Volker Mosbrugger

Senckenberg Research Institute

The 21st newsletter presents the latest study on Big Data Visualization. Next we take you on a flight to the beginning of human history with the TimeFlies app. We report on the Modes – Forms – Structures-Conference in Karlsruhe and the annual meeting of the European Society for the Study of Human Evolution in Tübingen. Finally we present our ne...

Interactions between the atmosphere, biosphere, hydrosphere, and geosphere are most active in the critical zone, a region extending from the tops of trees to the bottom of groundwater. Changes in one or more of these spheres can result in a cascade of changes throughout the system in ways that are often poorly understood. Here we investigate how pa...

In this article, we highlight the characteristic features of the Late Rupelian Buran flora of Eastern Kazakhstan. The species list contains 65 plant taxa belonging to Polypodiophyta (2), Gymnospermae (12) and Magnoliopsida (51). Its composition is dominated by leaves, fruits and pollen of Carya; there are also in noticeable quantities of remains of...

In this 20th newsletter, ROCEEH takes you on a little trip around the world. We tell the story of stone technologies in southern Italy at the transition from Middle to Upper Paleolithic, the paleoenvironment of Homo erectus in Indonesia, and a unique eyed needle from the Armenian Highlands. We hope you enjoy!

In the 19th ROCEEH newsletter, we look at geographic methods for the study of habitat change, the analysis of stone artifacts from the Upper Paleolithic in Armenia, the research history of one of the most important Paleolithic sites in Germany (the UNESCO World Heritage site Geißenklösterle in the Swabian Jura), and the cognitive abilities of o...

Together with climate change, the dramatic loss of biodiversity is one of the greatest challenges facing humankind. However, despite of the existential value of biodiversity, biodiversity loss has only played a subordinate role in the political and societal debate about how sustainability can be achieved. In a discussion moderated by Prof. Dr. Volk...

Additional material for article "Rupelian Kazakhstan floras in the context of Early Oligocene climate and vegetation of Central Asia"

Additional material for the article "Rupelian Kazakhstan floras in the context of Early Oligocene climate and vegetation of Central Asia"

The 18th newsletter focuses on the diet of Paranthropus boisei and how environmental conditions and technical capabilities affected it. We report on ROCEEH‘s collaboration with ARIADNEplus, a large-scale European project on the scientific infrastructure of archaeological data. We also announce the opening of the exhibition “Being Human // The Origi...

The Oligocene represents a transitional phase from a “hot‐house” to a “cold‐house” climate. Central Asia has undergone substantial environmental changes and tectonic events; however, we know little about how these tectonic events shaped the climate and biodiversity in Central Asia. Here, we present a detailed study on the early Oligocene paleobotan...

We present three years (2011 to 2013) of in situ airborne pollen monitoring data on the northern slope of the Qomolangma (Everest) region to better understand the connections among airborne pollen, vegetation and climate. The pollen assemblage dominated by local herb and shrub pollen can reflect mountain shrub steppe vegetation. Herb pollen behave...

In this study comprehensive palaeofloristic data of lower Miocene deposits from the Soma Basin, western Anatolia is presented considering the stratigraphical concept. The sediments of the basin, derived from outcrop sections, were deposited in the terrestrial environment. The basin includes three different successions: lower and middle lignite succ...

This 17th issue of the ROCEEH newsletter focuses on early human migrations in Island Southeast Asia by examining microscopic traces of use-wear on stone artifacts. Next, we introduce the ROAD Summary Data Sheet, which provides an overview of locality data stored in the ROAD Database. Finally we discuss the latest developments in an agent-based mode...

Spatial vegetation patterns potentially reflect coeval continental climate variations which are also impacted by palaeogeographical settings. Plant functional types (PFTs) and their distribution, frequently applied in ecological studies and biome modelling, serve as a tool for reconstructing palaeovegetation units and ultimately tracing palaeoecolo...

