BE/CNH: Long-Term Coupled Socioecological Change in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico

BE/CNH：美国西南部和墨西哥北部的长期耦合社会生态变化

• 批准号: 0508001
• 负责人: Margaret Nelson
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Arizona State University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-09-15 至 2009-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0508001&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: CNH; Long; Term; Coupled; Socioecological

Each generation transforms an inherited social and environmental world and leaves it as a legacy to succeeding generations. Long-term interactions among social and ecological processes give rise to complex dynamics on multiple temporal and spatial scales -- cycles of change followed by relative stasis and then a new cycle of change. Within the cycles are understandable patterns and irreducible uncertainties. Neither stability nor transformation can be taken as the norm. Although these cycles can be identified, it remains uncertain what fosters stability or contributes to transformation over long cycles. What vulnerabilities can be tolerated, and which tip a system into transformation and at what scale? Resilience theorists have built an understanding of social and ecological vulnerabilities, stability, and transformation based on studies of contemporary socioecological systems. This interdisciplinary research project will examine some of these understandings by applying archaeological and ecological analyses and formal dynamical modeling. The project will be undertaken by a collaboration of archaeologists, mathematical modelers, ecologists, and environmental scientists. Archaeology is attuned to cycles of change over the lifespan of a society -- heightened inter-societal interaction, economic intensification, and large-scale anthropogenic environmental change . It therefore extends scientific observation of stability and transformation beyond all social memory. Archaeologically documented case studies in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico provide the information for investigating long-term human-environmental interactions. The project will (1) compile documentation on up to four archaeological cases, (2) examine their pan-regional connections, and (3) employ mathematical modeling and subsequent archaeological and ecological analysis to abstract the key variables and processes underlying periods of cultural stability and both rapid and protracted transformations. The empirical investigations provide substantive contexts for the models, while the models will foster insight into generalizations that are then examined in empirical contexts. This iterative process is expected to lead to insights that could not be derived from any single approach, nor can they be derived from the short time span available in contemporary study of social or ecological change.This project will influence the refinement of theory and understanding of processes of socioecological change. First, an intensive collaboration of archaeologists specializing in the American Southwest and Northern Mexico will contribute a new level of understanding of the social and environmental interactions underlying important episodes in human history. Second, through archaeology's deep time perspective, this project will examine the utility of resilience theory as applied to coupled socioecological systems, demonstrate the value of archaeology to ecological theory, and further scientific understanding of current socioecological problems through refinement of concepts and theory. Third, this project will identify the dynamics of transformation and stability as conditioned by cultural and environmental contexts, strategies for coping with uncertainty, and varying constraints of long-term legacies. This project is expected to promote awareness of some of the human strategies for dealing with uncertainty and change as well as awareness of how human actions leave legacies of resilience or degradation. In addition, this project will immerse students in an interdisciplinary research community that will spark development of professional skills and encourage them to exchange knowledge about coupled human and environmental systems. The involvement of students and researchers from the U.S., Mexico, France, and the many nations represented in the Resilience Alliance will foster global perspectives and international collaborations. This project is supported by an award resulting from the FY 2005 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.

每一代人都改变了一个继承下来的社会和环境世界，并将其作为遗产留给后代。社会和生态过程之间的长期相互作用在多个时间和空间尺度上产生了复杂的动态——变化周期之后是相对停滞，然后是一个新的变化周期。周期中存在着可理解的模式和不可消除的不确定性。稳定和变革都不能作为常态。尽管可以确定这些周期，但在长周期中，是什么促进了稳定性或促成了转变，仍然是不确定的。什么样的漏洞是可以容忍的，什么样的漏洞会促使系统进行转型，转型的规模是多大？弹性理论家基于对当代社会生态系统的研究，建立了对社会和生态脆弱性、稳定性和转型的理解。这个跨学科的研究项目将通过应用考古学和生态学分析以及正式的动态建模来检验这些理解。该项目将由考古学家、数学建模师、生态学家和环境科学家共同完成。考古学适应于一个社会生命周期的变化周期——社会间互动的加剧、经济的强化和大规模的人为环境变化。因此，它扩展了对稳定和转变的科学观察，超越了所有社会记忆。在美国西南部和墨西哥北部的考古记录的案例研究为调查长期的人类与环境的相互作用提供了信息。该项目将(1)汇编多达四个考古案例的文献资料，(2)检查它们的泛区域联系，(3)利用数学模型和随后的考古和生态分析，抽象出文化稳定时期以及快速和长期转型时期的关键变量和过程。实证调查为模型提供了实质性的背景，而模型将促进对然后在实证背景下进行检验的概括的洞察力。这一反复的过程预计将导致无法从任何单一方法中获得的见解，也无法从当代社会或生态变化研究的短时间跨度中获得见解。这个项目将影响理论的完善和对社会生态变化过程的理解。首先，专门研究美国西南部和墨西哥北部的考古学家的密切合作将有助于对人类历史上重要事件背后的社会和环境相互作用的理解达到一个新的水平。其次，通过考古学的深度时间视角，本项目将检验弹性理论在耦合社会生态系统中的应用，展示考古学对生态理论的价值，并通过概念和理论的完善进一步科学地理解当前的社会生态问题。第三，该项目将确定由文化和环境背景、应对不确定性的策略以及长期遗产的各种限制所决定的转型和稳定的动态。预计该项目将促进对人类应对不确定性和变化的一些战略的认识，以及对人类活动如何留下复原力或退化遗产的认识。此外，该项目将使学生沉浸在一个跨学科的研究社区中，这将激发专业技能的发展，并鼓励他们交流有关人类和环境耦合系统的知识。来自美国、墨西哥、法国和韧性联盟代表的许多国家的学生和研究人员的参与将促进全球视野和国际合作。该项目得到了2005年度环境生物复杂性特别竞赛的支持，该竞赛侧重于自然和人类系统耦合动力学。