Africa-wide diversification of livelihood strategies: Isotopic insights into Holocene human adaptations to climate change

Sustainability challenges are intensifying across the globe and disproportionately impacting people, landscapes, and seascapes on the front lines of climate change. In particular, African communities, who contribute least to global climate change, bear the greatest burden of its impacts. Despite the African continent having the longest record of human-climate co-evolution globally, current research lacks an empirical continent-wide understanding of how Holocene livelihoods evolved to shape resilience today. To fill this gap, we analyze the archaeological and ecological context of isotopic niches (c. 11,000 BP to the present), to illustrate how adaptive strategies evolved during major climatic shifts (African Humid Period: c. 14,700–5,500 BP). We characterize Holocene livelihoods—pastoralism, cultivation, hunting-gathering, and fishing—to offer a continent-wide reference and to identify the spatiotemporal diversification patterns underpinning adaptation. This reconstruction offers critical insights into the mechanisms that shape resilience, with direct relevance for policymakers and practitioners working across climate adaptation, food security, and human well-being.