Palaeo-vegetation, biodiversity and early human dispersal through island Southeast Asia (Old ID 20779)

Australian Research Council (ARC)
Role

Principal Investigator

Description

This study will use newly developed and fully validated isotope techniques to obtain robustly dated proxy records of vegetation change from the thick deposits of cave guano that occur extensively throughout island Southeast Asia (Sundaland). We will test the hypothesis that during the Last Glacial Period, there was a substantial contraction of the rainforest towards the equator into refugia. This led to the development of an open ‘savannah corridor’ connecting savanna north and south of the equator. The project will shed new light on the palaeoclimatology of the region and provide a major contribution to explaining modern biogeographic patterns across Sundaland, as well as the trajectories of early human dispersal through the region.

Date

01 Jan 2014 - 31 Dec 2016

Project Type

GRANT

Keywords

aeoenvironment;stable isotope;Quaternary

Funding Body

Australian Research Council (ARC)

Amount

306666

Project Team

N/A