Phytoliths in the Flora of Ecuador: Establishing Vegetation Signatures and a Key to Diagnostics

厄瓜多尔植物区系中的植硅体：建立植被特征和诊断的关键

• 批准号: 0405100
• 负责人: Deborah Pearsall
• 金额: $ 9.55万
• 依托单位: University of Missouri-Columbia
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2004
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2004-08-01 至 2008-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0405100&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Phytoliths; Flora; Ecuador; Establishing; Vegetation

With National Science Foundation support, Dr. Deborah M. Pearsall and colleagues at the University of Missouri will continue basic research into the nature of phytolith production in the flora of Ecuador. Over the past 30 years, phytoliths-microscopic silica bodies produced in plant tissues-have contributed to our understanding of human-landscape interactions in the New World tropics. Phytoliths extracted from naturally accumulating sediments, such as those that build up in lakes, provide a detailed record of past vegetation, and the impact on vegetation of human activities such as cutting of forests for agriculture. Phytoliths recovered from prehistoric villages and ancient agricultural fields provide equally valuable information on human uses of plants for foods, and in ritual and medicine. Successful tapping of the wealth of information provided by these durable plant microfossils is dependent on discovering phytoliths that can be used to identify key wild species and economic plants. Advances in this area were made in the first phase of the project (August 1997 to December 2000). Forest species critical for interpreting vegetation change and stability in tropical lowland settings were found to produce distinctive phytoliths, and new approaches for identifying crops such as corn were developed.The new project builds on these advances. First, Pearsall and student assistants will study phytolith production in plants remaining from the original project, and add all new diagnostic phytoliths to the University of Missouri database. Work will then begin on establishing phytolith vegetation "signatures" for plant communities in Ecuador, from Pacific coast to the Amazon, and along the coast from the dry forests of the south to the humid northern lowlands. Two colleagues will join Pearsall for this effort, Dr. Robert Benfer, an expert in multivariate statistical analysis, and Dr. Robin Kennedy, botanist and ecologist. The research team will analyze patterns of diagnostic phytoliths recovered from comparative soil samples from across Ecuador, and develop descriptive and statistical ways of identifying vegetation types (dry tropical forest, evergreen forest, etc.) from the combinations of phytoliths in the soil. The final stage of the project focuses on making the primary results, new phytolith types and vegetation signatures, accessible and useable by other researchers. An interactive, web-based identification aid to phytoliths produced by New World tropical plant species will be tested.Phytolith analysis is a young discipline in archaeology (modern studies date to the 1970s), and as such much basic research remains to be accomplished. This study will advance our knowledge of phytolith production in diverse plant families and vegetation types. The intellectual merit of the project also lays in future applications of the results of the research, for example, to questions of the origins and evolution of agriculture in the New World, and the nature and sustainability of tropical forest agriculture. The broader impacts of the study are that researchers working in regions throughout the New World tropics will find the phytolith vegetation signatures, database of diagnostic phytoliths, and prototype key useful. Web-based dissemination of results will broaden the access of researchers and students based in Ecuador and other Latin American nations to advances in phytolith research methods and approaches.

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，德博拉·M.皮尔索尔和他在密苏里州大学的同事们将继续对厄瓜多尔植物群中植硅体产生的性质进行基础研究。在过去的30年里，植硅体-微观硅体产生于植物组织-有助于我们了解人类在新世界热带地区的景观相互作用。从自然积累的沉积物中提取的植硅石，如湖泊中积累的沉积物，提供了过去植被的详细记录，以及人类活动对植被的影响，如砍伐森林用于农业。从史前村庄和古代农田中发现的植硅石为人类利用植物作为食物、仪式和医学提供了同样有价值的信息。成功利用这些持久的植物微化石提供的丰富信息取决于发现可用于识别关键野生物种和经济植物的植硅体。项目第一阶段（1997年8月至2000年12月）在这方面取得了进展。在热带低地环境中，对解释植被变化和稳定性至关重要的森林物种被发现产生独特的植硅体，并开发了识别玉米等作物的新方法。首先，Pearsall和学生助理将研究原始项目剩余植物中的植硅体生产，并将所有新的诊断植硅体添加到密苏里州大学的数据库中。然后将开始为厄瓜多尔从太平洋海岸到亚马逊河以及从南部干燥森林到北方潮湿低地的沿着海岸的植物群落建立植硅体植被“特征”的工作。两位同事将加入Pearsall的这项工作，Robert Benfer博士，多元统计分析专家，和Robin Kennedy博士，植物学家和生态学家。研究团队将分析从厄瓜多尔各地比较土壤样本中回收的诊断植硅体模式，并开发识别植被类型（热带干旱森林、万年青森林等）的描述性和统计方法来自土壤中植硅体的组合。该项目的最后阶段侧重于使其他研究人员可以访问和使用主要结果，新的植硅石类型和植被特征。将测试一种互动的、基于网络的新世界热带植物物种植硅体鉴定辅助工具。植硅体分析是考古学中一门年轻的学科（现代研究可追溯到20世纪70年代），因此许多基础研究仍有待完成。这项研究将推进我们的知识植硅体生产在不同的植物科和植被类型。该项目的智力价值还在于研究结果的未来应用，例如，新世界农业的起源和演变问题，以及热带森林农业的性质和可持续性。这项研究的更广泛的影响是，在整个新世界热带地区工作的研究人员将发现植硅体植被特征，诊断植硅体数据库和原型关键有用。基于网络的结果传播将扩大厄瓜多尔和其他拉丁美洲国家的研究人员和学生对植硅体研究方法和方法的进步的了解。