TY - GEN A1 - Cohen, Abby A1 - Campisano, Christopher A1 - Arrowsmith, J. Ramon A1 - Asrat, Asfawossen A1 - Behrensmeyer, A. K. A1 - Deino, A. A1 - Feibel, C. A1 - Hill, A. A1 - Johnson, R. A1 - Kingston, J. A1 - Lamb, Henry F. A1 - Lowenstein, T. A1 - Noren, A. A1 - Olago, D. A1 - Owen, Richard Bernhart A1 - Potts, R. A1 - Reed, Kate A1 - Renaut, R. A1 - Schäbitz, F. A1 - Tiercelin, J.-J. A1 - Trauth, Martin H. A1 - Wynn, J. A1 - Ivory, S. A1 - Brady, K. A1 - O’Grady, R. A1 - Rodysill, J. A1 - Githiri, J. A1 - Russell, Joellen A1 - Foerster, Verena A1 - Dommain, René A1 - Rucina, J. S. A1 - Deocampo, D. A1 - Russell, J. A1 - Billingsley, A. A1 - Beck, C. A1 - Dorenbeck, G. A1 - Dullo, L. A1 - Feary, D. A1 - Garello, D. A1 - Gromig, R. A1 - Johnson, T. A1 - Junginger, Annett A1 - Karanja, M. A1 - Kimburi, E. A1 - Mbuthia, A. A1 - McCartney, Tannis A1 - McNulty, E. A1 - Muiruri, V. A1 - Nambiro, E. A1 - Negash, E. W. A1 - Njagi, D. A1 - Wilson, J. N. A1 - Rabideaux, N. A1 - Raub, Timothy A1 - Sier, Mark Jan A1 - Smith, P. A1 - Urban, J. A1 - Warren, M. A1 - Yadeta, M. A1 - Yost, Chad A1 - Zinaye, B. T1 - The Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project BT - inferring the environmental context of human evolution from eastern African rift lake deposits T2 - Postprints der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe N2 - 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. T3 - Zweitveröffentlichungen der Universität Potsdam : Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Reihe - 611 KW - Turkana-Basin KW - Adar formation KW - climate-change KW - olorgesailie formation KW - Southern Ethiopia KW - global climate KW - Kenya Rift KW - Pleistocene KW - variability KW - patterns Y1 - 2019 U6 - http://nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus4-412498 IS - 611 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Wilting, A. A1 - Patel, R. A1 - Pfestorf, Hans A1 - Kern, C. A1 - Sultan, K. A1 - Ario, A. A1 - Penaloza, F. A1 - Kramer-Schadt, S. A1 - Radchuk, Viktoriia A1 - Foerster, D. W. A1 - Fickel, Jörns T1 - Evolutionary history and conservation significance of the Javan leopard Panthera pardus melas JF - Journal of zoology : proceedings of the Zoological Society of London N2 - The leopard Panthera pardus is widely distributed across Africa and Asia; however, there is a gap in its natural distribution in Southeast Asia, where it occurs on the mainland and on Java but not on the interjacent island of Sumatra. Several scenarios have been proposed to explain this distribution gap. Here, we complemented an existing dataset of 68 leopard mtDNA sequences from Africa and Asia with mtDNA sequences (NADH5+ ctrl, 724bp) from 19 Javan leopards, and hindcasted leopard distribution to the Pleistocene to gain further insights into the evolutionary history of the Javan leopard. Our data confirmed that Javan leopards are evolutionarily distinct from other Asian leopards, and that they have been present on Java since the Middle Pleistocene. Species distribution projections suggest that Java was likely colonized via a Malaya-Java land bridge that by-passed Sumatra, as suitable conditions for leopards during Pleistocene glacial periods were restricted to northern and western Sumatra. As fossil evidence supports the presence of leopards on Sumatra at the beginning of the Late Pleistocene, our projections are consistent with a scenario involving the extinction of leopards on Sumatra as a consequence of the Toba super volcanic eruption (similar to 74kya). The impact of this eruption was minor on Java, suggesting that leopards managed to survive here. Currently, only a few hundred leopards still live in the wild and only about 50 are managed in captivity. Therefore, this unique and distinctive subspecies requires urgent, concerted conservation efforts, integrating insitu and ex situ conservation management activities in a One Plan Approach to species conservation management. KW - biogeography KW - evolutionary history KW - Felidae KW - Southeast Asia KW - Toba eruption KW - One Plan Approach KW - Pleistocene KW - Javan leopard Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/jzo.12348 