Impact of climatic and environmental variability on faunal composition and distribution of molluscan and mammalian faunas in Eastern Africa

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Friedemann Schrenk
• Subject Area: Palaeontology
• Term: from 2006 to 2012
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 18857975

The causal link between climatic and faunal change has been hypothezised for faunal groups of different ecosystems (Bromage and Schrenk 1999). The aim of this project is to test these hypotheses by detailed analyses of Eastern African terrestrial and lacustrine community structures in a temporal and geographical context. For the terrestrial fauna interpretations are derived mainly from the analysis of ecovariables of mammalian communities, such as feeding habit, body size and locomotion preferences. For the lacustrine molluscan fauna a framework to trace environmental change is available with the utilization of molecular methods and phylogeographic analysis. By combining both strategies we expect to be able to develop a temporally and geographically fine scaled regional East African model of habitat and faunal change which can be linked to models of climate change in the African Mio-Plio-Pleistocene and provide insight into interdependencies of lacustrine and terrestrial evolutionary processes in relation to each other and to climatic change.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 703: Rift Dynamics, Uplift and Climate Change in Equatorial Africa: Interdisciplinary Research Linking Asthenospere, Lithosphere, Biosphere and Atmosphere
• Participating Persons: Professor Dr. Christian Albrecht; Professor Dr. Ottmar Kullmer