Doctoral Dissertation Award: Human Adaptation To Environmental Variability

博士论文奖：人类对环境变化的适应

• 批准号: 1562353
• 负责人: Ben Fitzhugh
• 金额: $ 1.63万
• 依托单位: University of Washington
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2016
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2016-03-15 至 2018-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1562353&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Award; Human; Adaptation

Little is known about the sensitivity of marine mammal species and their human predators to environmental changes. Iñupiaq people of the northwest Alaskan coast today rely on marine mammal hunting for a large portion of their subsistence as they have for millennia, but it is uncertain how observed and expected changes in the marine ecosystem might affect future food security. Archaeology is uniquely situated to provide perspective on this problem because it can consider human activity over long periods of time, and investigate how past changes affected marine mammals and their human hunters. This research will examine if and how environmental variability in the Arctic over the past 2,000 years affected marine mammals that in turn influenced human hunting patterns. This project will compare evidence for changes in marine conditions and their timing to variation in human diet based on the remains of animal bones from archaeological sites. This research will also contribute long-term baseline data enabling broader understanding of marine ecological dynamics in the Arctic. Results of the study will be incorporated into National Park Service public media and curriculum that is shared with northwest Alaska schools. Hunter-gatherers generally focus on capturing resources that provide the highest energy return compared to energy expended. The diet of northwest Alaskan peoples has varied over the past two millennia, but it is unclear if these shifts are in any way linked to the health of marine mammals, on which contemporary communities rely. It is expected that variations in marine mammal health, brought about by changes in the marine environment, should drive these shifts. To evaluate this claim, the co-PI will identify and tally animal remains to asses changes in human diet over the study period. The marine environment will be reconstructed by measuring isotopes of carbon and nitrogen present in archaeological marine mammal bones throughout the same period. The analysis is complemented by an existing radiocarbon chronology that will be augmented where needed to ensure tight control over the ages of analyzed samples. By comparing the timing of changes in human dietary preference to changes in the marine environment, this study will assess the influence of marine health on the diets of coastal Alaskans. Results of this research will provide time-depth and broader context to studies of current environmental changes and their impact on communities reliant on marine mammal hunting.

关于海洋哺乳动物物种及其人类捕食者对环境变化的敏感性知之甚少。今天，阿拉斯加西北海岸的Iñupiaq人民依靠海洋哺乳动物狩猎，他们像千年来那样谋生，但尚不确定海洋生态系统的观察和预期变化可能会影响未来的粮食安全。考古学是独特的，可以在这个问题上提供观点，因为它可以长期考虑人类活动，并研究过去的变化如何影响海洋哺乳动物及其人类猎人。这项研究将检查过去2000年中北极的环境变异性以及如何影响海洋哺乳动物，进而影响了人类狩猎模式。该项目将根据存档学位的动物骨骼的剩余，将海洋状况变化及其时间的变化与人类饮食的变化进行比较。这项研究还将贡献长期基线数据，从而使人们对北极的海洋生态动态更广泛地了解。该研究的结果将纳入与西北阿拉斯加学校共享的国家公园管理局公共媒体和课程中。与所探索的能源相比，猎人采集者通常专注于捕获提供最高能源回报的资源。在过去的两千年中，西北阿拉斯加人民的饮食有所不同，但是目前尚不清楚这些转变是否与当代社区所依赖的海洋哺乳动物的健康有关。预计海洋哺乳动物健康的变化会因海洋环境的变化而引起这些变化。为了评估这一主张，CO-PI将在研究期间确定和紧密的动物依赖人类饮食的变化。海洋环境将通过测量在同一时期的考古海洋哺乳动物骨骼中的碳和氮的同位素来重建。该分析是由现有的放射性碳年表完成的，该时间顺序将在需要的情况下增加，以确保对分析样本的年龄进行严格的控制。通过比较人类饮食偏爱与海洋环境变化的变化的时机，这项研究将评估海洋健康对阿拉斯加沿海饮食的影响。这项研究的结果将为当前环境变化及其对依赖海洋哺乳动物狩猎的社区的影响提供时间深度和更广泛的背景。