HABCOM Mission
The Humans and Biosphere Commission fosters problem-oriented study of the effects that changes in Quaternary climates and palaeoenvironments have had on organisms (individuals, communities, species), as well as the relationships between humans and their environment. The
Commission promotes innovative cross-disciplinary research and communication, notably by helping to bring together specialists in all sub-fields of palaeoecology, archaeology, geology and palaeoanthropology, including experts in the study of cultural processes, in order to understand human responses to global and regional changes. An ancillary goal is to provide a unifying framework for the exchange of information between palaeoecologists and neo-ecologists working on issues of global change. The Commission promotes interchange among specialists from any and all nations of the world, involving young scientists and those from developing countries.
Current HAB COMM Officers
President: Nicki Whitehouse (Plymouth University, UK)
Vice-Presidents: Yan Zhao (Lanzhou University, China) and Luis Borrero (CONICET & University of
Buenos Aires, Argentina).
Secretary: Mike Akaegbobi (University of Ibadan, Nigeria).
Newsletter editor: Encarni Motoya (Open University, UK).
Early Career Researcher (ECR) Reps: Sallie Burrough (University of Oxford, UK), Alex MacKay
(University of Wollongong, Australia)
Current Advisory Board (* individuals will be remaining on the Board for the next inter-congress period):
Dr Jean Philippe Brugal*, (France) archaeozoology
Dr Brian Chase (France) palaeoecology
Dr Jacqueline Gill (US); palaeoecology
Prof Simon Haberle* (Australia); palaeoecology, human-environment interactions
Prof Gary Haynes (US); anthropology
Prof Steve Jackson (US); palaeoecology
Prof Houyuan Lu* (China); palaeoecology
Prof Donatella Magri* (Italy); palaeoecology
Prof Akira Matsui (Japan); wetland archaeology (now deceased, June 2015)
Prof Kathleen Morrison* (US); archaeology & historical anthropology
Dr Christine Ogola* (Africa) archaeology
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Summary of activities over the inter-congress period:
(i) List of corresponding members
We have in excess of 650 members; many new members originate from newly funded (2014-
2015) HAB COMM projects. There is good coverage of members in Europe and the US, but our list of members elsewhere is more limited and requires further work. Efforts continue to be made to target these individuals, via emails to other organizations and lists and the use of social media to highlight the activities of the Commission. The Congress in Nagoya offers an opportunity to widen our list of members. Our member’s list will be reviewed and updated by the incoming HAB COM
Secretary after the Congress.
(ii) Funded projects and activities
13 projects have been funded through HAB COM over the inter-congress period (2012-2015), several over a period of several years. There are currently 8 funded through HABCOM, as detailed below. These have all made good progress and have pursued appropriate activities leading to new scientific insights and progress. Regular contact has been maintained with all of the projects, which also included attending some workshops (e.g. projects 1402; 1404). We have had discussions about bids for potential IFGs emanating from several of these projects in 2016. Much of this inter-congress period has been spent in helping new projects kick off and develop ideas that can be developed into new IFGs during the next inter-congress period. Several projects are with groups of researchers who have not traditionally been involved in INQUA-related activities and run by ECR’s who have become increasingly active in HABCOM. Several of these projects are presenting their outputs at the Congress.
Current & recent projects:

Project 1202: Context and controls on modern human behavior in southern Africa: human-
environment interactions in the late Pleistocene (Brian Chase and Alex MacKay)

Project 1206: Human technological and behavioral adaptation to the Last Glacial Maximum
in Northeast Asia (Masami Izuho).

Project 1207: Palaeoenvironment and lithic raw material exploitation in North and East
Asia during MIS3 and MIS2 (Akira Ono).

Project 1401: African Large Carnivores: impacts on ecosystems and humans interactions
(Ogeto Mwebi & Jean-Philippe Brugal)

Project 1402: Modeling human settlement, fauna and flora dynamics in Europe during the
Mid-Pleistocene Revolution (1.2 to 0.4 Ma) (Jesus Rodríguez, Ana Mateos, Christine Hertler and Maria-Rita Palombo).

