ICDP workshop on the Deep Drilling in the Turkana Basin project: exploring the link between environmental factors and hominin evolution over the past 4 Myr

Scientific drill cores provide unique windows into the processes of the past and present. In the dynamic tectonic, environmental, climatic, and ecological setting that is eastern Africa, records recovered through scientific drilling enable us to look at change through time in unprecedented ways. Cores from the East African Rift System can provide valuable information about the context in which hominins have evolved in one of the key regions of hominin evolution over the past 4 Myr. The Deep Drilling in the Turkana Basin (DDTB) project seeks to explore the impact of several types of evolution (tectonic, climatic, biological) on ecosystems and environments. This includes addressing questions regarding the region's complex and interrelated rifting and magmatic history, as well as understanding processes of sedimentation and associated hydrothermal systems within the East African Rift System. We seek to determine the relative impacts of tectonic and climatic evolution on eastern African ecosystems. We ask the follow questions: what role (if any) did climate change play in the evolution of hominins? How can our understanding of past environmental change guide our planning for a future shaped by anthropogenic climate change? To organize the scientific community's goals for deep coring in the Turkana Basin, we hosted a 4 d ICDP supported workshop in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2022. The team focused on how a 4 Myr sedimentary core from the Turkana Basin will uniquely address key scientific research objectives related to basin evolution, paleoclimate, paleoenvironment, and modern resources. Participants also discussed how DDTB could collaborate with community partners in the Turkana Basin, particularly around the themes of access to water and education. The team concluded that collecting the proposed Pliocene to modern record is best accomplished through a two-phase drilling project with a land-based transect of four cores spanning the interval from 4 Ma to the Middle–Late Pleistocene (&lt; 0.7 Ma) and a lake-based core targeting the interval from ∼ 1 Ma to present. The second phase, while logistically more challenging due to the lack of drilling infrastructure currently on Lake Turkana, would revolutionize our understanding of a significant interval in the evolution and migration of Homo sapiens for a time period not currently accessible from the Kenyan part of the Turkana Basin. Collectively, the DDTB project will provide exceptional tectonic and climatic data directly associated with one of the world's richest hominin fossil localities.</p

Reconnaissance study of groundwater quality in the artisanal gold mining districts of Migori County, Kenya

