Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/38693262/)

These scientists wanted to understand how people in the past were able to deal with difficult situations and bounce back from them. They looked at information from different time periods over the past 30,000 years to see how different groups of people were affected by challenges.

They found that when communities faced problems often, they actually became better at handling future issues. They also discovered that the way people used the land where they lived played a big role in how well they could recover from tough times. For example, groups that farmed or herded animals were more likely to face challenges but were also better at recovering from them compared to other groups.

Overall, the scientists learned that there are pros and cons to different ways of using the land, and it's important to think about these trade-offs when making decisions about how to live and work in a certain area.

Riris P., Silva F., Crema E., Palmisano A., Robinson E., Siegel PE., French JC., Jorgensen EK., Maezumi SY., Solheim S., Bates J., Davies B., Oh Y., Ren X. Frequent disturbances enhanced the resilience of past human populations. Nature. 2024 May;629(8013):837-842. doi: 10.1038/s41586-024-07354-8. Epub 2024 May 1.