CNH2-L: Climate Change and the Coupled Dynamics of Tropical Forest Ecology and Human Food Production

CNH2-L：气候变化以及热带森林生态和人类粮食生产的耦合动态

基本信息

批准号：
1923957
负责人：
Robert Rosenswig
金额：
$ 159.91万
依托单位：
SUNY at Albany
依托单位国家：
美国
项目类别：
Standard Grant
财政年份：
2020
资助国家：
美国
起止时间：
2020-01-01 至 2025-06-30
项目状态：
未结题

来源：
https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1923957&HistoricalAwards=false
关键词：
CNH2 Climate Change Coupled Dynamics

项目摘要

The emergence of food production represents one of the most significant positive changes in the history of human society. Food production set the stage for virtually all subsequent cultural developments. Coincident with these changes was the rise of cultural selection replacing natural selection as the determining force in the ecology and evolution of plant and animal species. Food production was tightly tied to climate and drought and significant changes in these factors often resulted in disruption of production and cultural collapse. This award investigates the origins of food production in the tropical lowlands of Belize, Central America occurring from 3000-6000 years ago and the ecological and cultural response to a three-century drought that began 4200 years ago. Climate modeling, environmental reconstruction and archaeological inference of human adaptation will be used to evaluate the long-term relationships among these factors and changing socio-environmental dynamics. This study will provide insights to the experience of thousands of generations of human responses to environmental change and potential guidance so that future generations can be more resilient to major environmental changes. This research is transformative in advancing basic understanding of interactions between how human populations feed themselves and tropical forest ecology in response to profound environmental change. This award will examine how drying environmental conditions affect human subsistence practices and how intensified food production, in turn, affect local vegetation patterns. Food production is one of the most significant developments in the history of the human species and as the determining force in the evolution of a select number of plant and animal species. Food production has long been acknowledged as setting the stage for virtually all subsequent cultural developments by increasing the carrying capacity of land, the degree of sedentism that is possible as well as greater population density. As a result, the production of food was a required prerequisite for the establishment of urban life. Food production is also necessary to underwrite the division of labor within society that allowed farmers to support ever-increasing numbers of non-producers such as political rulers, priests, engineers and scientists. Environmental change is often posited as resulting in cultural collapse. The reconstruction of human occupation and forest floral species diversity in the tropical lowlands of northern Belize, Central America will be reconstructed from 6000-3000 year ago to document how food production and settlement patterns were affected by climate change and, in turn, how local vegetation was reconstituted. This reconstruction will be accomplished by combining archaeological excavation that document human habitation and lake sediment coring to reconstruct changing patterns of plant pollen from economically useful species and charcoal that result from human burning of local vegetation to increase soil productivity. Research will focus on the "4.2 ka BP event" that caused three centuries of climate disturbance world-wide between 4200 and 3900 years ago. Evidence of human settlement patterns and diet from before, during and after this period will be used to evaluate paleoecological evidence of changing species availability and the extent of anthropogenic disturbance through the use of fire. Evidence of human settlement patterns and diet will be evaluated in light of expectations of niche construction theory (NCT) and optimal foraging theory (OFT) and related to evidence of changing species availability and the extent of anthropogenic disturbance on the landscape with fire.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

粮食生产的出现代表了人类社会历史上最重大的积极变化之一。粮食生产为几乎所有随后的文化发展奠定了基础。与这些变化一致的是，文化选择的兴起取代了自然选择作为动植物物种的生态和进化中的决定力。粮食生产与气候和干旱紧密相关，这些因素的重大变化通常会导致生产和文化崩溃的破坏。该奖项调查了中美洲伯利兹的热带低地粮食生产的起源，发生在3000 - 6000年前，以及4200年前开始的三世纪干旱的生态和文化反应。人类适应的气候建模，环境重建和考古推断将用于评估这些因素之间的长期关系和改变社会环境动态。这项研究将为数千代人类对环境变化和潜在指导的反应的经验提供见解，以使后代可以更适合重大的环境变化。这项研究具有变革性，可以促进人们对人类自我养育方式与热带森林生态学之间的相互作用的基本理解，以应对深刻的环境变化。该奖项将研究干燥环境条件如何影响人类的生存实践，以及粮食生产的加剧又如何影响当地的植被模式。粮食生产是人类历史上最重要的发展之一，也是精选数量动植物物种进化的决定力。长期以来，人们一直认为，粮食生产是通过提高土地的承载能力，可能的久坐程度以及更高的人口密度来为几乎所有随后的文化发展奠定了基础。结果，食物的生产是建立城市生活所需的先决条件。粮食生产对于承诺社会内部的劳动分工也是必要的，该劳动力使农民能够支持越来越多的非制作人，例如政治统治者，牧师，工程师和科学家。环境变化通常被认为是导致文化崩溃的。从6000 - 3000年前，将重建中美洲的热带低地人类占领和森林花卉物种多样性，以记录粮食生产和定居方式如何受到气候变化的影响，而又如何对地方植被进行重新构成。这项重建将通过结合考古发掘来实现，这些考古发掘将人类居住和湖泊沉积物加芯重建，从经济上有用的物种和木炭中重建植物花粉的变化模式，这些物种和木炭是由人类燃烧局部植被以提高土壤生产率的。研究将重点介绍“ 4.2 KA BP事件”，该活动在4200年至3900年前在全球范围内引起了三个世纪的气候干扰。从之前，之中和之后，人类定居模式和饮食的证据将用于评估改变物种可用性的古生态证据以及通过使用火力来评估人为障碍的程度。 Evidence of human settlement patterns and diet will be evaluated in light of expectations of niche construction theory (NCT) and optimal foraging theory (OFT) and related to evidence of changing species availability and the extent of anthropogenic disturbance on the landscape with fire.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.