Maori Transformation of the New Zealand Landscape Through the Use of Fire: A Case Study from South-Central South Island

毛利人通过用火改变新西兰景观：南岛中南部的案例研究

• 批准号: 0645821
• 负责人: Cathy Whitlock
• 金额: $ 27.48万
• 依托单位: Montana State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2007
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2007-03-01 至 2011-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0645821&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Maori; Transformation; New; Zealand; Landscape

Proposal 0645821Cathy WhitlockMontana State UniversityAn understanding of prehistoric peoples and their influence on the environment is a central theme in geography and a topic of heated debate in North America. In most parts of the world, assessment of landscape modification is complicated by the need for precise information on prehistoric activities, as well as a record of environmental change that can distinguish human impacts from natural ones. This challenge is seldom met, because the debate over whether preEuropean landscapes were pristine or heavily modified is generally waged in places where human presence and environmental change have long joint histories. New Zealand is a rare exception and affords an unparalleled opportunity to study (1) human transformation of a forested landscape in the absence of major climate change, and (2) the consequences of fire in an ecosystem that had not previously experienced burning. Maori arrived and settled New Zealand in the 13th century, and soon thereafter reduced the original closed forest cover by nearly 40%. This event is one of the most rapid and complete landscape conversions recorded anywhere in the world. The proposed investigation will provide a better understanding of human-environment interactions in a relatively "controlled" experiment: Prior to 800 AD, there were no people in NZ and fire was rare. After Maori arrival, the vegetation was transformed in grand style from forest to grassland and evidence of burning abounds. The investigation will examine how deforestation was achieved and maintained on the South Island of New Zealand. The key questions are: Was landscape burning a frequent, purposeful activity designed to maintain an open vegetation cover? Or, were some areas more vulnerable to accidental, occasional fire than others, which led to forest demise in some regions and less severe consequences in others? To answer these questions, the latest techniques in charcoal and microfossil analysis will be applied at lake sites within a single watershed to generate a detailed reconstruction of fire frequency and vegetation change spanning the period from pre-human conditions to Maori arrival and finally European settlement. The investigation builds upon and complements an existing New Zealand-funded project that takes a more regional approach. Together, these projects will provide critical insights into how prehistoric people and later Europeans controlled the landscape, how management strategies evolved over time, and how local activities led to regional ecological transformation. Paleoecologic records from six small lakes in close proximity will be analyzed to determine if the initial burning occurred in a time-transgressive pattern along elevational gradients or whether it was synchronous across the area. Spatial differences in fire characteristics and vegetation response will help assess whether or not Maori-set fires were severe and frequent enough to maintain an open landscape everywhere. The focus on the study is on the initial shock of anthropogenic fire on a relatively dry landscape where fires prior to people were extremely rare. The two-phased impact of humans in New Zealand, first by indigenous people and then by Europeans, on a landscape that had not experienced much fire offers an opportunity to examine the mechanisms behind human-triggered ecological changes in general.

提案0645821 Cathy Whitlockmontana州立大学对史前人民的理解及其对环境的影响是地理的中心主题，也是北美激烈辩论的话题。 在世界上大多数地区，对景观修改的评估使得需要有关史前活动的精确信息以及可以将人类影响与自然影响区分开的环境变化的记录变得复杂。 这一挑战很少受到应对，因为关于欧洲景观是原始的还是重大修改的辩论，通常在人类存在和环境变化具有较长的共同历史的地方进行。 新西兰是一个罕见的例外，在没有重大气候变化的情况下，为研究森林景观的人类转变提供了无与伦比的机会，以及（2）在以前从未经历过燃烧的生态系统中，火的后果。 毛利人到达并在13世纪定居新西兰，此后不久将原始的封闭森林覆盖量减少了近40％。 该活动是世界上任何地方记录的最快，最完整的景观转换之一。 拟议的调查将在相对“受控”的实验中更好地了解人类环境的相互作用：在公元800年之前，新西兰没有人，火灾很少。 毛利人到达后，植被以宏伟的风格从森林转变为草原，燃烧的证据很多。 该调查将研究如何在新西兰南岛实现和维持森林砍伐。 关键问题是：景观是否燃烧旨在维持开放植被覆盖的频繁，有目的的活动？ 或者，某些地区是否比其他地区更容易造成意外，偶尔发生火灾，而其他地区会导致某些地区森林灭亡，而另一些地区造成了较不严重的后果？ 为了回答这些问题，将在单个流域内的湖泊地点应用木炭和微化石分析的最新技术，以产生详细的火灾频率和植被变化的重建，这些变化涵盖了从人类前的条件到毛利人到达的时期，再到欧洲定居点。 调查基于并补充了一个新西兰资助的现有项目，该项目采用了更新的方法。 这些项目将共同提供有关史前人民和后来欧洲人如何控制景观，管理策略如何随着时间推移以及当地活动如何导致区域生态转型的如何发展的关键见解。 将分析来自六个小湖泊的古生物记录，以确定沿着高度梯度的时间转换模式出现的初始燃烧是否发生，还是整个区域的同步。 火灾特征和植被反应上的空间差异将有助于评估毛利人场景是否严重且频繁地频繁，以维持到处的开放景观。 对这项研究的重点是在相对干燥的景观上发生人为火灾的初始冲击，在这种景观中，人们在人们之前的大火极为罕见。 人类对新西兰的两步影响，首先是土著人民，然后是欧洲人，对没有太多火灾的景观产生的景观，提供了一个机会，可以检查一般的生态变化背后的机制。