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长期人类与环境相互作用的模型。玛雅之前的大多数研究都集中在反复干旱等风险上，但地下水位和水质的上升可能被证明是类似的但潜伏的风险。这是一个人类被迫适应水位上升的极端硬水的案例。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常年湿地形成的时间和过程；辨别水化学在这一热带地区景观形成中被低估的作用；以及确定人类对湿地形成的适应类型和范围，将先前研究的地点，包括蓝溪和普尔特罗斯沼泽联系起来。潜在的问题既来自自然科学，也来自社会科学。该项目正在测试六种可能的假说，以解释全新世期间伯利兹沿海平原上的大规模地貌沉积和形成。该项目将通过研究七个已知的古代玛雅湿地遗址来测试景观开发模型，这些遗址从Blue Creek研究遗址到之前没有接受过地层学和年代研究的区域，一直到几十年前进行的研究区域。该项目将在两个尺度上用多学科研究来测试这些模型：跨运河和田野的密集挖掘和广泛的振动以确定湿地领域的范围。在每个地点，该项目将研究解释景观形成和人类互动的证据：地层学、测年方法、土壤形态、沉积物化学、生态文物(花粉、硅藻)和文物。该项目还将在该地区进行水化学分析，因为它在湿地中的关键作用，以及它在玛雅文明中鲜为人知的作用。这项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反应的案例；它将有助于充实鲜为人知的大片热带湿地地区的景观形成机制；它将有助于确定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，热带湿地形成的全新世速率和过程。这项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田野科学和实验室研究的经验。该项目将包括并培训来自当地社区的许多人，包括在田野季节期间和在其间。该项目将向国际会议、同行评议的期刊、学生以及通过网站和大众媒体更广泛地传播关于湿地形成和玛雅文化生态的研究成果。通过这项研究的多学科方法和国际性，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.