Brown coal deposits of the Lower Rhine Basin, northwest Germany, cover the late Burdigalian to Serravallian and most of the Tortonian enabling access to observations of vegetation dynamics during the Miocene Climatic Optimum and Late Miocene Cooling. Based on a total of 500 microfloras sampled from brown coal seams in the Bergheim and Inden open ca...

The 16th issue of the ROCEEH newsletter focuses on the climate of the Iberian Peninsula during the first wave of human expansion into Western Europe. We also take a closer look at Paleolithic mobile art in Central Europe and present a session report from INQUA 2019 in Dublin, Ireland. All ROCEEH newsletters are available on www.roceeh.net

The problem of paleoclimate reconstruction is an extremely interesting issue, which has been repeatedly discussed in many publications. This topic engages the attention of numerous specialists in many and various scientific disciplines. Fossil plants have vast potential as a source of information about past climatic conditions in the terrestrial re...

The Paleogene climate dynamics in Primorye (Far East of Russia) are studied using the Coexistence Approach, based on palaeobotanical records. Palaeobotanical data for the reconstruction comprises 54 palaeofloras covering the early Paleocene to late Oligocene, a time span of ca. 42 myr. The climate inferences obtained are consistent with independent...

Kobresia pastures in the eastern Tibetan highlands occupy 450000 km ² and form the world’s largest pastoral alpine ecosystem. The main constituent is an endemic dwarf sedge, Kobresia pygmaea , which forms a lawn with a durable turf cover anchored by a felty root mat, and occurs from 3000 m to nearly 6000 m a.s.l. The existence and functioning of th...

In the 15th issue of ROCEEH’s newsletter, we address the difficulties in defining Aurignacian industries and their spatio-temporal variability. We present our latest findings on the final phase of the Middle Stone Age in southern Africa. Finally we report on geomorphological field work associated with Sibudu Rock Shelter in South Africa and a ROAD...

The Third Pole (TP) is experiencing rapid warming and is currently in its warmest period in the past 2,000 years. This paper reviews the latest development in multidisciplinary TP research associated with this warming. The rapid warming facilitates intense and broad glacier melt over most of the TP, although some glaciers in the northwest are advan...

With 450,000 km2 Kobresia (syn. Carex) pygmaea dominated pastures in the eastern Tibetan highlands are the world's largest pastoral alpine ecosystem forming a durable turf cover at 3000–6000ma.s.l. Kobresia's resilience and competitiveness is based on dwarf habit, predominantly below-ground allocation of photo assimilates, mixture of seed productio...

In this 14th issue of ROCEEH’s newsletter, we begin by examining the origin of ocher use in Africa. From there, we establish a definition of what cumulative culture means and explore when it began. These articles are followed by reports about three conferences co-organized by ROCEEH: 1) “KULT-UR-MENSCH”; 2) “Computer Applications in Archaeology”; a...

Based on ecospectra of 66 published carpofloras we study dynamics and evolution of Turgay vegetation in Western Siberia during the early Oligocene to earliest Miocene. The ecospectra are obtained using a Plant Functional Type (PFT) classification system comprising 26 herbaceous to arboreal PFTs. The carpofloras originate from seven floristic levels...

In its first brochure about ROAD, the ROCEEH research team described the technical aspects of its large-scale, multidisciplinary database which contains data about the last three million years of human history. In this second brochure, we follow up by focusing on the practical applications that ROAD offers its users. ROAD provides a synopsis of pre...

In the thirteenth issue of ROCEEH’s newsletter we announce the inscription of six Swabian caves onto UNESCO’s World Heritage List, where several ROCEEH members have conducted research for many years. Humboldt Foundation Senior Research Fellow Martin Porr talks about the difficulties that irrational and nonutilitarian objects present for the study o...

Yunnan, in southwestern China, straddles two of the world's most important biodiversity hot spots (i.e., a biogeographic region that is both a reservoir of biodiversity and threatened with destruction) and hosts more than 200 fossiliferous sedimentary basins documenting the evolutionary history of that biodiversity, monsoon development, and regiona...