Project 1404: Cultural and Palaeoenvironmental Changes in Late Glacial to Middle
Holocene Europe—gradual or sudden? (Erick Robinson and Felix Riede)
 Project 1405: Obsidian exploitation and provenance studies in Eurasian prehistory: a
comparative perspective in diverse palaeoenvironmental (Akira Ono)
 Project 1406: Palaeoanthropological Perspectives on Past Vegetation Using Phytoliths at
Prehistoric Sites in South India and Sri Lanka (Kumar Akhilesh & Shanti Pappu, Sharma
Centre of Heritage Education, India; Rathnasiri Premathilake, University of Kelaniya, Sri
Lanka; Anupama Krishnamurthy & S.Prasad, The French Institute of Pondicherry, India).
 Project 1501: Evolution of ground squirrels (Spermophilus) and the Late-Mid Quaternary
Environment of the Northern Black Sea Area: ground squirrels on the march (Popova)
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 Project 1502: Reconstructing hunter-gatherer mobility: building new inter-disciplinary
frameworks in the Quaternary (Becky Skykes et al)
 Skills 1224: Workshop: Equatorial Eastern Africa Quaternary, Climate Change And
Variability (PI: Christine Ogola, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi).
 Skills 1407: Capacity building for young Quaternary scientists of West Africa in Quaternary
fluvial sediment analysis and Paleo-environmental Changes (Dembele et al.)
 Skills 1503: Quaternary palaeo-environment and Archaeology in Uganda. Enhancing Skills
and Local Capacity (Julius Lejju & Elizabeth Kyazike)
Projects have provided reports within QP and newsletter material and summaries have been provided in previous HAB COM Annual reports. Eight meetings, mostly workshops but also conferences and symposia, were held recently relating to the funded HAB COMM projects, as follows:
1. Project 1401 organised an International conference, African large carnivores: impacts on
ecosystems and human interactions, NMK, 24-25 th June 2014. They also organised a regional
Workshop, immediately after the conference, 26-27 th June 2014 on Taxonomy & Taphonomy in
NMK. There were 30 participants at this meeting.
2. Project 1402 organised a workshop, entitled Mathematical approaches for the study of Human-
Fauna interactions in the Pleistocene, at Burgos, Spain, within the framework of the XVII World
UISPP Congress (1-7th September 2014), to capitalize upon the presence of the group at the meeting. A detailed report on this meeting is provided in Quaternary Perspectives, Nov 2014, issue 21(2).
3: Project 1404 held an inaugural workshop entitled Cultural and Palaeoenvironmental Changes in
Late Glacial to Middle 
 Holocene Europe—gradual or sudden?. This event was attended by 20 researchers, many of them ECR’s and PhD students, and was held in mid November 2014, at the newly opened Moesgård Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.
4. Project 1405: held a symposium in Tokyo (15-16 March 2014, Meiji University, Tokyo), for discussions of the preliminary analysis of the archaeological features, obsidian results and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions of the Hiroppata Upper Palaeolithic sites in the mountainous area of Nagano Prefecture, Japan. The project also held an International Workshop for Young Scientists at the Centre for Obsidian and Lithic Studies, Meiji University, Nagawa Town,
Nagano Prefecture, Japan (21-28, September 2014), Natural Resource Environment and Humans in
Eurasian Prehistory: A view from Obsidian provenance and Circulation. This workshop was mostly funded via this INQUA project as well Meiji University. The content of the workshop includes oral/or poster presentations, field excursion, practical experimentations of geochemical analysis obsidian, lithic napping, and palynological analysis.
5. Skills project 1407S held a specialized training module at the 4 th WAQUA International
Conference, Quaternary fluvio-lacustrine environments and human settlement in West Africa. This meeting was held at the Université des Sciences Sociales et de Guestion de Bamako, Bamako,
Mali, 27 th October- 31 st October 2014.
6. Project 1406 organised a highly successful workshop on ‘Palaeo-anthropological perspectives on
plant communities in South Asia’ at the Sharma Centre for Heritage Education and French Institute for Pondicherry, India, 27 th October – 2 nd November 2014. Field visits were organised as part of
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the workshop: i) to understand grass ecology, field data collection strategies and stone tool usage on plant material, and ii) a site visit to the research site of Attirampakkam. A hands-on laboratory component focused on sediment treatment for phytolith studies. The workshop was very valuable by providing an introduction to the importance of phytolith studies at archaeological sites in South
Asia. A detailed report on this meeting can be viewed in Quaternary Perspectives, Nov 2014, issue
21(2).
7. Project 1202 has organized a session at the Nagoya 2015 conference to highlight work carried out within the context of this project.
