Climate Changes, Ecological Shifts, and Human Adaptation: Insights from Pleistocene to Holocene Paleoecology in Mediterranean and Central Europe

The interactions between human populations and their environments across the Mediterranean Basin and Central Europe have been marked by significant climatic and ecological changes from the early Pleistocene to the Holocene. A palaeoecological perspective provides crucial insights into how ancient human communities adapted to these changing conditions. Current research emphasizes reconstructing past environments and understanding the intricacies of human adaptation through diverse evidence such as palynological and anthracological analyses, faunal studies, climatic reconstructions, and isotopic and biomolecular techniques. Despite advancements in these areas, comprehensive analyses that integrate multiple lines of evidence are needed to fully grasp how humans historically interacted with and adapted to diverse ecosystems.

This Research Topic aims to enrich our understanding of human-environment dynamics in the Mediterranean and Central European regions across significant temporal spans, assessing regional variations in these interactions and the avenues of human adaptation.

The objective of this Research Topic is to examine the complex interactions between humans and their environments over extensive chronologies and diverse ecological zones. By exploring varied evidence, the topic aims to answer how ancient human societies adapted their settlement, dietary, and technological strategies in response to climatic fluctuations and ecological changes. This initiative invites contributions exploring key questions regarding the paleoecology of vegetation, mammals, and herpetofauna, and how these elements shaped human subsistence strategies, as well as human-induced environmental changes.

This research topic will address a range of themes, including regional and temporal dynamics, and invites contributions exploring:

-Environmental and human dynamics from the early Pleistocene to Holocene, assessing geographical variations across southern Europe, the Near East, North Africa, and Central Europe.

-Paleoecological reconstructions using palynological and anthracological data to understand ancient vegetation and fire regimes, and large/small mammal ecology.

-Herpetofaunal assemblages and faunal remains analysis to infer ecological conditions, biogeographical changes, prey availability, and human subsistence.

-Climatic impact reconstructions on human societies, and evaluations of adaptation strategies including settlement shifts, dietary changes, and technological advancements.

-Isotopic and biomolecular techniques to explore ancient diets, migration patterns, resource use, genetic adaptations, and population dynamics.

-Human-induced environmental changes, examining the long-term ecological impacts of activities such as agriculture, hunting, and settlement.

We invite multidisciplinary contributions from fields including archaeology, paleontology, ecology, climatology, and anthropology. By leveraging diverse methodologies and regional studies, this collection seeks to provide innovative insights into the survival and adaptation strategies of ancient human populations and their enduring legacy on Mediterranean and Central European ecosystems.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• FAIR² DATA Direct Submission
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Review
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Climate Changes, Human Adaptation, Human-Environment Dynamics, Mediterranean, Central Europe

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.