Doctoral Dissertation Research: Origins and Ecology of Forest Islands in Amazonian Savannas of Northern Bolivia

随着人们越来越重视了解全球环境变化的复杂动态，更清楚地了解人类改变和应对自然环境变化的复杂方式的必要性变得更加重要。直到最近，许多自然科学家才开始意识到，欧洲人第一次探索美洲大片地区时遇到的地形，经过数千年的定居，已经被美洲原住民大幅改变。这一博士论文研究项目将及时检查发生在前哥伦布时代的人类与自然过程之间的相互作用。研究将侧重于对导致Llanos de Moxos景观格局的过程进行分析，Llanos de Moxos是玻利维亚东北部亚马逊流域西南部季节性洪水泛滥的稀树草原。将特别注意在该区域的“草原”(草原)上方形成“小岛”(森林覆盖的岛屿或丘陵)。我们将研究几个旨在解释森林岛屿发展的替代假设。这些假设包括白蚁活动、走廊森林碎片化、被遗弃的史前土方工程的殖民化，以及土著人民有意种植。将开展实地工作，以确定不同类型的森林岛屿的特征，确定岛屿形成过程，并制定了解该区域景观演变的历史框架。将对土壤和地层剖面进行采样和描述，并将跨样带绘制、收集和测量植被图。将对森林岛屿进行调查，并对数据进行分析和解释，以便根据岛屿的起源过程及其植被构成对岛屿进行分类。考古材料将被用来帮助确定人类过程的作用，以及被发现在森林岛屿的形成和维护中起作用的自然过程。该项目将提供有关人类在复杂景观改造中的历史作用的有价值的新信息。除了扩大关于南美洲其他地方以及北美和非洲发现的景观类型的知识外，这项研究还将提供与保护生物学、热带生物地理学以及景观的起源和动态研究相关的更广泛的过程。该项目与研究全球环境变化的人文层面极为相关，作为博士论文改进奖，该奖项还将提供支持，使有前途的学生能够建立强大的独立研究生涯。

The need for clearer understanding of the complex ways that humans have altered and responded to changes in their natural environments has become more important as increasing attention is devoted to understanding the complex dynamics of global environmental change. Only recently have many natural scientists come to realize that the landscapes encountered by Europeans when they first explored large parts of the Americas had been modified significantly by native Americans over thousands of years of settlement. This doctoral dissertation research project will provide a timely examination of interactions between human and natural processes that occurred in pre-Columbian times. Research will focus on analyses of processes that resulted in the landscape patterns of the Llanos de Moxos, a seasonally flooded savanna in northeastern Bolivia in the southwestern Amazon drainage basin. Special attention will be given to formation of the "islas" (forested islands or mounds) that rise above the "pampa" (grasslands) of the region. Several alternative hypotheses purporting to explain development of the forested islands will be examined. Those hypotheses include termite activity, gallery-forest fragmentation, colonization of abandoned prehistoric earthworks, and intentional planting by indigenous people. Field work will be conducted in order to characterize different types of forest islands, identify island-forming processes, and develop a historical framework for understanding the landscape evolution of the region. Soil and stratigraphic profiles will be sampled and described, and vegetation will be mapped, collected, and measured across transepts. Forest islands will be surveyed, and the data will be analyzed and interpreted in order to classify islands with respect to their origin processes and the composition of their vegetation. Archaeological materials will be used to help identify the role of human processes in addition to natural processes found to be operating in the formation and maintenance of forest islands. This project will provide valuable new information regarding the historical role of humans in the transformation of complex landscapes. In addition to expanding knowledge about a landscape type found in elsewhere in South America as well as in North America and Africa, the research will provide more general insights into processes related to the study of conservation biology, tropical biogeography, and the origins and dynamics of landscape. The project is extremely relevant for the study of the human dimensions of global environmental change, and as a doctoral dissertation improvement award, this award also will provide support to enable a promising student to establish a strong independent research career.