(iii) Publications (current or forthcoming) emanating from HaB Comm Projects:
Fourvel, J.B., Fosse, P., Avery, G. (in press). Spotted, striped or brown? Taphonomical studies of eastern and southern African extant hyena dens. Quaternary international EAQUA special issue (in
press)
Fourvel J.B. – (in prep) Bone reduction sequence in Carnivores: taphonomical pattern based on extant hyenas. Intern. J.of Osteoarcheaology
Hashizume, J., Shimada, K., Suda, Y., and Ono, A. 2014 Prehistoric human activity around the
Hiroppara wetland, central Japan: a case study in and around the obsidian sources. Japan
Geoscience Union Meeting, 28 April - 02 May 2014 at Pacifico Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan.
(Abstract)
Mackay, A.; Chase, B.M.; Stewart, B.A. (2014). Coalescence and fragmentation in the late
Pleistocene archaeology of southernmost Africa. Journal of Human Evolution 72, 26-51.
Ono, A. 2014a. Modern hominids in the Japanese Islands and the early use of obsidian: the case of
Onbase Islet. World Heritage Papers, No.39, 156-163. Human origin sites and the World Heritage
Convention in Asia, UNESCO.
Ono, A. 2014b. Two patterns of obsidian exploitation in the Upper Palaeolithic of the Japanese islands. The Dolni Vestonice Studies, Vol. 20, 41-44. Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of
Sciences of the Czech Republic, Brono.
Ono, A., Kuzmin, Y. V., Glascock, M. D., and Suda, Y. 2014 Introduction: Characterisation and provenance studies of obsidian in northeast Asia: the view from the early 2010s. BAR International
Series, No. 2620, 1-10, Archaeopress, Oxford.
Palombo, M.R., 2014. Deconstructing mammal dispersals and faunal dynamics in SW Europe during the Quaternary. Quaternary Science Reviews 96, 50-71.
Rodríguez, J., Mateos, A., Martín-González, J.A., Rodríguez-Gómez, G., in press. How rare was human presence in Europe during the Early Pleistocene? Quaternary International.
10.1016/j.quaint.2014.12.016
Rodríguez-Gómez, G., Mateos, A., Martín-González, J.A., Blasco, R., Rosell, J., Rodríguez, J., 2014.
Discontinuity of Human Presence at Atapuerca during the Early Middle Pleistocene: A Matter of
Ecological Competition? PLoS ONE 9, e101938.10.1371/journal.pone.0101938
Rodríguez, J.; Mateos, A; Hertler, C. and Palombo, M. R. (Eds). Mathematical approaches for the study of Human-Fauna interactions in the Pleistocene Quaternary International Special Issue, In preparation 2015.
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Shimada, K. 2014 Prehistoric obsidian exploitation in the Central Highlands obsidian sources and
excavations at the Hiroppara site group. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting, 28 April - 02 May 2014 at Pacifico Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. (Abstract)
Yoshida, A. 2014 Tree-line change since the Last Glacial form the pollen profile at the Hiroppara
peat bog, central Japan. Japan Geoscience Union Meeting, 28 April - 02 May 2014 at Pacifico
Yokohama, Kanagawa, Japan. (Abstract)
Yamada, M. and Ono, A. (eds.) 2014. Lithic raw material exploitation and circulation in prehistory:
comparative perspectives in diverse palaeoenvironments. ERAUL, No. 138, 230P. Liege, Belgium.
Yamada, M. and Ono, A. (eds.) 2014. Abstract Volume: COLS International Workshop for Young
Scientists. Nagawa Town, Nagano Prefecture, Japan. 21-28 September 2014.
(iv) Communications with members
Communications happen via regular emails, newsletters, QP and most recently a Facebook site.
HAB COMM projects use the newsletter as a useful forum for dissemination of information. With
QP again producing copy twice a year, the need for more frequent HABCOM newsletters has diminished; we aim to produce a newsletter twice a year or so. Some projects also produce a newsletter (e.g. Project 1404, December 2014). The newsletter editor, Encarni Motoya, greatly assists with the production of regular newsletters. The Facebook site was set up early in January
2015, for the Commission to interact with audiences we may not have previously engaged with.
The site is used to facilitate faster dissemination around HAB COMM projects, deadlines and other items of news related to INQUA, other topics of interest to the Commission. We currently have just over 160 people using this method.