Information on groundwater quality in areas of artisanal and small-scale gold mining assists in the sustainable development, use and protection of groundwater resources. Groundwater contamination associated with mining may occur for different reasons: from pumping of mineralised and acidic mine water due to oxidation of previously reduced ore; from point or diffuse sources of contamination, mostly represented by leaks and runoff from mine tailings; and from leaks of spent water from processing plants. The extent of groundwater contamination is also influenced by many variables besides mining practices, including climatic conditions, geology and geomorphology, and their interaction. The British Geological Survey (BGS) collaborated with the University of Nairobi to carry out a groundwater quality reconnaissance and mine drainage characterisation in Migori County, Kenya. Migori County is a major artisanal and small-scale gold mining (ASGM) centre located near Lake Victoria, in southwest Kenya, close to the Tanzanian border. Gold is produced from quartz– carbonate veins within the meta-volcano-sedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Migori Greenstone Belt. This report describes the sampling and chemical analysis results of baseline water samples collected from twenty-one boreholes, dug wells or springs and seven mine shafts and panning ponds during the rainy season in November 2019. Samples were analysed for inorganic chemistry composition. The analysed inorganic constituents of waters from the boreholes, dug wells, and springs reveal that most parameters are within the acceptable limits of the World Health Organization drinking water standards (WHO, 2017). Nevertheless, there are a number of WHO exceedances of the permissible drinking water limits. These are summarised below. The nutrient nitrate (NO3) content is generally low and only found above the WHO drinking water standard of 50 mg/l in one dug well and one spring, which may be impacted by contamination from domestic wastewaters, household septic tanks and pit latrines. The fluoride (F) content is generally less than the WHO drinking water standard of 1.5 mg/l, with three exceedances out of twenty-one groundwater samples, all deep (>50 m) groundwater and with F less than 2 mg/l. Arsenic (As) shows more exceedances of the WHO drinking water quality guideline of 10 μg/l, in five of the twenty-one groundwater samples (values from 13.7 μg/l to 129 μg/l). Although high arsenic in groundwater has not previously been recorded in the area, these new findings are comparable to values already known from neighbouring mining areas in the Lake Victoria Basin in Tanzania. The primary source of As is likely to be the As mineral arsenopyrite (FeAsS), which constitutes an important part of the ore assemblage in the gold-quartz veins. The relative importance of anthropogenic and geogenic sources and the processes affecting high concentrations of arsenic in groundwater require further research. Other trace elements (e.g. Cd, Co, Cu, Ni, Pb, Sb, Zn) also potentially linked to the quartz-gold vein ore mined in the area are found in low concentrations and, for those elements of healthbased concerns, are below the relevant drinking water quality standards in all the groundwater samples. Mercury (Hg) data have been reported, although all values should be taken as a minimum due to a problem with field preservation during sampling. Mercury presence in ASGM areas is due to its use to extract gold from ore as an amalgam, and is a major human health concern. Provisional total mercury concentrations were well below the WHO standard for drinking water of 6 μg/l (for inorganic mercury) in all groundwater samples, with a median value of 0.016 μg/l. A relatively high value of dissolved Hg of 0.16 μg/l was found in a dug well water in the proximity of an ASGM site. At this site gold is extracted from tailings via tank leaching using cyanide solution and spent tailings heaps accumulate. This single sample may indicate the potential environmental threat that the cyanide gold leaching practice of mercury-laden tailings poses to groundwater, due to the formation of water-soluble cyanide-mercury complexes which enhance mercury mobility. Additional sampling and analysis of mine waters was done, as they are a potential source of contamination and also, in some cases, may be used for domestic water supply. The mine water was sampled from shafts at four sites where gold-quartz veins are mined. The mine waters, sampled from shafts mining the gold-quartz veins at four different sites, show wide variation in the concentrations of total dissolved elements, but none of them are acid, with a range of nearneutral pH values from 6.19 to 7.75. They are all bicarbonate waters and their conductivity (SEC) increases with mine shaft depth (SEC 164 to 1733 μS/cm). Fluoride and arsenic are the only elements that exceed WHO drinking water standards. Fluoride is above the WHO of 1.5 mg/l in one deep mine. Arsenic is above the WHO standard of 10 μg/l in all four mine waters and greatly exceeds the limit in two of them (178 and 190 μg/l). The chemistry of water from two panning ponds and tailings leachate confirms previous findings, being highly mineralised, with sulphate as major ion. There is variable composition in terms of potential hazardous elements, which is likely to reflect the different ore type processed at each mine: i) very acid (pH 3) metal-rich waters at Macalder, associated with the reprocessing of past tailings from mining of the Macalder poly-metallic Volcanogenic Massive Sulphide ore deposit; and ii) pH neutral waters with low hazardous element content at Osiri mine. Mercury was detected at concentration of 1 μg/l in the Osiri mine pond

Holocene bidirectional river system along the Kenya Rift and its influence on East African faunal exchange and diversity gradients

