This research examines the coupled response of people and the environment in the Cape Floral Region on the south coast of Africa to major fluctuations in global climate during the time of the origins of the modern human lineage. It does so through an integrated widely interdisciplinary study that synergizes knowledge and scientists from paleoanthropology, behavioral ecology, botany, cultural anthropology, geology, geography, marine geophysics, oceanography, paleo-oceanography, computer modeling, and climate science. This research is scientifically important as the south coast of Africa is one of the hypothesized origin locations for the modern human lineage and at the same time is the location for the floristically hyper-diverse and unique Cape Floral Region, the world's smallest floral kingdom, and a super-rich marine ecosystem. It has been argued that this confluence of diversity softened the blow of harsh climate phases and thus created a refuge for the first behaviorally modern humans during climate crises. The research team will explore the co-evolution of people and ecosystem by creating the first paleoscape models of the Cape Floral Region for four climate states: strong glacial, moderate glacial, moderate interglacial, and strong interglacial. The researchers will then use state-of-the-art computer models to simulate how people with hunting and gathering economies would utilize these changing environments. These models will produce archaeological expectations that will be tested with archaeological data.

This research has numerous broader impacts. The Cape Floral Region is a world-renowned biodiversity hotspot, and the ancient climate and environment record for this region bears directly on how this biodiversity evolved. The project will significantly improve understanding of the evolution of the Cape Floral Region and thus help provide insight into how climate change interacts with diversity on a broad scale. The Cape Floral Region is a Mediterranean-type ecosystem, as is coastal California, so the work will further understanding of how these systems respond to climate change. Empirical broad impacts include understanding how to use isotopic variation across the landscape to understand past ecological communities, building a systematized knowledge of plants, animals, and shellfish as food resources for hunter-gatherers and sources of raw materials in the Cape Floral Region, and the producing new and geographically wider sequences of ancient climate and environment that will increase understandings of climates and environments in a region crucial to world climate systems. Undergraduate and graduate students from both the US and South Africa will travel overseas for field and laboratory experiences. The project will build collaborations between a variety of international scientists and universities, and create links between scientists of the United States and South Africa during a time when the latter increasingly expands into an important continental and international leadership role.