SN - 0952-8369 SN - 1469-7998 VL - 299 SP - 239 EP - 250 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trauth, Martin H. A1 - Bergner, Andreas G. N. A1 - Foerster, Verena A1 - Junginger, Annett A1 - Maslin, Mark A. A1 - Schäbitz, Frank T1 - Episodes of environmental stability versus instability in Late Cenozoic lake records of Eastern Africa JF - Journal of human evolution N2 - 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. KW - Paleoclimate KW - East Africa KW - Human evolution KW - Lakes KW - Sediments Y1 - 2015 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jhevol.2015.03.011 SN - 0047-2484 VL - 87 SP - 21 EP - 31 PB - Elsevier CY - London ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Prokhorov, Boris E. A1 - Foerster, M. A1 - He, M. A1 - Namgaladze, Alexander A. A1 - Holschneider, Matthias T1 - Using MFACE as input in the UAM to specify the MIT dynamics JF - Journal of geophysical research : Space physics N2 - The magnetosphere-ionosphere-thermosphere (MIT) dynamic system significantly depends on the highly variable solar wind conditions, in particular, on changes of the strength and orientation of the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF). The solar wind and IMF interactions with the magnetosphere drive the MIT system via the magnetospheric field-aligned currents (FACs). The global modeling helps us to understand the physical background of this complex system. With the present study, we test the recently developed high-resolution empirical model of field-aligned currents MFACE (a high-resolution Model of Field-Aligned Currents through Empirical orthogonal functions analysis). These FAC distributions were used as input of the time-dependent, fully self-consistent global Upper Atmosphere Model (UAM) for different seasons and various solar wind and IMF conditions. The modeling results for neutral mass density and thermospheric wind are directly compared with the CHAMP satellite measurements. In addition, we perform comparisons with the global empirical models: the thermospheric wind model (HWM07) and the atmosphere density model (Naval Research Laboratory Mass Spectrometer and Incoherent Scatter Extended 2000). The theoretical model shows a good agreement with the satellite observations and an improved behavior compared with the empirical models at high latitudes. Using the MFACE model as input parameter of the UAM model, we obtain a realistic distribution of the upper atmosphere parameters for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres during stable IMF orientation as well as during dynamic situations. This variant of the UAM can therefore be used for modeling the MIT system and space weather predictions. Y1 - 2014 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JA019981 SN - 2169-9380 SN - 2169-9402 VL - 119 IS - 8 PB - American Geophysical Union CY - Washington ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Weber, Michael H. A1 - Abu-Ayyash, Khalil A1 - Abueladas, Abdel-Rahman A1 - Agnon, Amotz A1 - Alasonati-Tašárová, Zuzana A1 - Al-Zubi, Hashim A1 - Babeyko, Andrey A1 - Bartov, Yuval A1 - Bauer, Klaus A1 - Becken, Michael A1 - Bedrosian, Paul A. A1 - Ben-Avraham, Zvi A1 - Bock, Günter A1 - Bohnhoff, Marco A1 - Bribach, Jens A1 - Dulski, Peter A1 - Ebbing, Joerg A1 - El-Kelani, Radwan J. A1 - Foerster, Andrea A1 - Förster, Hans-Jürgen A1 - Frieslander, Uri A1 - Garfunkel, Zvi A1 - Götze, Hans-Jürgen A1 - Haak, Volker A1 - Haberland, Christian A1 - Hassouneh, Mohammed A1 - Helwig, Stefan L. A1 - Hofstetter, Alfons A1 - Hoffmann-Rothe, Arne A1 - Jaeckel, Karl-Heinz A1 - Janssen, Christoph A1 - Jaser, Darweesh A1 - Kesten, Dagmar A1 - Khatib, Mohammed Ghiath A1 - Kind, Rainer A1 - Koch, Olaf A1 - Koulakov, Ivan A1 - Laske, Maria Gabi A1 - Maercklin, Nils T1 - Anatomy of the Dead Sea transform from lithospheric to microscopic scale N2 - Fault zones are the locations where motion of tectonic plates, often associated with earthquakes, is accommodated. Despite a rapid increase in the understanding of faults in the last decades, our knowledge of their geometry, petrophysical