Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Transition: Analyses of Sediment Core Materials from the Sesecapa Lagoon, Pacific Coastal Guatemala

了解气候变化和环境转变：危地马拉太平洋沿岸塞塞卡帕泻湖沉积物核心材料的分析

• 批准号: 1321355
• 负责人: Molly Morgan
• 金额: $ 4.4万
• 依托单位: University of Texas at San Antonio
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-10-01 至 2016-09-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1321355&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Understanding; Climate; Change; Environmental; Transition

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Molly Morgan will coordinate the analysis of a geological core collected from the Sesecapa Lagoon in Pacific coastal Guatemala. Using radiocarbon dating, floral, faunal and geological and chemical analysis Dr. Morgan will develop a detailed and chronologically sensitive reconstruction of climate change and environmental transformation for this portion of the Pacific coast. Because human habitation of this coastal region extends over multiple millennia it provides a comparative record which will allow researchers to examine the multi-directional interactions between environmental change and societal response. It is expected that the core will document ca. 6,000 years and thus cover the entire occupation span. Archaeologically the region documents athe shift from residential mobility and low-level food production to permanent sedentism and sociocultural complexity and the rise of complex society.Recent paleoclimatic research recognizes that this period following the last "Ice Age" experienced shifts in climate that must have affected human populations, but understanding of local mechanisms are often lacking and detailed associated culture change remain obscure. On the Pacific coast of Middle America, as well as tropic coasts in many other regions of the world, these changes included the formation of lagoons and beach formation and progradation. These would be documented in the core. In addition to the new light which will be shed on regional archaeology the project has multiple broader impacts. The research will document a major type of landscape transition - the closing off of saltwater estuaries and the subsequent formation of freshwater lagoons - a currently ongoing process on the Pacific coast. The work will provide a detailed understanding of beach accumulation rates and landscape effects. Communities living in this wetland area today can use this information to plan for changes that they will face as rivers continue to dump sediments along the coast and estuary environments transform. Secondly the results may be more broadly generalized.

在国家科学基金会的支持下，莫莉·摩根博士将协调对从危地马拉太平洋沿岸塞塞卡帕泻湖收集的地质岩心进行分析。摩根博士将利用放射性碳测年、花卉、动物、地质和化学分析，对太平洋沿岸这部分地区的气候变化和环境转变进行详细且按时间顺序排列的重建。由于这个沿海地区的人类居住已经延续了数千年，因此它提供了比较记录，使研究人员能够研究环境变化与社会反应之间的多向相互作用。预计核心将记录大约。 6000年，从而涵盖了整个职业跨度。从考古学角度来看，该地区记录了从居住流动性和低水平粮食生产到永久定居和社会文化复杂性以及复杂社会兴起的转变。最近的古气候研究认识到，上一个“冰河时代”之后的这段时期经历了气候变化，这肯定影响了气候变化。人口，但往往缺乏对当地机制的了解，并且详细的相关文化变化仍然模糊。在中美洲的太平洋沿岸以及世界许多其他地区的热带海岸，这些变化包括泻湖的形成以及海滩的形成和扩展。这些将记录在核心中。除了为区域考古学带来新的启示之外，该项目还具有多种更广泛的影响。该研究将记录一种主要的景观转变类型——咸水河口的关闭以及随后淡水泻湖的形成——这是太平洋沿岸目前正在进行的过程。这项工作将提供对海滩堆积率和景观影响的详细了解。如今，生活在这片湿地地区的社区可以利用这些信息来规划他们将面临的变化，因为河流继续沿海岸倾倒沉积物，河口环境发生变化。其次，结果可能具有更广泛的概括性。