http://hdl.handle.net/1893/28 This community contains the ePrints and eTheses produced by Biological and Environmental Sciences staff and students. 2017-06-01T08:08:53Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25438 Title: Continental Island Formation and the Archaeology of Defaunation on Zanzibar, Eastern Africa Authors: Prendergast, Mary E; Rouby, Helene; Punnwong, Paramita; Marchant, Rob; Crowther, Alison; Kourampas, Nikos; Shipton, Ceri; Walsh, Martin; Lambeck, Kurt; Boivin, Nicole L Abstract: With rising sea levels at the end of the Pleistocene, land-bridge or continental islands were formed around the world. Many of these islands have been extensively studied from a biogeographical perspective, particularly in terms of impacts of island creation on terrestrial vertebrates. However, a majority of studies rely on contemporary faunal distributions rather than fossil data. Here, we present archaeological findings from the island of Zanzibar (also known as Unguja) off the eastern African coast, to provide a temporal perspective on island biogeography. The site of Kuumbi Cave, excavated by multiple teams since 2005, has revealed the longest cultural and faunal record for any eastern African island. This record extends to the Late Pleistocene, when Zanzibar was part of the mainland, and attests to the extirpation of large mainland mammals in the millennia after the island became separated. We draw on modeling and sedimentary data to examine the process by which Zanzibar was most recently separated from the mainland, providing the first systematic insights into the nature and chronology of this process. We subsequently investigate the cultural and faunal record from Kuumbi Cave, which provides at least five key temporal windows into human activities and faunal presence: two at the end of the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), one during the period of post-LGM rapid sea level rise and island formation, and two in the late Holocene (Middle Iron Age and Late Iron Age). This record demonstrates the presence of large mammals during the period of island formation, and their severe reduction or disappearance in the Kuumbi Cave sequence by the late Holocene. While various limitations, including discontinuity in the sequence, problematize attempts to clearly attribute defaunation to anthropogenic or island biogeographic processes, Kuumbi Cave offers an unprecedented opportunity to examine post-Pleistocene island formation and its long-term consequences for human and animal communities. 2016-02-22T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25435 Title: Chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing Authors: Kuhl, Hjalmar; Kalan, Ammie K; Arandjelovic, Mimi; Aubert, Floris; D'Auvergne, Lucy; Goedmakers, Annemarie; Jones, Sorrel; Kehoe, Laura; Regnaut, Sebastien; Tickle, Alexander; Tons, Els; van, Schijndel Joost; Abwe, Ekwoge E; Angedakin, Samuel; Jeffery, Kathryn Jane Abstract: The study of the archaeological remains of fossil hominins must rely on reconstructions to elucidate the behaviour that may have resulted in particular stone tools and their accumulation. Comparatively, stone tool use among living primates has illuminated behaviours that are also amenable to archaeological examination, permitting direct observations of the behaviour leading to artefacts and their assemblages to be incorporated. Here, we describe newly discovered stone tool-use behaviour and stone accumulation sites in wild chimpanzees reminiscent of human cairns. In addition to data from 17 mid- to long-term chimpanzee research sites, we sampled a further 34Pan troglodytescommunities. We found four populations in West Africa where chimpanzees habitually bang and throw rocks against trees, or toss them into tree cavities, resulting in conspicuous stone accumulations at these sites. This represents the first record of repeated observations of individual chimpanzees exhibiting stone tool use for a purpose other than extractive foraging at what appear to be targeted trees. The ritualized behavioural display and collection of artefacts at particular locations observed in chimpanzee accumulative stone throwing may have implications for the inferences that can be drawn from archaeological stone assemblages and the origins of ritual sites. 2016-02-29T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25433 Title: Current plant speciation research: unravelling the processes and mechanisms behind the evolution of reproductive isolation barriers (Meeting Report) Authors: Lafon-Placette, Clement; Vallejo-Marin, Mario; Parisod, Christian; Abbott, Richard J; Kohler, Claudia Abstract: First paragraph: Explaining what species are and how they arise has been at the center of biological research since the first evolutionary concepts were developed by Buffon, Lamarck, and Darwin (Tirard,2010). With the widespread acceptance of the biological species concept, according to which ‘species are a group of interbreeding natural populations that are reproductively isolated from other such groups’ (Mayr,1996), much recent speciation research has focused on the processes and mechanisms involved in the evolution of reproductive isolation barriers (Coyne & Orr,2004). The molecular basis of these isolating barriers was known in only a few instances at the time of the Plant Speciation New Phytologist Symposium held in 2003 (Rieseberg & Wendel,2004). However, the last decade has witnessed major advances to current knowledge on this and other aspects of plant speciation research as was made clear at the recent European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) workshop ‘Mechanisms of plant speciation’ held in 2015 at Åkersberga, Sweden. 2016-01-01T00:00:00Z http://hdl.handle.net/1893/25416 Title: Promoting natural regeneration of Juniperus communis: a synthesis of knowledge and evidence for conservation practitioners (Forthcoming/Available Online) Authors: Broome, Alice; Long, Deborah; Ward, Lena; Park, Kirsty Abstract: Questions  Natural regeneration is central to plant conservation strategies. Worldwide, many Juniperus species are threatened due to their failure to regenerate. We focus on Juniperus communis in areas of NW Europe where it is declining and ask: what advice is available to land managers on natural regeneration methods, and when applied, how effective has this been?  Methods  We synthesize knowledge on the efficacy of management interventions and conditions associated with J.communis regeneration. In field trials, we test interventions where knowledge is lacking. We assess regeneration of J.communis, creation of regeneration microsites and germination of sown seed in response to the interventions.  Results  Although J.communis occurs in different habitats, there is consistency in site conditions important for regeneration (unshaded/open, short ground vegetation, disturbed/bare ground, low herbivore pressure). In calcareous grasslands, areas with regeneration are stony/bare or vegetation is short or sparse; in upland acid grasslands and dry heathlands regeneration locations are disturbed areas sometimes with a moss cover. Several interventions (grazing, scarification, turf stripping) can create regeneration conditions. The synthesis identified cattle grazing and ground scarification for further testing on upland acid grasslands. In the resulting field trials, regeneration was rare and recorded on only one cattle-grazed site. An exposed moss layer characterized regeneration microsites but there was insufficient evidence that either intervention increased regeneration microsite frequency. Few sown seeds germinated.  Conclusions  Different interventions or intensities of these appear to be required depending on habitat type. Broadly, on calcareous grassland intense scarification or soil stripping is needed, while on dry heathlands light scarification is suitable. On upland acid grassland, cattle grazing and ground scarification do not reliably result in regeneration. Creation of favourable mossy regeneration microsites is unlikely following intervention, unless soil fertility is low. Land-use change, increased climate warming and pollution are pressures acting on J.communis and may cause habitat loss and altered site conditions (e.g. soil fertility), making it difficult to create regeneration microsites at all J.communis sites. Other constraints on regeneration may operate (e.g. seed predation and low seed viability) and managers should assess population and site potential before undertaking management. 2017-03-10T00:00:00Z