Collaborative Research: Perennial Wetland Formation and Human Adaptation in NW Belize

热带湿地是重要的生态系统，其土壤和水之间存在复杂的相互作用，但人们对人类如何在很长一段时间内进一步影响和改变它们知之甚少。该项目将研究伯利兹北部的湿地，以测试玛雅低地湿地形成和人类与环境长期相互作用的模型。以前对玛雅的大多数研究都集中在周期性干旱等风险上，但不断上升的地下水位和水质可能被证明是类似的，但却是潜在的风险。这是一个人类被迫适应地下水位上升的极端硬水的例子。该项目的主要目标是确定伯利兹北部沿海平原各种环境中多年生湿地形成的时间和过程；揭示被低估的水化学在该热带地区景观形成中的作用；并建立人类对湿地形成的适应类型和范围，将以前的研究地点联系起来，包括蓝溪和Pulltrouser沼泽。潜在的问题来自自然科学和社会科学。该项目正在测试六种可能的假设，以解释全新世期间伯利兹沿海平原的大规模景观退化和形成。该项目将通过研究七个已知的古玛雅湿地遗址来测试景观发展模型，这些遗址从蓝溪研究地点跨越一个以前没有地层学和年代研究的区域，到几十年前的研究区域。本项目将通过多学科研究在两个尺度上测试这些模型：跨运河和田野的密集挖掘和广泛的振动测量，以确定湿地的范围。在每个地点，该项目将研究解释景观形成和人类相互作用的证据线：地层学、测年方法、土壤形态、沉积物化学、生态事实（花粉、硅藻）和人工制品。该项目还将对该地区进行水化学分析，因为它在湿地中的关键作用以及在玛雅文明中鲜为人知的作用。本研究将提供一个重要的前哥伦布社会在面对自然海平面和地下水位上升时的土地利用响应的案例；这将有助于在一个鲜为人知的大型热带湿地地区充实景观形成的机制；当这些生物多样性地区再次面临海平面上升和其他广泛威胁时，它将有助于确定全新世热带湿地的形成速度和过程。该研究还为发展中地区提供了基本的土壤和水化学数据，这些基线参数可以帮助科学家和资源管理者判断湿地生态系统功能等环境变化的许多方面。该项目将为研究生和本科生提供国际领域科学和实验室研究的经验。该项目将包括当地社区的许多人，并在实地季节和季节之间对他们进行培训。该项目将向国际会议、同行评议期刊、学生以及更广泛地通过网站和大众媒体传播有关湿地形成和玛雅文化生态的发现。通过多学科方法和这项研究的国际性质，科学的基础设施将得到改善。

Tropical wetlands are important ecosystems with complex interactions between their soils and water, but little is known about how humans further affect and alter them over long time periods. This project will study northern Belize's wetlands to test models of wetland formation and long-term human-environmental interactions in the Maya Lowlands. Most previous Maya research has focused on risks such as recurrent droughts but rising water tables and water quality may prove to be comparable but insidious risks. This is a case of humans forced to adapt to rising water tables of extremely hard water. The main goals of this project are to determine the timing and processes of perennial wetland formation across a range of environments in the northern Belize coastal plain; to discern the underestimated role of water chemistry in landscape formation in this tropical region; and to establish the types and ranges of human adaptations to wetland formation, linking sites of previous research, including Blue Creek and Pulltrouser Swamp. The underlying questions come from both natural and social science. The project is testing six possible hypotheses to explain large-scale landscape aggradation and formation during the Holocene across the Belize coastal plain. This project will test the landscape development models by studying seven known ancient Maya wetland field sites that span from the Blue Creek research sites, through a zone that received no previous research on stratigraphy and dating, to the zone of research done several decades ago. This project will test these models with multidisciplinary research at two scales: intensive excavation across canals and fields and extensive vibracoring to determine wetland field extents. In each site, the project will study the lines of evidence that explain landscape formation and human interaction: stratigraphy, dating methods, soil morphology, sediment chemistry, ecofacts (pollen, diatoms), and artifacts. This project will also conduct water chemical analysis across this zone because of its key role in wetlands and its little-understood role in Maya Civilization. This study will provide a case of an important Pre-Columbian society's land use responses in the face of natural sea level and water table rise; it will help flesh out the mechanisms of landscape formation over a little understood, large tropical wetland region; and it will help determine the Holocene rates and processes of tropical wetland formation when these bio-diverse regions again face sea level rise and other widespread threats. The study also provides basic soil and water chemistry data to a developing region, and these baseline parameters can help scientists and resource managers judge many aspects of environmental change such as wetland ecosystem functions. This project will provide graduate and undergraduate students experience in international field science and laboratory research. The project will include and train many from local communities during and between the field seasons. The project will disseminate findings on wetland formation and Maya cultural ecology to international conferences, peer reviewed journals, to students, and more widely through websites and the mass media. The infrastructure of science will be improved through both the multidisciplinary approach and the international nature of this research.