Ecosystem and Soil Studies of Native American Runoff Agriculture

9528458代祖尼的桑多族农民使用暴雨径流收获系统，在新墨西哥州中西部的今天的祖尼印第安人保留地种植玉米和其他作物。与美国西南部半干旱地区的其他普韦布洛部落一样，祖尼人的径流耕作方法是在传统意义上使用化肥或灌溉。农民们将短暂的雨水流归功于他们将其转移到地势良好的田地，为作物生产提供了水分和养分。这项为期三年的研究旨在分析描述祖尼径流场的农业生态结构和功能。要评估的系统输入是水分、养分和土壤材料，这些材料来自农田上游的天然流域，并通过短暂的径流输送。系统产出将被评估为近期作物产量和长期生产力，反映在农业土壤质量上。该项目采用的办法基于可持续土地利用研究的两个关键领域：监测农业土壤的长期状况和制定养护生态系统资源的管理做法。祖尼地区耕种了两千多年，提供了对这两项工作都有价值的信息：保护区包含一些美国最古老的可识别农地。这里的研究将农业对景观影响的知识扩展到可持续发展概念中设想的时间框架，补充了现代长期生态和农业实验。这项研究还将有助于对这种半干旱生态系统的基本了解。它将应用于其他干旱和半干旱地区的可持续农业发展，以及振兴祖尼的可持续农业系统。该项目是祖尼部落和一个跨学科研究团队的合作项目，团队成员包括来自新墨西哥州、爱荷华州立大学和怀俄明大学的科学家。祖尼部落重建可持续农业经济的Curre NT计划直接适用于这项工作。

9528458 Sandor Generations of Zuni farmers have used a storm runoff harvesting system to grow maize and other crops in the area of the present day Zuni Indian Reservation in the West-central New Mexico. As with other Pueblo tribes of the semiarid southwest U.S. Zuni methods of runoff farming use on fertilizer or irrigation in the conventional sense. Farmers credit ephemeral stormwater flows, which they divert onto well placed fields, with supplying moisture and nutrients to produce crops. The goal of this three year study is to analytically describe agroecological structure and function of Zuni runoff fields. System inputs to be evaluated are moisture, nutrients, and soil materials derived from natural watersheds upslope from fields and transported by ephemeral runoff. System output will be evaluated as productivity both in terms of immediate crop yield and long-term productivity, reflected in agricultural soil quality. The approach to be used in this project is based on two key areas of research on sustainable land use: monitoring long-term condition of agricultural soils and developing management practices that conserve ecosystem resources. The Zuni area, farmed for over two thousand years, provides information valuable to both endeavors: the Reservation contains some of the oldest identifiable agricultural land in the U.S. Studies here extend knowledge about effects of agriculture on landscapes into a time frame envisioned in the concept of sustainability, complementing modern long-term ecological and agricultural experiments. This research will also contribute to basic understanding of such semiarid ecosystems. It will have applications to sustainable agriculture development in other arid and semiarid areas, and to revitalization of a sustainable agricultural system for Zuni. The project is a partnership between the Zuni Tribe and an interdisciplinary research team, including scientists from New Mexico, Iowa State University, and University of Wyoming. The Zuni Tribe's curre nt plan for redevelopment of a sustainable agarian economy has direct applications for the work.