TY - JOUR
T1 - Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa
AU - Thompson, Jessica C.
AU - Wright, David K.
AU - Ivory, Sarah J.
AU - Choi, Jeong-Heon
AU - Nightingale, Sheila
AU - Mackay, Alex
AU - Schilt, Flora
AU - Otárola-Castillo, Erik
AU - Mercader, Julio
AU - Forman, Steven L.
AU - Pietsch, Timothy
AU - Cohen, Andrew S.
AU - Arrowsmith, J. Ramón
AU - Welling, Menno
AU - Davis, Jacob
AU - Schiery, Benjamin
AU - Kaliba, Potiphar
AU - Malijani, Oris
AU - Blome, Margaret W.
AU - O'Driscoll, Corey A.
AU - Mentzer, Susan M.
AU - Miller, Christopher
AU - Heo, Seoyoung
AU - Choi, Jungyu
AU - Tembo, Joseph
AU - Mapemba, Fredrick
AU - Simengwa, Davie
AU - Gomani-Chindebvu, Elizabeth
PY - 2021/5/5
Y1 - 2021/5/5
N2 - Modern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect the origins or early consequences of these behaviors. Archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and paleoenvironmental data from northern Malawi document a changing relationship between forager presence, ecosystem organization, and alluvial fan formation in the Late Pleistocene. Dense concentrations of Middle Stone Age artifacts and alluvial fan systems formed after ca. 92 thousand years ago, within a paleoecological context with no analog in the preceding half-million-year record. Archaeological data and principal coordinates analysis indicate that early anthropogenic fire relaxed seasonal constraints on ignitions, influencing vegetation composition and erosion. This operated in tandem with climate-driven changes in precipitation to culminate in an ecological transition to an early, pre-agricultural anthropogenic landscape.
AB - Modern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect the origins or early consequences of these behaviors. Archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and paleoenvironmental data from northern Malawi document a changing relationship between forager presence, ecosystem organization, and alluvial fan formation in the Late Pleistocene. Dense concentrations of Middle Stone Age artifacts and alluvial fan systems formed after ca. 92 thousand years ago, within a paleoecological context with no analog in the preceding half-million-year record. Archaeological data and principal coordinates analysis indicate that early anthropogenic fire relaxed seasonal constraints on ignitions, influencing vegetation composition and erosion. This operated in tandem with climate-driven changes in precipitation to culminate in an ecological transition to an early, pre-agricultural anthropogenic landscape.
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/85105456642
U2 - 10.1126/sciadv.abf9776
DO - 10.1126/sciadv.abf9776
M3 - Article
SN - 2375-2548
VL - 7
JO - Science advances
JF - Science advances
IS - 19
M1 - eabf9776
ER -