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Dommain, R., Riedl, S., Olaka, L. A., deMenocal, P., Deino, A. L., Owen, R. B., Muiruri, V., Müller, J., Potts, R., & Strecker, M. R. Holocene bidirectional river system along the Kenya Rift and its influence on East African faunal exchange and diversity gradients. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 119(28),(2022): e2121388119, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2121388119.East Africa is a global biodiversity hotspot and exhibits distinct longitudinal diversity gradients from west to east in freshwater fishes and forest mammals. The assembly of this exceptional biodiversity and the drivers behind diversity gradients remain poorly understood, with diversification often studied at local scales and less attention paid to biotic exchange between Afrotropical regions. Here, we reconstruct a river system that existed for several millennia along the now semiarid Kenya Rift Valley during the humid early Holocene and show how this river system influenced postglacial dispersal of fishes and mammals due to its dual role as a dispersal corridor and barrier. Using geomorphological, geochronological, isotopic, and fossil analyses and a synthesis of radiocarbon dates, we find that the overflow of Kenyan rift lakes between 12 and 8 ka before present formed a bidirectional river system consisting of a “Northern River” connected to the Nile Basin and a “Southern River,” a closed basin. The drainage divide between these rivers represented the only viable terrestrial dispersal corridor across the rift. The degree and duration of past hydrological connectivity between adjacent river basins determined spatial diversity gradients for East African fishes. Our reconstruction explains the isolated distribution of Nilotic fish species in modern Kenyan rift lakes, Guineo-Congolian mammal species in forests east of the Kenya Rift, and recent incipient vertebrate speciation and local endemism in this region. Climate-driven rearrangements of drainage networks unrelated to tectonic activity contributed significantly to the assembly of species diversity and modern faunas in the East African biodiversity hotspot.R.D. was funded by a Smithsonian Human Origins Postdoctoral Fellowship and by Geo.X—the Research Network for Geosciences in Berlin and Potsdam. Fig. 1 D, E, and G and SI Appendix, Figs. S1 and S3 are based on the TanDEM-X Science DEM granted to L.A.O. and S.R. by the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in 2017. L.A.O. acknowledges the Volkswagen Foundation for funding this study with Grant No. 89369. M.R.S. and S.R. were supported by funds from Potsdam University and the Geothermal Development Company of Kenya, and R.B.O. and V.M. were supported by the Hong Kong General Research Fund. We acknowledge support from the National Museums of Kenya and the Kenya Government permission granted by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and the Arts, and by the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI) Permits P/14/7709/683 (to R.P.) and P/16/11924/11448 (to L.A.O.). This work is a contribution of the Olorgesailie Drilling Project, for which support from the National Museums of Kenya, the Oldonyo Nyokie Group Ranch, the Peter Buck Fund for Human Origins Research (Smithsonian Institution), the William H. Donner Foundation, the Ruth and Vernon Taylor Foundation, Whitney and Betty MacMillan, and the Smithsonian Human Origins Program is gratefully acknowledged. LacCore is acknowledged for support in drilling and core storage

Envisioning a World Beyond APCs/BPCs

This archival page includes documents and recordings related to the international symposium, “Envisioning a World Beyond APCs/BPCs,” held in Lawrence, Kansas, on Thursday and Friday, November 17-18. The presenters were a group of 18 internationally respected scholars, publishers, university librarians, and executives from foundations and organizations, who were asked to participate in a discussion about current models available for achieving an expansive, inclusive, and balanced worldwide open publishing ecosystem. The symposium was co-sponsored by the University of Kansas Libraries, Open Access Network (a project of K|N Consultants), Allen Press, SPARC, and ARL. The materials included here are the symposium schedule, recordings of Parts 1 and 2 of the Nov. 17 livestream, a transcript of the livestream, and team proposals originating from the Nov. 18 morning session.This symposium was sponsored by the University of Kansas Libraries, Open Access Network (a project of K|N Consultants), Allen Press, and SPARC

Information professionals and copyright literacy: a multinational study

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to present findings from a multinational survey on copyright literacy of specialists from libraries and other cultural institutions. Design/methodology/approach: This paper is based on a multinational survey of copyright literacy competencies of Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals and those who work in the cultural heritage sector (archives and museums), conducted in 13 countries, namely Bulgaria (BG), Croatia (CR), Finland (FI), France (FR), Hungary (HU), Lithuania (LT), Mexico (MX), Norway (NO), Portugal (PT), Romania (RO), Turkey (TR), UK and USA in the period July 2013-March 2015. An online survey instrument was developed in order to collect data from professionals regarding their familiarity with, knowledge and awareness of, and opinions on copyright-related issues. Findings: Findings of this study highlight gaps in existing knowledge of copyright, and information about the level of copyright literacy of LIS and cultural sector professionals. Also attitudes toward copyright learning content in academic education and continuing professional development training programs are investigated. Originality/value: This study aimed to address a gap in the literature by encompassing specialists from the cultural institutions in an international comparative context. The paper offers guidance for further understanding of copyright in a wider framework of digital and information literacy; and for the implementation of copyright policy, and the establishment of copyright advisor positions in cultural institutions. The recommendations support a revision of academic and continuing education programs learning curriculum and methods

