@article{TrauthFoersterJungingeretal.2018, author = {Trauth, Martin H. and Foerster, Verena and Junginger, Annett and Asrat, Asfawossen and Lamb, Henry F. and Sch{\"a}bitz, Frank}, title = {Abrupt or gradual?}, series = {Quaternary research : an interdisciplinary journal}, volume = {90}, journal = {Quaternary research : an interdisciplinary journal}, number = {2}, publisher = {Cambridge Univ. Press}, address = {New York}, issn = {0033-5894}, doi = {10.1017/qua.2018.30}, pages = {321 -- 330}, year = {2018}, abstract = {We used a change point analysis on a late Pleistocene-Holocene lake-sediment record from the Chew Bahir basin in the southern Ethiopian Rift to determine the amplitude and duration of past climate transitions. The most dramatic changes occurred over 240 yr (from similar to 15,700 to 15,460 yr) during the onset of the African Humid Period (AHP), and over 990 yr (from similar to 4875 to 3885 yr) during its protracted termination. The AHP was interrupted by a distinct dry period coinciding with the high-latitude Younger Dryas stadial, which had an abrupt onset (less than similar to 100 yr) at similar to 13,260 yr and lasted until similar to 11,730 yr. Wet-dry-wet transitions prior to the AHP may reflect the high-latitude Dansgaard-Oeschger cycles, as indicated by cross-correlation of the potassium record with the NorthGRIP ice core record between similar to 45-20 ka. These findings may contribute to the debates regarding the amplitude, and duration and mechanisms of past climate transitions, and their possible influence on the development of early modern human cultures.}, language = {en} } @article{TrauthBergnerFoersteretal.2015, author = {Trauth, Martin H. and Bergner, Andreas G. N. and Foerster, Verena and Junginger, Annett and Maslin, Mark A. and Sch{\"a}bitz, Frank}, title = {Episodes of environmental stability versus instability in Late Cenozoic lake records of Eastern Africa}, series = {Journal of human evolution}, volume = {87}, journal = {Journal of human evolution}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {London}, issn = {0047-2484}, doi = {10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.011}, pages = {21 -- 31}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Episodes of environmental stability and instability may be equally important for African hominin speciation, dispersal, and cultural innovation. Three examples of a change from stable to unstable environmental conditions are presented on three different time scales: (1) the Mid Holocene (MH) wet dry transition in the Chew Bahir basin (Southern Ethiopian Rift; between 11 ka and 4 ka), (2) the MIS 5-4 transition in the Naivasha basin (Central Kenya Rift; between 160 ka and 50 ka), and (3) the Early Mid Pleistocene Transition (EMPT) in the Olorgesailie basin (Southern Kenya Rift; between 1.25 Ma and 0.4 Ma). A probabilistic age modeling technique is used to determine the timing of these transitions, taking into account possible abrupt changes in the sedimentation rate including episodes of no deposition (hiatuses). Interestingly, the stable-unstable conditions identified in the three records are always associated with an orbitally-induced decrease of insolation: the descending portion of the 800 kyr cycle during the EMPT, declining eccentricity after the 115 ka maximum at the MIS 5-4 transition, and after similar to 10 ka. This observation contributes to an evidence-based discussion of the possible mechanisms causing the switching between environmental stability and instability in Eastern Africa at three different orbital time scales (10,000 to 1,000,000 years) during the Cenozoic. This in turn may lead to great insights into the environmental changes occurring at the same time as hominin speciation, brain expansion, dispersal out of Africa, and cultural innovations and may provide key evidence to build new hypotheses regarding the causes of early human evolution. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterVogelsangJungingeretal.2015, author = {Foerster, Verena and Vogelsang, Ralf and Junginger, Annett and Asrat, Asfawossen and Lamb, Henry F. and Sch{\"a}bitz, Frank and Trauth, Martin H.