Collaborative Research: Apalachicola Ecosystems Project

在国家科学基金会的支持下，Thomas Foster博士、Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman博士、Roger Brown博士和Apalachicola生态系统项目(AEP)将促进对人类及其物理和社会环境动态关系的理解。AEP将使用考古、历史和古代植物学数据来调查美洲原住民如何适应不断变化的生物物理和殖民环境。AEP的跨学科方法将生态系统和人类机构结合在一起，分析面对政治、社会和生态环境的动态和非线性变化的社会生态复原力。这个项目将使用一个独特的案例，其中单个城镇的移民和移民地点都得到了很好的记录。通过研究阿拉巴马州东部阿巴拉契科拉(1715-1836)的考古遗址并准确控制时间变化，该项目将描述人类如何动态适应并同时影响他们的生物物理和社会环境。阿巴拉契科拉是克里克印第安人最重要的政治城镇之一，根据历史传说，也是克里克邦联的发源地。AEP的目标是(1)调查美洲原住民如何在社会和生物物理环境发生重大和快速变化的情况下保持社会、经济和生态的生存能力，(2)确定克里克印第安人的经济战略对动植物群落的人为影响，以及(3)更好地了解历史时期美洲原住民的社会、经济和生态弹性。将挖掘两个考古遗址的部分，阿帕拉契科拉镇(1757-1836)和阿巴拉契科拉古城(1715-1757)，以衡量整个十八世纪和十九世纪初的文化复原力。该项目将把考古调查与历史研究结合起来，以阐明更广泛的政治气候、联盟和冲突。最后，该项目将通过花粉芯、分析动植物群落中的人为变化以及气候变化来测量生物物理环境的局部变化。AEP的学术价值与复原力理论和风险管理、历史生态学和环境管理的研究有关。重建人类对过去环境的影响并与之相互作用，对于我们理解当前人类影响的环境是重要的。这个项目将有助于我们了解东南部印度人如何在不断变化的社会和经济环境中适应多样化的动植物环境。该项目还将有助于加深我们对研究不足地区的历史生态、移民和文化复原力过程的理解。这项研究的更广泛的影响对广泛的领域具有重要意义，并将有助于科学教育和后代社区。人类活动对环境影响的研究是当今人类面临的最重要的问题之一。阿巴拉契科拉生态系统项目与现代森林管理者、政策制定者、环境历史学家、人类学家、文化历史学家和生态学家有关。AEP将进一步了解人类如何利用文化来适应和修改他们的物理环境，并为学生的培训做出贡献。

With support from the National Science Foundation, Drs. Thomas Foster, Barnet Pavao-Zuckerman, Roger Brown, and the Apalachicola Ecosystems Project (AEP) will advance the understanding of the dynamic relationship of humans and their physical and social environment. The AEP will use archaeological, historical, and ancient botanical data to investigate how Native American populations adapted to a changing biophysical and colonial environment. The AEP's interdisciplinary approach integrates ecological systems and human agency in the analysis of socio-ecological resilience in the face of dynamic and nonlinear changes in the political, social, and ecological environments. This project will use a unique case where the emigrant and immigrant sites of a single town are well documented. By studying the archaeological sites of Apalachicola (1715-1836) in eastern Alabama and accurately controlling for temporal variation, this project will characterize how humans dynamically adapt to and, simultaneously, affect their biophysical and social environment. Apalachicola was one of the most politically important Creek Indian towns and was, according to historic legend, the site of the origin of the Creek Confederacy. The objectives of the AEP are to (1) investigate how Native Americans maintained social, economic, and ecological viability in the face of substantial and rapid change to the social and biophysical environments, (2) identify the anthropogenic effects of the Creek Indian economic strategies on plant and animal communities, and (3) better understand Native American social, economic, and ecological resilience during the Historic Period. Sections of two archaeological sites will be excavated, Apalachicola town (1757-1836) and Apalachicola Old Town (1715-1757), to measure cultural resilience throughout the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The project will couple the archaeological investigations with historical research to elucidate broader political climate, alliances, and conflicts. Finally, the project will measure local changes in the biophysical environment through pollen cores, analysis of anthropogenic changes in the plant and animal communities, and climate variation. The intellectual merit of the AEP is relevant to studies of resilience theory and risk management, historical ecology and environmental management. Reconstructing human impact upon, and interaction with, past environments is important to our understanding of current human affected environments. This project will contribute to our understanding of how the Southeastern Indians adapted to a diverse plant and animal environment within a changing social and economic environment. The project will also help refine our understanding of the processes of historical ecology, migration, and cultural resilience in an understudied region. The broader impacts of this study are significant to a wide range of fields and will contribute to scientific education and descendant communities. The study of anthropogenic effects on the environment is one of the most important problems facing humans today. The Apalachicola Ecosystems Project is relevant to modern forest managers, policy makers, environmental historians, anthropologists, culture historians, and ecologists. The AEP will further understanding of how humans use culture to adapt to and modify their physical environment as well as contribute to student training.