(v) ECR activities
We continue with ECR activities via the work of Sallie Burrough and Alex MacKay. The role of the
ECRs over the last couple of years has been one mainly of building important networks and disseminating information. Whilst some of this has occurred in the guise of informal meet-ups at international conferences it has mainly taken place through social media, particularly Twitter and
Facebook.
Both ECRs feedback regularly and are actively involved. Alex helped to organise a publication workshop under the banner of HAB COMM at the first INQUA meeting for Early Career
Researchers held at the University of Wollongong (UOW) in the austral summer of 2013. The workshop, Writing for Publication, featured Colin Murray-Wallace, Editor in Chief at Quaternary
Science Reviews, and Robin Torrence, Editor at Journal of Archaeological Science. The workshop produced strong feedback and interest. Sallie Chairs the ECR Committee and recently helped HAB
COM find new representatives for the ECR Committee and organize our election. We had 8 ECR candidates put forward for election, demonstrating real interest from the ECR community in becoming involved in HAB COM activities. We are exploring ways to capitalized upon this.
(vi) Hab Comm web site
A new HAB COM web site was created in 2012; news items and meetings of interest are posted up regularly, mostly generated as a result of the newsletter traffic and items sent to us directly for posting. There is an archival section for newsletters. The site is regularly maintained and updated by Dr Phil Barratt.
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The HAB COMM web site http://www.inqua.org/habcom/index.html
has recently received a ‘face lift’ and update in design following new design and structure work on the main INQUA web site.
Further plans for developing the web site will be developed in the next inter-congress period
(vii) Looking to the future: relevance and focus going forward
Much of the Commission’s work over the last 4 years has been focused on building up membership momentum for the Commission’s work, ensuring that good quality projects have been developed from the Commission’s groups, and achieving greater visibility for the
Commission within INQUA. We have worked hard to improve communications with the members and to support ECR activities and to solicit new projects. Many of the activities for the past year have been focused towards the Congress in Japan in summer 2015.
Relevance and focus going forward
It is clear that the scientific focus of the Commission has wide relevance, reflecting the current levels of interest in human-environment interactions in Quaternary science. This is reflected in the large numbers of researchers in this field wishing to join HABCOM and the high number of
HABCOM sessions at the Congress devoted to themes of the Commission (34). Many of the sessions have a strongly archaeological focus and it is pleasing to see such a strong representation of researchers engaging with the archaeological record at the Congress. Despite this, we need to ensure that we become more visible and dynamic amongst the wider archaeological community and continue to strengthen our interactions with this group. We need to ensure that an even greater number of archaeological practitioners become active participants within INQUA, especially those who work on more strongly cultural elements of the discipline.
There is considerable excellent science happening within ecological branches of palaeoecology that could be better represented within our projects. The study of long-term ecological biodiversity offers great opportunities for establishing baseline conditions, ecological variability, sensitivity versus resilience of species responses to climate change and other environmental changes, use of palaeo data for conservation planning and ecosystem services.
The opportunities presented to influence ecological knowledge, conservation practice and policy offer exciting opportunities for INQUA and it would be good to see this wider thinking developed within projects and IFGs. More broadly, there is an opportunity for INQUA to play an important role within Future
Earth and we should capitalise on some of the research of our groups with end users to this effect.
The Commission would like to ensure that the wider community is made aware of these opportunities and that the Executive Committee is representing these interests and views within the broader academic community via interaction with other scientific groups and unions. The attendees of the HABCOM business meeting at the Congress welcomed this view.
Another area of considerable research interest that is generating much debate in the literature concerns the levels of human impacts through the Holocene and especially the role of complex hunter-gatherers and agriculturalists in contributing to this in different regions of the world.
Research advances in our understandings around land usage and management from the archaeological record have the ability to reveal considerable insights about the nature of the
Holocene landscape and its cultural and biological legacy. Finally, interest in the roles of herbivores and carnivores in the landscape is leading many researchers to consider interconnections between landscapes, ecosystems, species and humans. These areas should be further developed over the next inter-congress period and IFGs that cover these areas will be encouraged.
We need to more actively collaborate with other Commissions and project leaders to ensure that current gaps within disciplines can be addressed easily. Areas of overlap are routinely discussed at
INQUA Executive Committee meetings but opportunities for joint scientific projects that address
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important scientific questions in an interdisciplinary way should be increased. We will explore ways by which this might be facilitated, including appointing liaison people to explore links.
