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To improve climate models, an international team turns to archaeological data

The project, called LandCover6k, offers a new classification system that the researchers hope will improve predictions about the planet’s future and fill in gaps about its past.
farming graphics
The LandCover6k project uses a hierarchical classification system. An upper-level category captures an idea at its broadest, with several distinct subcategories funneling down from there. This quartet show the subgroups of the “pastoralism” category (from top left, clockwise): “Anchored pastoralism,” shown as sheep and cattle near a settlement; “ranching,” with cattle enclosed in pasture land; “mobile, irregular,” with sheep and goats moving along a less well-trodden path; and “mobile, regular,” with those same animals shepherded along a specific path. (Image: Jennifer Bates, created with Biorender, published in PLOS ONE)

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