TY - JOUR
T1 - Shifts Along a Spectrum
T2 - A Longitudinal Study of the Western Eurasian Realized Climate Niche
AU - Nicholson, Christopher M.
N1 - Funding Information:
I would like to thank Sally Starkey, Laura Niven, Todd Surovell, Charles Egeland, Robert Kelly, Bryan Shuman, Erick Robinson, and Jim Ahern for their valuable input and thoughtful discussions. I thank Rosemary Hatch for her editorial assistance and the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that have improved this study. All errors and omissions are the sole responsibility of the author.
Publisher Copyright:
© Association for Environmental Archaeology 2019.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/10/1
Y1 - 2020/10/1
N2 - Climate niches that modern humans and earlier hominin ancestors occupied have changed dramatically over time, but the extent of those changes has gone largely undocumented. This study investigates the manner in which the realised hominin climate niche has expanded, contracted, or stayed stationary across four time periods (Last Interglacial, Last Glacial Maximum, Mid-Holocene, and 1950–2000) in Western Eurasia. Using spatially gridded general circulation model data and site locations this study examines climate variables from archaeological sites and current Western Eurasian cities to describe both the regional Western Eurasian fundamental and realised climate niches. Changes between the three prehistoric periods and modern-day time period are analysed by calculating each realised niche breadth, overlap, position, and variance. Results indicate that as global temperatures cooled from the Last Interglacial to Last Glacial Maximum, populations expanded their climate niche breadth beyond that of earlier Neanderthal groups, shifting toward regions with less seasonal variation. Conversely, Mid-Holocene humans, who saw the proliferation of both agriculture and population, contracted their realised climate niche space. The contraction and expansion of realised climate niche space illustrates how hominins have evolved the capacity to shift their niche through changes to their subsistence strategy and adaptations to overall climatic conditions.
AB - Climate niches that modern humans and earlier hominin ancestors occupied have changed dramatically over time, but the extent of those changes has gone largely undocumented. This study investigates the manner in which the realised hominin climate niche has expanded, contracted, or stayed stationary across four time periods (Last Interglacial, Last Glacial Maximum, Mid-Holocene, and 1950–2000) in Western Eurasia. Using spatially gridded general circulation model data and site locations this study examines climate variables from archaeological sites and current Western Eurasian cities to describe both the regional Western Eurasian fundamental and realised climate niches. Changes between the three prehistoric periods and modern-day time period are analysed by calculating each realised niche breadth, overlap, position, and variance. Results indicate that as global temperatures cooled from the Last Interglacial to Last Glacial Maximum, populations expanded their climate niche breadth beyond that of earlier Neanderthal groups, shifting toward regions with less seasonal variation. Conversely, Mid-Holocene humans, who saw the proliferation of both agriculture and population, contracted their realised climate niche space. The contraction and expansion of realised climate niche space illustrates how hominins have evolved the capacity to shift their niche through changes to their subsistence strategy and adaptations to overall climatic conditions.
KW - Last Glacial Maximum
KW - Last Interglacial
KW - Paleoclimates
KW - Western Eurasia
KW - fundamental and realised niches
KW - population shifts
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U2 - 10.1080/14614103.2019.1654651
DO - 10.1080/14614103.2019.1654651
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85070968073
SN - 1461-4103
VL - 25
SP - 381
EP - 396
JO - Environmental Archaeology
JF - Environmental Archaeology
IS - 4
ER -