecology coupled with modelling. It focuses on the southern portion of the AF, spanning coastal tropical rainforest and upland forest dominated by 'Parana pine'. This iconic pine is a 'living fossil' which has been a key food source - both for dinosaurs during the Jurassic as well as humans over recent millennia. The overarching aim of this PhD project is to determine how ancient human societies and climate change have shaped the biodiversity, land cover, and fire regime of the southern AF through the Holocene - the last 12,000 years. To achieve this aim, a novel inter-disciplinary approach will be undertaken: 1. Lab-based analysis of fossil pollen and charcoal from bog sediments to reconstruct Holocene vegetation and fire history; 2. Agent-based modelling (ABM) to quantify pre-Columbian land-use impacts; 3. Correlation with existing palaeoclimate and archaeological data to determine Holocene human-climate-environment relationships.