University of Wollongong
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Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa

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journal contribution
posted on 2025-04-01, 03:55 authored by JC Thompson, DK Wright, SJ Ivory, JH Choi, S Nightingale, Alexander MackayAlexander Mackay, F Schilt, E Otárola-Castillo, J Mercader, SL Forman, T Pietsch, AS Cohen, JR Arrowsmith, M Welling, J Davis, B Schiery, P Kaliba, O Malijani, MW Blome, Corey O'Driscoll, SM Mentzer, C Miller, S Heo, J Choi, J Tembo, F Mapemba, D Simengwa, E Gomani-Chindebvu
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.

Funding

Australian Research Council Discovery Project | DP110101305

History

Journal title

Science Advances

Volume

7

Issue

19

Article/chapter number

ARTN eabf9776

Total pages

13

Publisher

AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE

Location

United States

Publication status

  • Published

Language

English

Associated Identifiers

grant.3065916 (dimensions-grant-id); grant.7573050 (dimensions-grant-id); grant.3570383 (dimensions-grant-id); grant.8522217 (dimensions-grant-id)