Research Explorer

Project

Fossil spores of coprophilous fungi in Ugandan lake sediments: expanding the biological toolbox to reconstruct the history of pastoralism in East Africa
Code
01D30917
Duration
01 October 2017 → 30 September 2021
Funding
Regional and community funding: Special Research Fund
Research disciplines
  • Natural sciences
    • Evolutionary biology
    • Microbiology
    • Systems biology
  • Medical and health sciences
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Microbiology
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Laboratory medicine
    • Microbiology
  • Agricultural and food sciences
    • Other agriculture, forestry, fisheries and allied sciences
Keywords
palaeoecology fungal spores lake sediments African history
 
Project description
 

Knowledge on how ancient indigenous East African people used its landscape and natural resources is shrouded behind a curtain of scarce archaeological finds and lack of written sources. This project aims to reconstruct the history of pastoralism (animal husbandry) by optimizing a palaeoecological tool based on the assemblages of fossil spores of coprophilous (dung-loving) fungi preserved in dated lake sediments.