MPI-GEA researchers are part of a long-term collaborative ethnographic framework applying isotope analysis to human hair to study how pastoralist diets in eastern Africa adapt to rainfall variation in increasingly extreme 21^st century conditions.

Climate change, deforestation, and habitat loss are promoting increasingly uniform forests, where fast-growing tree species displace native trees. This reduces biodiversity, makes trees less resilient to disease, and weakens forests’ ability to store CO₂. This is shown by a comprehensive international study.