20 Quaternary Perspectives - Issue 35 / December 2023

Pete Langdon1, Shanti Pappu2, Thalammaharage Rathnasiri Premathilake3, Prabhin Sukumaran4,

Becky Brice5, Prachi Joshi2

HABCOM Update December 2023

The newly appointed office At its inception, MAA initiated trajectories. Through inclusive
bearers for the 2023-27 Inter-Congress network-building efforts, hybrid meetings (online and in-
period of the Humans and Biosphere including regional hubs and a person: India, Ethiopia), we seek to
Commission (HABCOM) have officially bimonthly online seminar series of network, share ideas, formulate
assumed their roles at INQUA 16 talks. These aimed to bridge publications, include and skill
Roma-2023. To ensure a seamless gaps created by limited research ECRs, build a database
transition, hybrid online and offline funds, travel restrictions, and high synergizing with INQUA groups
interactions and meetings were conference costs, and resulted in with similar aims, and engage in
organized between the incoming and greater participation of public outreach with the wider
outgoing board members. The new underrepresented researchers, community.
team conducted monthly meetings to especially from African nations,
develop and refine our plans for the became more accessible. MAACH SETTLEMENT EFFECT ON PEAT OF
inter-congress period. Additionally, we 2.0 will build on this progress, KALIMANTAN (SEPOK)
successfully promoted the INQUA grant through greater networking and a • Recipient: Monika Ruwaimana
call for 2024 to attract diverse proposals series of publications. • Affiliation: Universitas Atma Jaya
from around the world for funding Ygyakarta, Indonesia
consideration. PALAEOLITHIC HOMININS AND • Summary: SEPOK aims to better
HABCOM is thrilled to announce HABITATS: OUT OF AFRICA TO SOUTH understand the impacts of urban
the recipients of the winning proposals ASIA (PALAEOHOME) development in peatlands. It will
that focus on emerging areas of human • Recipient: Kumar Akhilesh evaluate the scale and character
biosphere research while maintaining • Affiliation: Sharma Centre for of impacts of long-term urban
geographical diversity. The awarded Heritage, Chennai, India settlement on peatlands by
projects are as follows: • Summary: PalaeoHome is an combining core depth, age and
exciting project drawing together geochemistry measurement with
MAPPING ANCIENT AFRICA: CLIMATE, a global network of scientists remote sensing data. The team
VEGETATION AND HUMANS - PHASE II working in India, Africa, Arabia, will compare peat data from
(MAACH 2.0) and SW and E Asia to address heavily impacted and unimpacted
• Recipient: Stefanie Kaboth-Bahr major issues related to multiple areas, and based on this
• Affiliation: Freie Universität Berlin, questions on the ‘Out of Africa’ comparison, will infer the peat
Germany story as related to chronology, morphology and carbon storage
• Summary: The Mapping Ancient palaeoenvironments and of the pre-settlement landscape
Africa (MAA) project embarked on behavioural variability over the and evaluate the impact of urban
a mission in 2021 to unite experts Lower Palaeolithic (Early to Middle development around the city of
Humans and Biosphere

in palaeoclimate, climate Pleistocene), exploring similarities Pontianak, Indonesia.

modeling, palynology, and as also differences in evolutionary The Quaternary community
archaeology to decode climate
patterns across Africa spanning
the last 4 million years. This
AFFILIATIONS
endeavour sought to address the 1
University Of Southampton, UK
significant uncertainties 2.
Sharma Centre For Heritage Education, India
surrounding the nexus between 3
University Of Kelaniya, Sri Lanka
climate change and the evolution,
4
Charotar University Of Science And Technology, India
5
USGS, USA
cultural development, and
dispersion of hominins in Africa.
 Issue 35 / December 2023 - Quaternary Perspectives 21

eagerly anticipates the development of held its first International School and media, and through personal emails
these projects over the coming year. Symposium (LEM-ISS) in March 2023 in with all members. Plans are underway
tropical dry deciduous forests of to conduct a series of seminars in
In recent HABCOM-funded western Vidarbha, Maharashtra, India. collaboration with other Commissions,
projects, the “Teeth as Tools” initiative, Twenty-three trainee participants from promoting diverse perspectives in
led by Carlo Meloro from the University India, Nepal and Sri Lanka interacted human biosphere research.
of Liverpool, UK, has progressed with experts from India, Sri Lanka, To streamline outreach activities,
through two workshops and is now in France, Austria, the United Kingdom, the team is currently working on
its final stages. Stay tuned for the and the United States of America. organizing an open meeting for all
project’s outcomes, which promise The “Mapping Ancient Africa” HABCOM members in late January
valuable insights into the relationship project led by William Gosling, 2024. Recognizing time zone
between human biology and cultural Amsterdam University, Netherlands, is a constraints, the meeting is scheduled to
practices. joint project with PALCOM, and will be run twice, tentatively on January 25th
The “EPD Boost” project led by supported going forward by MAACH 2.0 for Asia/Pacific and January 26th for
Walter Finsinger, Université de in the coming year. The project team Africa/Europe/US time zones. Further
Montpellier, France, brought members was active at the INQUA Congress in details will be communicated to all
from a diverse set of paleoecological Rome and via series of workshops and HABCOM members via email.
communities together to foster online seminars. We eagerly anticipate the
combined analyses of continental participation of more young researchers
datasets. The overall long-term goal of The HABCOM team is actively from diverse geographic locations in
the project is to integrate the diverse strategizing a series of initiatives for HABCOM. If you are interested in
set of European palaeoecological data 2024 to expand the community of joining, please visit our website at
into Neotoma and their joint analysis to human biosphere researchers under https://inqua.org/commissions/habcom/
better understand the whole ecosystem the HABCOM umbrella and foster join and follow us in social media
change on the European continent stronger connections between the @habcom_inqua. Your involvement will
during the Quaternary. scientific community and society. These contribute to the dynamic and inclusive
The “pSESYNTH” project led by initiatives include a podcast series to be community we are building within the
Xavi Benito, IRTA, Spain is focused on broadcast through the website, social Humans and Biosphere Commission.
building a synthesis database
of past human-environmental
systems in the Global South.
Several online meetings done
by the team facilitated
discussions on how varied
datasets from different Global
South regions can be
effectively consolidated, while
initially collating multivariate
records mostly associated with
aquatic and terrestrial
environmental change. We
await confirmation of their
plan to organise an in-person
workshop in early 2024.
The “LEM” project lead
by Trina Bose from Birbal
Sahni Institute of
Paleosciences, India aims to
map and model LULC
indicators in different
ecological regions of the
monsoon to quantify modern
analogues of climate variations.
An associated aim is to
integrate all published modern
and palaeo biodiversity data
into the South Asian
Biodiversity Portal (SABDP)
following the NEOTOMA
palaeoecology database. LEM