properties, and controlling processes remains incomplete. The central questions addressed here in our study of the Dead Sea Transform (DST) in the Middle East are as follows: (1) What are the structure and kinematics of a large fault zone? (2) What controls its structure and kinematics? (3) How does the DST compare to other plate boundary fault zones? The DST has accommodated a total of 105 km of left-lateral transform motion between the African and Arabian plates since early Miocene (similar to 20 Ma). The DST segment between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, called the Arava/Araba Fault (AF), is studied here using a multidisciplinary and multiscale approach from the mu m to the plate tectonic scale. We observe that under the DST a narrow, subvertical zone cuts through crust and lithosphere. First, from west to east the crustal thickness increases smoothly from 26 to 39 km, and a subhorizontal lower crustal reflector is detected east of the AF. Second, several faults exist in the upper crust in a 40 km wide zone centered on the AF, but none have kilometer-size zones of decreased seismic velocities or zones of high electrical conductivities in the upper crust expected for large damage zones. Third, the AF is the main branch of the DST system, even though it has accommodated only a part (up to 60 km) of the overall 105 km of sinistral plate motion. Fourth, the AF acts as a barrier to fluids to a depth of 4 km, and the lithology changes abruptly across it. Fifth, in the top few hundred meters of the AF a locally transpressional regime is observed in a 100-300 m wide zone of deformed and displaced material, bordered by subparallel faults forming a positive flower structure. Other segments of the AF have a transtensional character with small pull-aparts along them. The damage zones of the individual faults are only 5-20 m wide at this depth range. Sixth, two areas on the AF show mesoscale to microscale faulting and veining in limestone sequences with faulting depths between 2 and 5 km. Seventh, fluids in the AF are carried downward into the fault zone. Only a minor fraction of fluids is derived from ascending hydrothermal fluids. However, we found that on the kilometer scale the AF does not act as an important fluid conduit. Most of these findings are corroborated using thermomechanical modeling where shear deformation in the upper crust is localized in one or two major faults; at larger depth, shear deformation occurs in a 20-40 km wide zone with a mechanically weak decoupling zone extending subvertically through the entire lithosphere. Y1 - 2009 UR - http://www.agu.org/journals/rg/ U6 - https://doi.org/10.1029/2008rg000264 SN - 8755-1209 ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Foerster, Verena A1 - Deocampo, Daniel M. A1 - Asrat, Asfawossen A1 - Günter, Christina A1 - Junginger, Annett A1 - Krämer, Kai Hauke A1 - Stroncik, Nicole A. A1 - Trauth, Martin H. T1 - Towards an understanding of climate proxy formation in the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopian Rift JF - Palaeogeography, palaeoclimatology, palaeoecology : an international journal for the geo-sciences N2 - 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. KW - Paleoclimatology KW - Authigenic mineral transformation KW - Potassium KW - Illitization KW - Zeolites Y1 - 2018 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2018.04.009 SN - 0031-0182 SN - 1872-616X VL - 501 SP - 111 EP - 123 PB - Elsevier CY - Amsterdam ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Paijmans, Johanna L. A. A1 - Fickel, Jörns A1 - Courtiol, Alexandre A1 - Hofreiter, Michael A1 - Foerster, Daniel W. T1 - Impact of enrichment conditions on cross-species capture of fresh and degraded DNA JF - Molecular ecology resources N2 - Abstract By combining high-throughput sequencing with target enrichment (‘hybridization capture’), researchers are able to obtain molecular data from genomic regions of interest for projects that are otherwise constrained by sample quality (e.g. degraded and contamination-rich samples) or a lack of a priori sequence information (e.g. studies on