There remain some concerns that our name – Humans and Biosphere – may be mistaken to mostly represent human-environment interactions and not represent the more natural ecological elements of palaeoecology. This is not the case; the Commission’s remit covers both these areas.
Therefore, further work will be done in this area to ensure that the wider community fully appreciates coverage of this sub-discipline in the Commission’s portfolio. This will be achieved by re-visiting our mission statement, communicating with members directly around this issue and
Commission discussions at the Congress. Greater use of the Advisory board will be used to this effect. A new Board will be appointed after the Congress but about half of the Board wishes to remain in place to ensure good continuity between the groups.
New IFGs will need to be developed over the next 1-2 years, following on from several on-going
HAB COM projects that should be now be moving towards developing IFGs. Several of these have been in discussion over the last few years and these will need to nurtured going forward. Other opportunities will also be sought. New projects will also need to be encouraged from the community; to this end, I am keen to help facilitate the development of projects within underrepresented and developing regions of the world, since these projects can sometime bring immense scientific benefit to participants for the relatively small investment provided by INQUA.
This is evident within several currently funded HAB COM projects.
We need to diversify our communication strategy to ensure that scientists are aware of the
Commission’s remit, its projects and activities and appreciate its relevance. Communication needs to become more visible and dynamic and developed to be two-way, encouraging members to become more actively involved in information flow, e.g. via the newsletter, Facebook site and
Twitter. We would also like to make use of blogs to help disseminate the work of Commission funded projects and other activities. This will require the help of all: HABCOM officers, Advisory
Board, project and IFG leaders and members. At present, activities rely heavily on the energies of the President. This needs to change in the next inter-Congress period.
HABCOM has maintained its own web site through the last inter-congress period but we intend to update this towards a more interactive platform to allow the use of blogs and other social media during the next inter-congress period.
We would also like to explore how best to help develop training and mentoring needs of scientists working in developing countries and early career researchers. We shall explore this area further with ECRs, officers and members of the advisory board. We continue to encourage capacity building with scholars from low GDP countries, young researchers and ensure a better gender balance in INQUA-associated or related activities and working with applicants to that effect. As part of this, we need to ensure that our business processes are open and transparent and subject to scrutiny via elections and other processes.
Open access to data from projects and publications was an issue raised at the HABCOM business meeting at the congress; the group felt strongly that this was an area where INQUA should be following best practice and encouraging the use of open repositories and use of open access publications where possible.
Proposed actions for the next inter-congress period include: i) Update list of corresponding members following Congress; ii) In consultation with the Advisory Board and Officers, revisit and if necessary revise our mission statement to ensure that the full remit of the Commission’s activities is
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clarified. As part of this process we will also investigate whether a name change may be necessary; iii) Expand communications with the archaeological community (especially those who work in other areas rather than human impact) to strengthen links; iv) Actively solicit IFGs and projects from ecological branches of palaeoecology and explore ways in which these areas can be encouraged to influence wider research agendas, v) including ecology, conservation practice and policy;
The study of long-term ecological biodiversity offers great opportunities for establishing baseline conditions, ecological variability, sensitivity versus resilience of species responses to climate change and other environmental changes, palaeo data for conservation planning and ecosystem services vi) Opportunity for INQUA to play an important role within Future Earth seen as important within the wider community vii) Seek to develop projects and IFGs that address human impacts and land management through the Pleistocene and Holocene viii) The role of herbivores and carnivores within natural and anthropogenic systems ix) Explore ways in which links and projects with other Commissions can be more actively pursued, including using VPs to liaise pro-actively with other groups; x) Improve communication strategies and make greater use of officers, Advisory Board,
Project/IFG Leaders, ECRs and wider community to assist in this; make greater use of social media (e.g. Twitter, blogs) to this effect; xi) Update the current HABCOM web site to more interactive platform; xii) Actively encourage consideration of gender balance and the needs of young scientists and low GDP countries in the formulation of activities, training research projects and
IFGs; xiii) Continue to ensure that HAB COM activities are undertaken in an open and transparent fashion, including the use of voting systems to allow greater voice to members. xiv) Support the use of open access depositories for data sharing as part of INQUA projects and the use of open access publications.
Dr Nicki Whitehouse, 25 th July 2015
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