Mapping Ancient Africa: INQUA Rome session (updated)

July 16, 2023
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Mapping Ancient Africa participants at the INQUA Rome ice breaker event ready for action! Left to right: Bahru Zinaye Asegahegn, Alfred Houngnon, Busisiwe Hlophe.

The Mapping Ancient Africa (MAA) project has a double session of talks and a poster session at the INQUA congress in Rome 2023. Our session will be on Wednesday 19 July. Unfortunately a number of the originally planned speakers could not make it to Rome due to a combination of not obtaining visas, logistical challenges and ill health. We wish them all well and hope that they will continue to be involved in the project. Further, many thanks to all those who have agreed to step up and give a presentation at a late notice. Below is an updated schedule correct as of Sunday 16 July based on the information contained on the INQUA Rome App; if you are aware of any further problems or changes please let me know ASAP!

If you are at the INQUA Rome congress please come along to our talks and posters in Session 64: Mapping Ancient Africa: Climate, Vegetation & Humans.

Part 1: 08:30-11:00

  • Giosan et al. When the desert was a lake: Providing context for Homo sapiens development in the northern Kalahari
  • Chase et al. Paleolakes and socioecological implications of glacial “greening” of the South African interior
  • Blinkhorn et al. Evaluating refugia in recent human evolution in Africa
  • Aureli et al. Homo sapiens behaviour and adaptation in East Africa. New evidence from an open-air site in a modern Ethiopian savannah environment: the GOT10 site
  • Effiom et al. Late Holocene palaeoecological studies at Lake St Lucia, KwaZulu-Natal
  • Tallavaara et al. Pan-African Climate and Vegetation over the Quaternary and Implications for Human Distribution
  • Quick et al. Palaeoenvironments of the Cape Floristic Region: New research & current developments

Part 2: 11:00-13:00

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Warming, drought, and disturbances lead to shifts in functional composition

June 20, 2023
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Open access:

van der Sande, M.T., Bush, M.B., Åkesson, C.M., Berrio, J.C., Correia Metrio, A., Flantua, S.G.A., Hooghiemstra, H., Maezumi, S.Y., McMichael, C.N.H., Montoya, E., Mosblech, N.A.S., de Novaes Nascimento, M., Peña-Claros, M., Poorter, L., Raczka, M.F. & Gosling, W.D. (2023) Warming, drought, and disturbances lead to shifts in functional composition: A millennial-scale analysis for Amazonian and Andean sites. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16818

Influences of sea level changes and volcanic eruptions on Holocene vegetation in Tonga

June 8, 2023
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Open access:

Strandberg, N.A., Edwards, M., Ellison, J.C., Steinbauer, M.J., Walentowitz, A., Fall, P.L., Sear, D., Langdon, P., Cronin, S., Castilla-Beltrán, A., Croudace, I.W., Prebble, M., Gosling, W.D. & Nogué, S. (2023) Influences of sea level changes and volcanic eruptions on Holocene vegetation in Tonga. Biotropica. DOI: 10.1111/btp.13231

Mapping Ancient Africa: Video of seminar 11

March 28, 2023
WDG

The 11th Mapping Ancient Africa seminar took place on Thursday 16 March (2023). The seminar was delivered by Hannah Keller (Yale University) and highlighted her ongoing research into ostrich egg shells and environmental change she is undertaking as part of the “Malawi Ancient Lifeways and Peoples” project.

Details of this seminar can be found here. You can find more Mapping Ancient Africa seminar videos on the “Ecology of the Past” YouTube channel.

To find out more and keep up to date with new insights from this research visit the project web sit here.

INQUAlogo

Island ecosystem responses to the Kuwae eruption and precipitation change over the last 1600 years, Efate, Vanuatu

March 1, 2023
WDG

Open access:

Strandberg, N.A., Sear, D.A., Langdon, P.G., Cronin, S.J., Langdon, C., Maloney, A., Bateman, S., Bishop, T., Croudace, I., Leng, M., Sachs, J.P., Prebble, M., Gosling, W.D., Edwards, M. & Nogue, S. (2023) Island ecosystem responses to the Kuwae eruption and precipitation change over the last 1600 years, Efate, Vanuatu. Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 11, 1087577. DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2023.1087577

Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest

February 23, 2023
WDG

Open access:

McMichael, C.N.H., Vink, V., Heijink, B.M., Witteveen, N.H., Piperno, D.R., Gosling, W.D. & Bush, M.B. (2023) Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest. Plants, People, Planet 5, 281-291. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10344

The Ecology of the Past: Inagueral lecture

January 12, 2023
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William Gosling giving his oratie “The Ecology of the Past” at the Aula (University of Amsterdam), 22 December 2022.

On the 22 December I gave my oratie (inaugural lecture), entitled “The Ecology of the Past”, related to my appointment as Professor of Palaeoecology & Biogeography at the University of Amsterdam. I really enjoyed the opportunity to mark this personal milestone with some many colleagues, friends and family. In case you missed the event you can watch it online via the universities portal by clicking here (or on the photo).

Note: (1) to flip between seeing the slides and the video feed just click on the screen, (2) running time of lecture until 50 minutes.

Reference

Gosling, W.D. (2022) The Ecology of the Past
Inaugural speech, University of Amsterdam.

Long-term fire and vegetation change in northwestern Amazonia

December 6, 2022
WDG

Open access:

Heijink, B.M., Mattijs, Q.A., Valencia, R., Philip, A.L., Piperno, D.R. & McMichael, C.N.H. (2022) Long-term fire and vegetation change in northwestern Amazonia. Biotropica DOI: 10.1111/btp.13175

Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest

November 22, 2022
WDG

Open access:

McMichael, C.N.H., Vink, V., Heijink, B.M., Witteveen, N.H., Piperno, D.R., Gosling, W.D. & Bush, M.B. (2022) Ecological legacies of past fire and human activity in a Panamanian forest. Plants, People, Planet. DOI: 10.1002/ppp3.10344

A stronger role for long-term moisture change than for CO2 in determining tropical woody vegetation change

May 5, 2022
WDG

Gosling, W.D., Miller, C.S., Shanahan, T.M., Holden, P.B., Overpeck, J.T. & van Langevelde, F. (2022) A stronger role for long-term moisture change than for CO2 in determining tropical woody vegetation change. Science 376, 653-656. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abg4618

To access this article FREE through the Science author referral service click here.

For more on the palaeoecological dataset underpinning this research check out the PhD thesis of Charlotte Miller by clicking here or here.

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