Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa

Jessica C. Thompson; David K. Wright; Sarah J. Ivory; Jeong Heon Choi; Sheila Nightingale; Alex Mackay; Flora Schilt; Erik Otárola-Castillo; Julio Mercader; Steven L. Forman; Timothy Pietsch; Andrew S. Cohen; J. Ramón Arrowsmith; Menno Welling; Jacob Davis; Benjamin Schiery; Potiphar Kaliba; Oris Malijani; Margaret W. Blome; Corey A. O'Driscoll; Susan M. Mentzer; Christopher Miller; Seoyoung Heo; Jungyu Choi; Joseph Tembo; Fredrick Mapemba; Davie Simengwa; Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu

doi:10.1126/sciadv.abf9776

Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa

Jessica C. Thompson, David K. Wright, Sarah J. Ivory, Jeong Heon Choi, Sheila Nightingale, Alex Mackay, Flora Schilt, Erik Otárola-Castillo, Julio Mercader, Steven L. Forman, Timothy Pietsch, Andrew S. Cohen, J. Ramón Arrowsmith, Menno Welling, Jacob Davis, Benjamin Schiery, Potiphar Kaliba, Oris Malijani, Margaret W. Blome, Corey A. O'DriscollSusan M. Mentzer, Christopher Miller, Seoyoung Heo, Jungyu Choi, Joseph Tembo, Fredrick Mapemba, Davie Simengwa, Elizabeth Gomani-Chindebvu

Earth and Space Exploration, School of (SESE)

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

36 Scopus citations

Abstract

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.

Original language	English (US)
Article number	eabf9776
Journal	Science Advances
Volume	7
Issue number	19
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf9776
State	Published - May 5 2021

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Thompson, J. C., Wright, D. K., Ivory, S. J., Choi, J. H., Nightingale, S., Mackay, A., Schilt, F., Otárola-Castillo, E., Mercader, J., Forman, S. L., Pietsch, T., Cohen, A. S., Arrowsmith, J. R., Welling, M., Davis, J., Schiery, B., Kaliba, P., Malijani, O., Blome, M. W., ... Gomani-Chindebvu, E. (2021). Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa. Science Advances, 7(19), Article eabf9776. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf9776

Thompson, JC, Wright, DK, Ivory, SJ, Choi, JH, Nightingale, S, Mackay, A, Schilt, F, Otárola-Castillo, E, Mercader, J, Forman, SL, Pietsch, T, Cohen, AS, Arrowsmith, JR, Welling, M, Davis, J, Schiery, B, Kaliba, P, Malijani, O, Blome, MW, O'Driscoll, CA, Mentzer, SM, Miller, C, Heo, S, Choi, J, Tembo, J, Mapemba, F, Simengwa, D & Gomani-Chindebvu, E 2021, 'Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa', Science Advances, vol. 7, no. 19, eabf9776. https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abf9776

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Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa

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