The Gulf Stream, as part of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), is known as a major driver of latitudinal energy transport in the North Atlantic presently causing mild winters over northwestern Eurasia. The intensity of the AMOC throughout the Neogene, prior to the final closure of the Central American Seaway (CAS) in the early...

Full list of known plant fossil species from the Cenozoic of Yunnan.

Yunnan in southwestern China is renowned for its high plant diversity. To understand how this modern botanical richness formed, it is critical to investigate the past biodiversity throughout the geological time. In this review, we present a summary on plant diversity, floristics and climates in the Cenozoic of Yunnan and document their changes, by...

ROCEEH Evaluation 2016 Appendix A – Status Report I) Publications 2015-2008 3 a. Summary: Publications ranked according to peer review process in numbers 3 b. List of publications ranked according to peer review process 5 c. Summary: Publications in thematic order in numbers 43 d. List of publications in thematic order 45  Hominin Ecospace / Reso...

The research center “The Role of Culture in Early Expansions of Humans” (ROCEEH) is a long-term project of the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and Humanities. ROCEEH aims to reconstruct the trajectory of human evolution in Africa and Eurasia between 3 million and 20,000 years before present. The project focuses on three different fields of expansion...

The Pannonian Basin system provides sufficient data to study local and regional vegetation in the context of palaeoclimate and palaeogeography. The present study attempts to make use of latest results in stratigraphy and track vegetation change throughout the late Miocene. Vegetation layers are reconstructed for five time slices, from 10.8 Ma to 6....

We apply the coexistence approach (CoA) to reconstruct mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT), mean temperature of the warmest month (MTWA) and mean temperature of the coldest month (MTCO) at 44 pollen sites on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The modern climate ranges of the taxa are obtained (1) from county-level presence/abse...

The evolution of Cenozoic continental climate signals from the Atlantic and Pacific side of Eurasia can be assessed for the first time by comparing climate records obtained for two mid-latitudinal regions. For the West, a detailed climate record over the past 45 Ma, based on palaeofloras from two Northern German Cenozoic basins (Mosbrugger et al.,...

Today, the Gulf Stream causes considerable warming of the middle and higher latitudes of Western Eurasia also mirrored by vegetation distribution. Under the maritime climate of Western Eurasia vegetation types with a more thermophilous aspect exist compared to the eastern part of North America at the same latitude. Currently, discussion on changes...

Cenozoic vegetation change in Western Siberia and northeastern Russia is quantified based on the analysis of diversity of plant functional types (PFTs). Carpofloras (148 total) compiled from published sources are assigned to a total of nine time slices spanning the period from the middle Eocene to the late Pliocene. Comparisons among four defined k...

Cenozoic vegetation change in Western Siberia and northeastern Russia is quantified based on the analysis of diversity of plant functional types (PFTs). Carpofloras (148 total) compiled from published sources are assigned to a total of nine time slices spanning the period from the middle Eocene to the late Pliocene. Comparisons among four defined k...

Cenozoic vegetation change in Western Siberia and northeastern Russia is quantified based on the analysis of diversity of plant functional types (PFTs). Carpofloras (148 total) compiled from published sources are assigned to a total of nine time slices spanning the period from the middle Eocene to the late Pliocene. Comparisons among four defined k...

The question of the resilience or vulnerability of Tibetan highland pastures is notonly of regional importance but also of global relevance for the Earth's energy budgetand atmospheric circulation. A climate and grazing driven environmental change of theTibetan highland albedo could induce feedback effects within an ecotone ofapproximately 200 km b...

Th e Cenozoic continental deposits of Western Siberia, Eastern Siberia and the Russian Far East are best described on the basis of carpological records. Th e palaeoclimate evolution has been reconstructed quantitatively (Coexistence Approach) providing inferred data on temperature, precipitation and the mean annual range of these parameters. Climat...