}, title = {Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years}, series = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, volume = {129}, journal = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0277-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.quascirev.2015.10.026}, pages = {333 -- 340}, year = {2015}, abstract = {Our understanding of the impact of climate-driven environmental change on prehistoric human populations is hampered by the scarcity of continuous paleoenvironmental records in the vicinity of archaeological sites. Here we compare a continuous paleoclimatic record of the last 20 ka before present from the Chew Bahir basin, southwest Ethiopia, with the available archaeological record of human presence in the region. The correlation of this record with orbitally-driven insolation variations suggests a complex nonlinear response of the environment to climate forcing, reflected in several long-term and short-term transitions between wet and dry conditions, resulting in abrupt changes between favorable and unfavorable living conditions for humans. Correlating the archaeological record in the surrounding region of the Chew Bahir basin, presumably including montane and lake-marginal refugia for human populations, with our climate record suggests a complex interplay between humans and their environment during the last 20 ka. The result may contribute to our understanding of how a dynamic environment may have impacted the adaptation and dispersal of early humans in eastern Africa. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.}, language = {en} } @misc{FoersterVogelsangJungingeretal.2016, author = {Foerster, Verena and Vogelsang, Ralf and Junginger, Annett and Asrat, Asfawossen and Lamb, Henry F. and Sch{\"a}bitz, Frank and Trauth, Martin H.}, title = {Reply to the comment on "Environmental change and human occupation of southern Ethiopia and northern Kenya during the last 20,000 years. Quaternary Science Reviews 129: 333-340"}, series = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, volume = {141}, journal = {Quaternary science reviews : the international multidisciplinary research and review journal}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Oxford}, issn = {0277-3791}, doi = {10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.04.003}, pages = {130 -- 133}, year = {2016}, language = {en} } @misc{CohenCampisanoArrowsmithetal.2016, author = {Cohen, Abby and Campisano, Christopher and Arrowsmith, J. Ramon and Asrat, Asfawossen and Behrensmeyer, A. K. and Deino, A. and Feibel, C. and Hill, A. and Johnson, R. and Kingston, J. and Lamb, Henry F. and Lowenstein, T. and Noren, A. and Olago, D. and Owen, Richard Bernhart and Potts, R. and Reed, Kate and Renaut, R. and Sch{\"a}bitz, F. and Tiercelin, J.-J. and Trauth, Martin H. and Wynn, J. and Ivory, S. and Brady, K. and O'Grady, R. and Rodysill, J. and Githiri, J. and Russell, Joellen and Foerster, Verena and Dommain, Ren{\´e} and Rucina, J. S. and Deocampo, D. and Russell, J. and Billingsley, A. and Beck, C. and Dorenbeck, G. and Dullo, L. and Feary, D. and Garello, D. and Gromig, R. and Johnson, T. and Junginger, Annett and Karanja, M. and Kimburi, E. and Mbuthia, A. and McCartney, Tannis and McNulty, E. and Muiruri, V. and Nambiro, E. and Negash, E. W. and Njagi, D. and Wilson, J. N. and Rabideaux, N. and Raub, Timothy and Sier, Mark Jan and Smith, P. and Urban, J. and Warren, M. and Yadeta, M. and Yost, Chad and Zinaye, B.}, title = {The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project}, series = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, journal = {Postprints der Universit{\"a}t Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe}, number = {611}, doi = {10.25932/publishup-41249}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412498}, pages = {16}, year = {2016}, abstract = {The role that climate and environmental history may have played in influencing human evolution has been the focus of considerable interest and controversy among paleoanthropologists for decades. Prior attempts to understand the environmental history side of this equation have centered around the study of outcrop sediments and fossils adjacent to where fossil hominins (ancestors or close relatives of modern humans) are found, or from the study of deep sea drill cores. However, outcrop sediments are often highly weathered and thus are unsuitable for some types of paleoclimatic records, and deep sea core records come from long distances away from the actual fossil and stone tool remains. The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) was developed to address these issues. The project has focused its efforts on the eastern African Rift Valley, where much of the evidence for early hominins has been recovered. We have collected about 2 km of sediment drill core from six basins in Kenya and Ethiopia, in lake deposits immediately adjacent to important fossil hominin and archaeological sites. Collectively these cores cover in time many of the key transitions and critical intervals in human evolutionary history over the last 4 Ma, such as the earliest stone tools, the origin of our own genus Homo, and the earliest anatomically modern Homo sapiens. Here we document the initial field, physical property, and core description results of the 2012-2014 HSPDP coring campaign.