Collaborative Research: Apalachicola Ecosystems Project

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下。托马斯·福斯特、巴尼特·帕沃-祖克曼、罗杰·布朗和阿巴拉契科拉生态系统项目（AEP）将促进对人类与其自然和社会环境之间动态关系的理解。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。面对政治、社会和生态环境的动态和非线性变化，AEP的跨学科方法将生态系统和人类机构整合在社会生态弹性分析中。这个项目将使用一个独特的案例，其中一个城镇的移民和移民地点被很好地记录下来。通过研究阿拉巴马州东部阿巴拉契科拉（1715-1836）的考古遗址并精确控制时间变化，该项目将描述人类如何动态适应并同时影响其生物物理和社会环境。阿巴拉契科拉是克里克印第安人政治上最重要的城镇之一，根据历史传说，它是克里克联盟的发源地。AEP的目标是：(1)调查印第安人如何在面对社会和生物物理环境的实质性和快速变化时保持社会、经济和生态活力；(2)确定克里克印第安人经济策略对动植物群落的人为影响；(3)更好地了解历史时期印第安人的社会、经济和生态恢复力。阿巴拉契科拉镇（1757-1836）和阿巴拉契科拉老城（1715-1757）两个考古遗址的部分将被挖掘出来，以衡量整个18世纪和19世纪初的文化弹性。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、动植物群落的人为变化分析和气候变化来测量当地生物物理环境的变化。AEP的智力价值与弹性理论和风险管理、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，以及与过去环境的相互作用，对于我们理解当前人类影响的环境非常重要。这个项目将有助于我们了解东南印第安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。该项目还将有助于完善我们对一个未被充分研究的地区的历史生态、移民和文化弹性过程的理解。本研究的广泛影响将在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息息相关。AEP将进一步了解人类如何利用文化来适应和改变他们的自然环境，并有助于培养学生。

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.