Joint research on human and natural adaptation to changing climates and environments in the High North by proxy data (Joint Proxies).

By analyzing joint proxies from archaeological sites, where our respective sources and data converge in time-capsules, the research network aims to deliver an important and substantial interdisciplinary and international contribution to regional and global knowledge on how both human and natural populations (animals and plants) have adapted to global climate change in the High North through time. Concurrently, and by using the same base-line data, the objective is to make a significant contribution to climate research, particularly regarding temperature oscillations on various time-scales through the past 10,000 years. This in turn will provide a basis for more precise predictions on human and natural populations adaptation to future climate change.

A joint proxy is an archaeological site with good preservation conditions that contains proxy data of relevance for archaeological, geological, botanical, zoological and climate change research and interpretation. By analyzing joint proxies, the research network aims to reach the above objectives. Archaeology is the only academic discipline that studies long-term culture-history change, often over tens of millennia, and is thus also the only discipline that studies human social and economic changes and their relations to changes in the natural environment. It is generally assumed that 60-70% of the material culture of prehistoric societies was produced from organic material (e.g., bone and antler). However, sites containing organic matter are relatively rare in the High North. This means that most archaeological interpretations are based on only 30-40% of the culture-material variability. Concurrently, sites with good preservations conditions are also among the most vulnerable to the detrimental effects of global climate change (e.g., riverine and coastal erosion, acidification, thawing of permafrost) and increasing industrialization of the arctic and sub-arctic. There is an urgent need both to re-investigate already known archaeological sites with joint proxies and to find and analyze new such sites with cutting edge theories, methods,and techniques before it is too late. Only by establishing such a research network will it be possible to gain knowledge on how human and natural populations related to global climate changes in a long-term perspective and concurrently make a significant contribution to climate change research.This will provide a basis for more precise predictions on the adaptation of human and natural populations to future climate change. The network will apply for further project funding,including PhD- and Post-doc. fellowships, with the RCN,EU,ERC,and ESF.