Anthropogenic Fire, Human Foraging Strategies, and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Western Desert of Australia

斯坦福大学的人类学家丽贝卡·布莱奇·伯德博士和道格拉斯·W.伯德将对澳大利亚西部沙漠的马图土著人的觅食、景观燃烧和栖息地改造的社会和生态背景进行研究。在美国和世界各地，土著燃烧越来越被认为是塑造植物群落和生物多样性的重要力量。然而，科学家直接观察人类文化与生存、气候变化和火的模式之间复杂关系的能力受到了限制，因为很少有土著社区在燃烧方面拥有相对自主权。在这方面，澳大利亚提供了一个独特的研究机会，人们认为，人为火灾的影响在澳大利亚特别重大，据推测，澳大利亚本土的燃烧已从根本上改变了该大陆的地理。此外，干旱内陆的许多土著社区在用火方面仍然有相对的自主权。因此，研究澳大利亚的做法将（a）告知美国类似干旱地区的火灾管理模式;（B）阐明人为燃烧是生境结构的重要组成部分的情况下灭火的影响;以及（c）检验人类对环境的影响并非开始于农业的假设，也延伸到人类进化史上的狩猎者和采集者。研究人员将开发基本的分析工具，并收集新的数据，以描述土地利用和火灾处理如何影响干旱土地多样性和生境破碎化关键组成部分的变化。他们将采用各种研究方法，包括分析气候数据和LandSat照片，详细的景观映射，Martu个体的焦点跟踪，横断面映射和基于代理的建模。这项研究很重要，因为它将使科学家们更好地了解土地使用和火灾之间的相互作用如何通过气候变化来调节，它如何影响植物和动物的密度和分布，以及在政治分散的社会中，个人如何克服集体行动的问题，以提供未来从燃烧中获得的利益。该项目还将支持研究生和本科生教育。

Stanford University anthropologists, Dr. Rebecca Bliege Bird and Dr. Douglas W. Bird, will undertake research on the social and ecological contexts of foraging, landscape burning, and habitat modification among Martu aborigines in Australia's Western Desert. Indigenous burning is increasingly recognized as an important force in shaping plant communities and biodiversity in the United States and around the world. However, the ability of scientists to directly observe the complex relationships between human culture and subsistence, climate change, and the patterning of fire is hampered by the fact that few indigenous communities have relative autonomy in burning. In this regard, Australia provides a unique research opportunity.The impact of anthropogenic fire is considered to be particularly significant in Australia, where indigenous burning has been hypothesized to have radically altered the continent's biogeography. Furthermore, many aboriginal communities in the arid interior still have relative autonomy in fire application. Therefore, research that examines Australian practices will (a) inform models of fire management in similar arid regions in the United States; (b) illuminate the effects of fire suppression in contexts where anthropogenic burning has been a critical component of habitat structure; and (c) test the hypothesis that human impacts on the environment did not begin with agriculture, but extend to hunters and gatherers throughout human evolutionary history. The researchers will develop basic analytical tools and collect new data to characterize how land-use and fire treatment affects variability in key components of arid lands diversity and habitat fragmentation. They will employ a variety of research methods including analysis of climate data and LandSat photos, detailed landscape mappings, focal follows of Martu individuals, transect mappings, and agent-based modeling. The research is important because it will allow scientists to better understand how the interaction between land-use and fire may be mediated by climate change, how it affects plant and animal densities and distributions, and how, in a politically decentralized society, individuals overcome problems of collective action in supplying future benefits derived from burning. The project will also support both graduate and undergraduate education.