nonmodel species). Despite the use of hybridization capture in various fields of research for many years, the impact of enrichment conditions on capture success is not yet thoroughly understood. We evaluated the impact of a key parameter – hybridization temperature – on the capture success of mitochondrial genomes across the carnivoran family Felidae. Capture was carried out for a range of sample types (fresh, archival, ancient) with varying levels of sequence divergence between bait and target (i.e. across a range of species) using pools of individually indexed libraries on Agilent SureSelect™ arrays. Our results suggest that hybridization capture protocols require specific optimization for the sample type that is being investigated. Hybridization temperature affected the proportion of on-target sequences following capture: for degraded samples, we obtained the best results with a hybridization temperature of 65 °C, while a touchdown approach (65 °C down to 50 °C) yielded the best results for fresh samples. Evaluation of capture performance at a regional scale (sliding window approach) revealed no significant improvement in the recovery of DNA fragments with high sequence divergence from the bait at any of the tested hybridization temperatures, suggesting that hybridization temperature may not be the critical parameter for the enrichment of divergent fragments. KW - degraded DNA KW - Felidae KW - hybridization capture KW - mitogenomes KW - next-generation sequencing KW - sequence enrichment Y1 - 2016 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1111/1755-0998.12420 SN - 1755-098X SN - 1755-0998 VL - 16 SP - 42 EP - 55 PB - Wiley-Blackwell CY - Hoboken ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Trauth, Martin H. A1 - Asrat, Asfawossen A1 - Düsing, Walter A1 - Foerster, Verena A1 - Krämer, K. Hauke A1 - Marwan, Norbert A1 - Maslin, Mark A. A1 - Schäbitz, Frank T1 - Classifying past climate change in the Chew Bahir basin, southern Ethiopia, using recurrence quantification analysis JF - Climate dynamics : observational, theoretical and computational research on the climate system N2 - The Chew Bahir Drilling Project (CBDP) aims to test possible linkages between climate and evolution in Africa through the analysis of sediment cores that have recorded environmental changes in the Chew Bahir basin. In this statistical project we consider the Chew Bahir palaeolake to be a dynamical system consisting of interactions between its different components, such as the waterbody, the sediment beneath lake, and the organisms living within and around the lake. Recurrence is a common feature of such dynamical systems, with recurring patterns in the state of the system reflecting typical influences. Identifying and defining these influences contributes significantly to our understanding of the dynamics of the system. Different recurring changes in precipitation, evaporation, and wind speed in the Chew Bahir basin could result in similar (but not identical) conditions in the lake (e.g., depth and area of the lake, alkalinity and salinity of the lake water, species assemblages in the water body, and diagenesis in the sediments). Recurrence plots (RPs) are graphic displays of such recurring states within a system. Measures of complexity were subsequently introduced to complement the visual inspection of recurrence plots, and provide quantitative descriptions for use in recurrence quantification analysis (RQA). We present and discuss herein results from an RQA on the environmental record from six short (< 17 m) sediment cores collected during the CBDP, spanning the last 45 kyrs. The different types of variability and transitions in these records were classified to improve our understanding of the response of the biosphere to climate change, and especially the response of humans in the area. KW - Paleoclimate dynamics KW - Eastern Africa KW - Pleistocene KW - Holocene KW - Time-series analysis KW - Recurrence plot Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s00382-019-04641-3 SN - 0930-7575 SN - 1432-0894 VL - 53 IS - 5-6 SP - 2557 EP - 2572 PB - Springer CY - New York ER -