Collaborative Research: Impacts of Abrupt Environmental Change on North Pacific Human Ecosystem Dynamics using High Resolution Zooarchaeological Records from Coastal Washington

该项目将通过分析动物遗骸来研究社区对突发环境变化的反应，因为它们反映了生存实践和环境条件，来自Tse-whit-zen，这是华盛顿西北海岸的下Elwha Klallam村，以前被挖掘出来，大约在2700年前开始被占领，并在大约1800-100年前加强。 这段时间跨越了几次高震级地震、小冰期和中世纪气候异常，以及逐渐增加的受庇护的潮间带栖息地。 研究小组将探索这些事件如何影响动物资源和不同的人在家庭和更大的社区随着时间的推移，使用从觅食理论得出的预测。沉积物的非凡完整性，沉积物的详细地质考古现场记录，7个时期的大型严格收集的动物群样本，以及在Tse-whit-zen的鸟类，鱼类，贝类和哺乳动物的体积可比样本，提供了过去人类使用动物资源的高分辨率记录，这在北太平洋是无与伦比的。 该研究项目将提供与研究北极系统和过程的学者直接相关的模型，方法和结果，因为西北海岸和北部地区之间存在平行和直接联系。在这两个地区，以鱼类、贝类和海洋哺乳动物为主要食物来源的船只移动觅食者已经适应了受周期性环境、地貌和气候变化影响的复杂、动态的海岸线。 全球环流模式将北太平洋和北冰洋连接起来，而洄游物种则在这两个地区之间架起了桥梁。我们的项目还为全球人类生态动力学联盟提供了一个理想的比较案例研究，该联盟是美国国家科学基金会资助的一项倡议，旨在将北极极地生态动力学与更广泛的全球背景联系起来。该项目将对下Elwha Klallam部落有价值，他们整体参与了Tse-whit-zen遗址的挖掘，关心遗址和藏品的未来。研究人员将与参与规划博物馆的部落教育工作者、野生动物管理者和文化专家分享动物群数据、出版物和专业见解。他们还将与地方和州政府机构合作，根据我们的研究结果开发教育材料，以满足公众对未来地震相关事件的日益增长的需求。研究人员预计，他们的工作记录精细规模的动物对地震，气候变化，当地海岸线变化和人类开发战略的几个？关注的物种？(e.g.鲑鱼、底栖鱼类、海洋哺乳动物）将有助于目前的野生动物管理工作。

This project will examine community response to abrupt environmental change through analysis of animal remains as they reflect subsistence practices and environmental conditions, from Tse-whit-zen, a previously excavated Lower Elwha Klallam village on the northwest coast of Washington, with occupation beginning around 2700 years ago and intensifying between about 1800-100 years ago. This time period spans several high-magnitude earthquakes, the Little Ice Age and Medieval Climatic Anomaly, and a gradual increase in sheltered intertidal habitat. The research team will explore how these events affected animal resources and different people within households and larger communities over time, using predictions drawn from foraging theory. The extraordinary integrity of the deposits, the detailed geoarchaeological field recording of deposits, the large and rigorously collected faunal samples from 7 time periods, and volumetrically comparable samples of birds, fish, shellfish, and mammals at Tse-whit-zen offer a high-resolution record of past human use of animal resources that is unparalleled in the North Pacific. The research project will provide models, methods and results of direct relevance to scholars working on Arctic systems and processes, given the parallels and direct linkages between the Northwest Coast and areas to the north. In both regions, boat-mobile foragers with maritime subsistence focused on fish, shellfish, and marine mammals, have adapted to complex, dynamic coastlines affected by periodic environmental, geomorphic and climatic changes. Global circulation patterns link the North Pacific and Arctic Oceans and migratory species bridge the two areas. Our project also provides an ideal comparative case study for the Global Human Ecodynamics Alliance, an NSF funded initiative developed to link Arctic Polar Ecodynamics to the broader global context.The project will be valuable to the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe who were integrally involved in the excavation of the Tse-whit-zen site, are concerned about the future of the site and the collection. The researchers will share faunal data, publications and professional insights with tribal educators, wildlife managers, and cultural specialists involved in planning a museum. They will also be collaborating with local and state governmental agencies that will develop educational materials from our results, to meet a growing need to prepare the public for future earthquake-related events. The researchers anticipate that their work documenting fine-scale animal response to earthquakes, climate change, local shoreline change, and human exploitation strategies for several ?species of concern? (e.g. salmonids, ground fish, sea mammals) will assist current wildlife management efforts.