Kevin Uno
Uno, an assistant research professor, at Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, investigates the role climate change played in human population dynamics and migration. His research project will advance understanding of how abrupt climate shifts affected Neolithic human populations in northwest Africa.
Historical changes in northern and Sub-Saharan African rainfall impact food security and water availability for more than 150 million people. Uno will look to the past to develop a better understanding of how populations have responded to large changes in regional rainfall. He’ll develop a detailed climate context for the archeological record of human occupation at Gobero, Niger—home of the oldest Saharan cemetery—a region where climate abruptly transitioned from wet to dry conditions nearly 5,000 years ago.
Uno’s findings will reveal how climate transitions affected human settlement, diet, and abandonment, and can inform how different subsistence lifestyles influence population resilience to climate shifts.