To understand the vegetation succession and climatic changes at the southeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau in the Neogene, we reconstructed the Middle Miocene vegetation and climate based on palynological data from four localities, which are at different latitudes along the Ailao Mountains in Yunnan, southwest China. The palynological assemblag...

Today an effective Gulf Stream accounts for mild, maritime climate in Western Europe and causes significant longitudinal, climatic anomalies when comparing both sides of the North Atlantic, expressed in differentiated biome patterns. E.g. at ca. 40° northern latitude, evergreen broadleaved sclerophyllous woodland of the Northern Mediterranean corre...

The application of quantitative techniques such as Coexistence Approach and interpretation of diversity of plant functional types (pfts) on the palaeobotanical record allows for detailed reconstructions of continental climate and its variability. For the NW European Cenozoic, recent studies based on macro- and microflora reveal a close correlation...

Yuanmou Basin of Yunnan, SW China, is a famous locality with hominids, hominoids, mammals and plant fossils. Based on the published megaflora and palynoflora data from Yuanmou Basin, the climate of Late Pliocene is reconstructed using the Coexistence Approach. The results indicate a warm and humid subtropical climate with a mean annual temperature...

This study presents a detailed continental palaeoclimate record for the Neogene of Northwestern Europe. Palynomorph samples from continental to marginal marine deposits in 5 correlated sections from the Lower Rhine Basin (NW Germany) covering the time-span from Burdigalian to Zanclean are analysed. Independent time-control in the sections is provid...

A profile 63 m thick in the Late Miocene in the Gotse-Delchev Basin (SW Bulgaria) was sampled for pollen analysis in the Kanina opencast mine. The exposed sequence comprises a basal unit with brown coal-clay cycles and clayey/siliciclastic cover layers partly representing a lacustrine facies. A total of 60 pollen samples were analyzed, but quantita...

Lower-Middle Miocene successions from Kutahya province (Seyitomer and Tuncbilek sub-basins) were analyzed to reconstruct the palaeoclimate and vegetation of the period. A rich coniferous forest formed the dominant components among sporomorphs and consisted mainly of undeterminable Pinaceae, Pinus haploxylon type, Pinus diploxylon type, Picea, Cedru...

The Late Miocene belongs to the late phase of the Cenozoic. Climate at that time was still warmer and more humid as compared to today, especially in the high latitudes. Corresponding to the climate situation, palaeobotanical evidences support that vegetation in the high northern latitudes changed significantly from the Late Miocene until today. To...

Lower-Middle Miocene successions from Kütahya province (Seyitömer and Tunçbilek sub-basins) were analyzed to reconstruct the palaeoclimate and vegetation of the period. A rich coniferous forest formed the dominant components among sporomorphs and consisted mainly of undeterminable Pinaceae, Pinus haploxylon type, Pinus diploxylon type, Picea, Cedru...

It is well known that the global climate system can exist in different modes, such as the Greenhouse/Icehouse and Glacial/Interglacial mode. The glacial and interglacial mode are best understood and characterized, among others, by distinct oceanic circulation patterns. The transition between different modes can be very rapid (<100a) reflecting non-...

Der globale Wandel ist in vollem Gange und betrifft nicht nur das Klima, sondern auch die Biodiversität. Gleichzeitig führen weltweite Änderungen in der Land- und Wassernutzung sowie invasive Arten zu rasanten Veränderungen unserer Lebensgemeinschaften. Die Menschheit ist auf vielfältige Weise von diesem Wandel betroffen. Globaler Wandel wird in vi...

A coupled atmosphere-ocean model is used to examine the climatic effects of Southeast Asian deforestation. On the deforested grid cells surface temperatures rise, and precipitation is reduced after deforestation. Regional moisture convergence and convection increase and lead to strongly enhanced rainfall. The easterlies and associated oceanic surfa...