Tropical rainforests are complex and varied environments found around the globe in tropical and subtropical regions. They hold a large biodiversity but also present multiple challenges, both for their human occupations and archaeological studies. In recent decades, we have learned that our ancestors lived in these environments much earlier than we thought and continuously over tens of thousands of years. Using stable isotope analyses, we hope to better understand how hunter-gatherers lived there in the past and if they perhaps gradually started using them differently before the introduction of agriculture.
Tropical rainforests are complex and varied environments found around the globe in tropical and subtropical regions. They hold a large biodiversity but also present multiple challenges, both for their human occupations and archaeological studies. In recent decades, we have learned that our ancestors lived in these environments much earlier than we thought and continuously over tens of thousands of years. Using stable isotope analyses, we hope to better understand how hunter-gatherers lived there in the past and if they perhaps gradually started using them differently before the introduction of agriculture.
Urbanization, forestry, and agriculture are readily associated with contemporary human land use, but how we use the land around us has changed greatly through our species' long history. The availability of food, seasonality, or the concentration of a particularly abundant rich food source are all examples of concerns that prehistoric populations would have faced, all of which would have been managed through land use strategies.
Directly and systematically assessing how past populations utilized their ecosystems, especially as far back as the Pleistocene, remains particularly challenging because pre-urban hunter-gatherer societies may not have left us with large-scale or significant traces. However, such studies are important to identify and assess drivers of long-term land changes and dynamics and to provide baselines for subsequent changes.
Dr. Nicolas Bourgon is carrying out zinc isotope analyses using a multi-collector mass spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma (MC-ICP-MS). The isotope analysis is carried out on fossil tooth enamel samples dissolved in acid from which the element zinc was previously separated using ion chromatography. The results obtained can help us distinguish between diets that rely more heavily on plants or meat, for example.
Dr. Nicolas Bourgon is carrying out zinc isotope analyses using a multi-collector mass spectrometer with inductively coupled plasma (MC-ICP-MS). The isotope analysis is carried out on fossil tooth enamel samples dissolved in acid from which the element zinc was previously separated using ion chromatography. The results obtained can help us distinguish between diets that rely more heavily on plants or meat, for example.
Using a systematic comparison of multi-isotopic data of δ66Zn, δ13C, and δ18O, we seek to quantify hunter-gatherers' dietary reliance on different resource types (e.g., plant, animal, and aquatic). Although the choice of food consumed may not have left visible traces in the landscape or the archeological records, these geochemical tracers can help us explore whether gradual dietary transitions were already underway even before the introduction of agriculture or animal husbandry.
This project is co-funded by an ongoing Walter Benjamin funding program of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, with the project specifically looking into omnivory and how zinc isotopes can help us detect this dietary behaviour. This project is also being conducted in collaboration with the Bundesanstalt für Materialforschung und -prüfung (Berlin, Germany), the University of Sri Jayewardenepura (Gangodawila, Nugegoda, Sri Lanka), and the Australian National University (Canberra, Australia).
This project brings together a unique team of experts in Indigenous knowledge and practice, fire ecology, palaeoecology and ecological modelling from Australia, the United Kingdom and Germany.
The "Dynamics of the Technosphere" project is dedicated to understanding the complex and interconnected systems that constitute the technosphere and their interaction dynamics. By identifying distinct subsystems and measurable proxies for key system parameters and variables, our research aims to elucidate the fundamental relationships that govern the behavior of these systems. Through a combination of empirical data collection, computational modeling, and theoretical analysis, we seek to uncover the core principles driving energy and material fluxes, structural organization, and entropy within the technosphere. Our work will explore the specific mechanisms that couple different subsystems, aiming to provide a comprehensive framework for analyzing the dynamics of this intricate network of subsystems.
Simulations have emerged as a powerful tool for source criticism, offering a novel approach to evaluate and understand historical, scientific, and media sources.
The ERC funded IslandLab project will document long-term legacies and feedbacks between ecological changes, societal responses and ecosystem resilience on the island of Malta.
Anthropogenic climate change is leading to longer, more severe fire seasons in the tropics. These effects are more acute in insular environments, such as the Caribbean islands, resulting in increased costs of fire control, management, and fire-related damages. To develop effective fire management strategies, accurate ecological forecasting of long-term vegetation and fire-response to climate and human-caused disturbance is necessary.
Any response to societal challenges involves policy and behavior changes. To be effective, these need to be data driven and evidence based. Furthermore, all these challenges represent complex or wicked problems that do not have simple, optimization-based solutions. For such cases the Decision Theater provides a platform for the creation and…
Analyzing social tipping dynamics within the context of structural language evolution offers a novel lens through which to understand the mechanisms driving societal change.
Many of the fruits, nuts, and grains on your dinner table once spread across the ancient world along the legendary trade routes that we colloquially refer to as the Silk Road. By studying the plants of the ancient Silk Road, we are studying the history of our food – the greatest artifacts of the ancient Silk Road are in your kitchen.
The Pan-African Evolution project is focused on understanding the early periods of human prehistory, and how early human shaping of the earth had cascading effects down to the present day.
The combined factors of global warming and increased human disturbance in the 21st century are projected to cause an unprecedented increase in fire activity in the Amazon Basin. The increase in recent fire activity is most notable in Amazonian rainforest ecotones (AREs), a naturally occurring vegetation transition zone from fire-averse rainforest to fire-prone savanna vegetation.
