Climate at the time of the Human settlement of the Eastern Pacific

About the project

The migration into the Pacific Ocean and the settlement of island archipelagoes by the ancestors of modern Pacific islanders is contested yet remains one of humankinds greatest achievements. Evidence for when and why people chose to undertake hazardous voyages is uncertain, but recent hypotheses developed in part by the supervisory team, point to a coincidence with a widespread regional drought (Sear et al. 2020; Maloney et al. 2022). What we are less certain of is what role climate played in driving the migrations east into Polynesia and how it supported those migrations – were they in effect “chasing the rain” east as drought developed in the west? What is also unclear is the extent of this drought and the detail of its duration around the eastern region settled by the Polynesian voyagers. To understand this requires robust dated sediment archives containing both unequivocal evidence for human arrival and presence, and hydroclimate proxies. This project will develop these for 3 islands in French Polynesia and combine the new records with existing evidence from other regions of the Pacific (e.g. Cook Is., Marquesas Is. e.g. Allen et al. 2011) to understand the temporal and spatial coincidence of climate and human migration.

For full project details visit the Inspire project page .

Supervisors

• Professor David Sear (University of Southampton)
• Professor Pete Langdon (University of Southampton)
• Professor Paul Hughes (University of Southampton)
• Dr Richard Pearce (University of Southampton)

Lead supervisor

• Lead supervisor: DS Professor David Sear Professor

Professor David Sear

• Professor David Sear: Professor

Professor Pete Langdon

• Climate-environment-human interactions
• Freshwater ecosystem resilience and functioning
• Tipping points in the environment

Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D.

• Professor Paul Hughes BSc. Ph.D.: Professor of Palaeoecology

Dr Richard Pearce

• Research interests include the study of past climates, in particular from varve archives in freshwater and marine environments, the mineralogy of fine-grained clay-rich sediments, and the application of electron microscopy techniques to archaeological materials.

Entry requirements

A 2:1 honours degree, or its international equivalent , in one of these subjects:

• any earth or environmental science discipline
• oceanography or marine science

Fees and funding

INSPIRE studentships are funded by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, part of UK Research and Innovation, UKRI). The stipend is in line with UKRI standard levels, including the recent cost of living increase.

All studentships are fully funded for 3.5 years.

How to apply

To make an application, visit the how to apply section of the Inspire website .

Contact us

For questions about the project, email Professor David Sear:

For questions about the application process, email the graduate school office:

• d.sear@soton.ac.uk
• gsnocs@soton.ac.uk

Research areas