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

热带湿地是重要的生态系统，其土壤和水之间有着复杂的相互作用，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。该项目将研究北方伯利兹的湿地，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。玛雅人以前的大多数研究都集中在诸如经常性干旱等风险上，但地下水位和水质的上升可能被证明是类似的，但却是潜在的风险。这是一个人类被迫适应极硬水水位上升的案例。该项目的主要目标是确定常年湿地形成的时间和过程，在北方伯利兹沿海平原的各种环境中，辨别被低估的水化学在这个热带地区的景观形成的作用，并建立类型和范围的人类适应湿地形成，连接以前的研究，包括蓝溪和Pulltrouser沼泽的网站。这些基本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，以解释伯利兹沿海平原全新世期间大规模地貌的沉积和形成。该项目将通过研究七个已知的古玛雅湿地实地考察点来测试景观开发模型，这些地点从蓝溪研究点，经过一个以前没有进行过地层学和年代测定研究的区域，到几十年前进行过研究的区域。该项目将在两个尺度上通过多学科研究来测试这些模型：在运河和田野上进行密集挖掘，以及广泛的振动，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互动的证据：地层学，测年方法，土壤形态，沉积物化学，生态因子（花粉，硅藻）和人工制品。该项目还将在整个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的鲜为人知的作用。这项研究将提供一个重要的前哥伦布时期社会的土地利用的情况下，面对自然海平面和地下水位上升的反应，它将有助于充实的机制，景观形成了一个小的理解，大的热带湿地地区，它将有助于确定全新世的热带湿地形成的速度和过程时，这些生物多样性的地区再次面临海平面上升和其他广泛的威胁。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人员判断环境变化的许多方面，如湿地生态系统功能。这个项目将为研究生和本科生提供国际野外科学和实验室研究的经验。该项目将包括和培训许多来自当地社区在外地季节和之间。该项目将向国际会议、同行评审期刊、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结果。科学基础设施将通过多学科方法和这项研究的国际性得到改善。

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.