PaCTS 1.0: a crowdsourced reporting standard for paleoclimate data

The progress of science is tied to the standardization of measurements, instruments, and data. This is especially true in the Big Data age, where analyzing large data volumes critically hinges on the data being standardized. Accordingly, the lack of community-sanctioned data standards in paleoclimatology has largely precluded the benefits of Big Data advances in the field. Building upon recent efforts to standardize the format and terminology of paleoclimate data, this article describes the Paleoclimate Community reporTing Standard (PaCTS), a crowdsourced reporting standard for such data. PaCTS captures which information should be included when reporting paleoclimate data, with the goal of maximizing the reuse value of paleoclimate datasets, particularly for synthesis work and comparison to climate model simulations. Initiated by the LinkedEarth project, the process to elicit a reporting standard involved an international workshop in 2016, various forms of digital community engagement over the next few years, and grassroots working groups. Participants in this process identified important properties across paleoclimate archives, in addition to the reporting of uncertainties and chronologies; they also identified archive-specific properties and distinguished reporting standards for new vs. legacy datasets. This work shows that at least 135 respondents overwhelmingly support a drastic increase in the amount of metadata accompanying paleoclimate datasets. Since such goals are at odds with present practices, we discuss a transparent path towards implementing or revising these recommendations in the near future, using both bottom-up and top-down approaches

Lakeside View: Sociocultural Responses to Changing Water Levels of Lake Turkana, Kenya

Throughout the Holocene, Lake Turkana has been subject to drastic changes in lake levels and the subsistence strategies people employ to survive in this hot and arid region. In this paper, we reconstruct the position of the lake during the Holocene within a paleoclimatic context. Atmospheric forcing mechanisms are discussed in order to contextualize the broader landscape changes occurring in eastern Africa over the last 12,000 years. The Holocene is divided into five primary phases according to changes in the strand-plain evolution, paleoclimate, and human subsistence strategies practiced within the basin. Early Holocene fishing settlements occurred adjacent to high and relatively stable lake levels. A period of high-magnitude oscillations in lake levels ensued after 9,000 years BP and human settlements appear to have been located close to the margins of the lake. Aridification and a final regression in lake levels ensued after 5,000 years BP and human communities were generalized pastoralists-fishers-foragers. During the Late Holocene, lake levels may have dropped below their present position and subsistence strategies appear to have been flexible and occasionally specialized on animal pastoralism. Modern missionary and government outposts have encouraged the construction of permanent settlements in the region, which are heavily dependent on outside resources for their survival. Changes in the physical and cultural environments of the Lake Turkana region have been closely correlated, and understanding the relationship between the two variables remains a vital component of archaeological research

Pharmaceutical pollution of the world's rivers

Environmental exposure to active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) can have negative effects on the health of ecosystems and humans. While numerous studies have monitored APIs in rivers, these employ different analytical methods, measure different APIs, and have ignored many of the countries of the world. This makes it difficult to quantify the scale of the problem from a global perspective. Furthermore, comparison of the existing data, generated for different studies/regions/continents, is challenging due to the vast differences between the analytical methodologies employed. Here, we present a global-scale study of API pollution in 258 of the world's rivers, representing the environmental influence of 471.4 million people across 137 geographic regions. Samples were obtained from 1,052 locations in 104 countries (representing all continents and 36 countries not previously studied for API contamination) and analyzed for 61 APIs. Highest cumulative API concentrations were observed in sub-Saharan Africa, south Asia, and South America. The most contaminated sites were in low- to middle-income countries and were associated with areas with poor wastewater and waste management infrastructure and pharmaceutical manufacturing. The most frequently detected APIs were carbamazepine, metformin, and caffeine (a compound also arising from lifestyle use), which were detected at over half of the sites monitored. Concentrations of at least one API at 25.7% of the sampling sites were greater than concentrations considered safe for aquatic organisms, or which are of concern in terms of selection for antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, pharmaceutical pollution poses a global threat to environmental and human health, as well as to delivery of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals

Baseline review and ecosystem services assessment of the Tana River Basin, Kenya

The ‘WISE-UP to climate’ project aims to demonstrate the value of natural infrastructure as a ‘nature-based solution’ for climate change adaptation and sustainable development. Within the Tana River Basin, both natural and built infrastructure provide livelihood benefits for people. Understanding the interrelationships between the two types of infrastructure is a prerequisite for sustainable water resources development and management. This is particularly true as pressures on water resources intensify and the impacts of climate change increase. This report provides an overview of the biophysical characteristics, ecosystem services and links to livelihoods within the basin