Collaborative Research: Assessing Changing Patterns of Human Activity in the McMurdo Dry Valleys using Digital Photo Archives

从1903年斯科特船长发现了一个“奇怪的山谷”开始，南极洲的麦克默多干谷(MDV)受到了人类的影响，尽管在1950年之前只有三次短暂的访问。自20世纪50年代末S以来，MDV的人类活动在夏季变得司空见惯，通过营地建设和居住、徒步和车辆跨山谷运输以及涉及采样和仪器部署的科学研究，给该地区脆弱的生态系统带来了压力。历史照片与书面文件中的信息放在一起，提供了MDV中人类活动模式变化的宝贵记录。摄影图像通常显示野战营地和研究地点的实际范围、正在进行的活动以及正在采取的环境保护措施。然而，MDV的历史照片散落在世界各地，通常是私人收藏，其中许多照片以及其中包含的信息可能会丢失，这是一个真正的危险。该项目将从美国和新西兰的档案馆和私人收藏品中收集MDV人类活动地点的历史照片并将其数字化，并在地理信息系统数据库中按时间和空间进行整理。过去人类活动的地点将被重新拍摄，以提供与现在的比较，重新拍摄将有助于为没有明显位置信息的历史照片提供空间数据。这一分析的结果将为未来有效的环境管理提供支持。数码照片档案将通过麦克默多干旱山谷长期生态研究(MCM LTER)网站(www.mcmlter.org)公开提供，科学家、环境管理人员和其他对该地区感兴趣的人可以在那里使用。该项目的中心问题可以重新表述为一种假设：尽管MDV中的人类活动总体上有所增加，但随着时间的推移，这些活动的空间范围变得更加有限，这是由于人们对生态系统脆弱性的认识增强和对该地区进行管理的努力。为了解决这一假设，该项目将定义MDV中人类活动的空间分布和时间频率。照片和报告将从极地收藏的档案馆收集，如惠灵顿和克赖斯特彻奇的新西兰国家档案馆和俄亥俄州的伯德极地研究中心。私人照片收藏将通过个人关系、社交媒体、在《极地时报》等期刊上的广告和其他方式获得。现场的重新摄影将遵循既定的技术，并将为未来的研究项目创造基准。空间数据将存储在ArcGIS数据库中，用于分析和量化MDV中一段时间内的人类足迹。这一历史照片档案提供了对MDV中人类活动变化模式的更好的理解，这将提供三个主要贡献：1)对人类活动的根本重要的历史记述，以支持MDV当前的环境管理；2)确定人类活动的地点和类型将在两个重要方面立即受益：a)对于有兴趣采样原始景观的科学家来说，避免去哪里；b)为科学家调查人类活动的长期环境遗产提供机会目标；以及3)这项研究将对了解MDV的环境历史作出创新性的贡献。

Beginning with the discovery of a "curious valley" in 1903 by Captain Scott, the McMurdo Dry Valleys (MDV) in Antarctica have been impacted by humans, although there were only three brief visits prior to 1950. Since the late 1950's, human activity in the MDV has become commonplace in summer, putting pressure on the region's fragile ecosystems through camp construction and inhabitation, cross-valley transport on foot and via vehicles, and scientific research that involves sampling and deployment of instruments. Historical photographs, put alongside information from written documentation, offer an invaluable record of the changing patterns of human activity in the MDV. Photographic images often show the physical extent of field camps and research sites, the activities that were taking place, and the environmental protection measures that were being followed. Historical photographs of the MDV, however, are scattered in different places around the world, often in private collections, and there is a real danger that many of these photos may be lost, along with the information they contain. This project will collect and digitize historical photographs of sites of human activity in the MDV from archives and private collections in the United States, New Zealand, and organize them both chronologically and spatially in a GIS database. Sites of past human activities will be re-photographed to provide comparisons with the present, and re-photography will assist in providing spatial data for historical photographs without obvious location information. The results of this analysis will support effective environmental management into the future. The digital photo archive will be openly available through the McMurdo Dry Valleys Long Term Ecological Research (MCM LTER) website (www.mcmlter.org), where it can be used by scientists, environmental managers, and others interested in the region. The central question of this project can be reformulated as a hypothesis: Despite an overall increase in human activities in the MDV, the spatial range of these activities has become more confined over time as a result of an increased awareness of ecosystem fragility and efforts to manage the region. To address this hypothesis, the project will define the spatial distribution and temporal frequency of human activity in the MDV. Photographs and reports will be collected from archives with polar collections such as the National Archives of New Zealand in Wellington and Christchurch and the Byrd Polar Research Center in Ohio. Private photograph collections will be accessed through personal connections, social media, advertisements in periodicals such as The Polar Times, and other means. Re-photography in the field will follow established techniques and will create benchmarks for future research projects. The spatial data will be stored in an ArcGIS database for analysis and quantification of the human footprint over time in the MDV. The improved understanding of changing patterns of human activity in the MDV provided by this historical photo archive will provide three major contributions: 1) a fundamentally important historic accounting of human activity to support current environmental management of the MDV; 2) defining the location and type of human activity will be of immediate benefit in two important ways: a) places to avoid for scientists interested in sampling pristine landscapes, and, b) targets of opportunity for scientists investigating the long-term environmental legacy of human activity; and 3) this research will make an innovative contribution to knowledge of the environmental history of the MDV.