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterDeocampoAsratetal.2018, author = {Foerster, Verena and Deocampo, Daniel M. and Asrat, Asfawossen and G{\"u}nter, Christina and Junginger, Annett and Kr{\"a}mer, Kai Hauke and Stroncik, Nicole A. and Trauth, Martin H.}, title = {Towards an understanding of climate proxy formation in the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopian Rift}, series = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences}, volume = {501}, journal = {Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences}, publisher = {Elsevier}, address = {Amsterdam}, issn = {0031-0182}, doi = {10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.04.009}, pages = {111 -- 123}, year = {2018}, abstract = {Deciphering paleoclimate from lake sediments is a challenge due to the complex relationship between climate parameters and sediment composition. Here we show the links between potassium (K) concentrations in the sediments of the Chew Bahir basin in the Southern Ethiopian Rift and fluctuations in the catchment precipitation/evaporation balance. Our micro-X-ray fluorescence and X-ray diffraction results suggest that the most likely process linking climate with potassium concentrations is the authigenic illitization of smectites during episodes of higher alkalinity and salinity in the closed -basin lake, due to a drier climate. Whole-rock and clay size fraction analyses suggest that illitization of the Chew Bahir clay minerals with increasing evaporation is enhanced by octahedral Al-to-Mg substitution in the clay minerals, with the resulting layer charge increase facilitating potassium-fixation. Linking mineralogy with geochemistry shows the links between hydroclimatic control, process and formation of the Chew Bahir K patterns, in the context of well-known and widely documented eastern African climate fluctuations over the last 45,000 years. These results indicate characteristic mineral alteration patterns associated with orbitally controlled wet-dry cycles such as the African Humid Period (similar to 15-5 ka) or high-latitude controlled climate events such as the Younger Dryas (similar to 12.8-11.6 ka) chronozone. Determining the impact of authigenic mineral alteration on the Chew Bahir records enables the interpretation of the previously established pXRF-derived aridity proxy K and provides a better paleohydrological understanding of complex climate proxy formation.}, language = {en} } @article{FoersterAsratRamseyetal.2022, author = {Foerster, Verena and Asrat, Asfawossen and Ramsey, Christopher Bronk and Brown, Erik T. and Chapot, Melissa S. and Deino, Alan and D{\"u}sing, Walter and Grove, Matthew and Hahn, Annette and Junginger, Annett and Kaboth-Bahr, Stefanie and Lane, Christine S. and Opitz, Stephan and Noren, Anders and Roberts, Helen M. and Stockhecke, Mona and Tiedemann, Ralph and Vidal, Celine M. and Vogelsang, Ralf and Cohen, Andrew S. and Lamb, Henry F. and Schaebitz, Frank and Trauth, Martin H.}, title = {Pleistocene climate variability in eastern Africa influenced hominin evolution}, series = {Nature geoscience}, volume = {15}, journal = {Nature geoscience}, number = {10}, publisher = {Nature Publ. Group}, address = {London}, issn = {1752-0894}, doi = {10.1038/s41561-022-01032-y}, pages = {805 -- 811}, year = {2022}, abstract = {Despite more than half a century of hominin fossil discoveries in eastern Africa, the regional environmental context of hominin evolution and dispersal is not well established due to the lack of continuous palaeoenvironmental records from one of the proven habitats of early human populations, particularly for the Pleistocene epoch. Here we present a 620,000-year environmental record from Chew Bahir, southern Ethiopia, which is proximal to key fossil sites. Our record documents the potential influence of different episodes of climatic variability on hominin biological and cultural transformation. The appearance of high anatomical diversity in hominin groups coincides with long-lasting and relatively stable humid conditions from similar to 620,000 to 275,000 years bp (episodes 1-6), interrupted by several abrupt and extreme hydroclimate perturbations. A pattern of pronounced climatic cyclicity transformed habitats during episodes 7-9 (similar to 275,000-60,000 years bp), a crucial phase encompassing the gradual transition from Acheulean to Middle Stone Age technologies, the emergence of Homo sapiens in eastern Africa and key human social and cultural innovations. Those accumulative innovations plus the alignment of humid pulses between northeastern Africa and the eastern Mediterranean during high-frequency climate oscillations of episodes 10-12 (similar to 60,000-10,000 years bp) could have facilitated the global dispersal of H. sapiens.}, language = {en} }