Doctoral Dissertation Research Improvement Grant: The Impact Of Colonization On Island Ecology

加州大学伯克利分校的Jillian Swift博士在帕特里克·基尔希博士的指导下进行博士论文研究，将研究史前引入的灵长类动物对当地环境和人类社会（或“社会生态系统”）的影响。新物种的引入可能会对人类及其周围环境产生意想不到的和不可逆转的后果，这些后果往往直到它们变得太大而无法减轻时才被发现。考古学提供了一个独特的机会，调查物种引进的长期过程，以了解其影响，并评估过去的动物和资源管理战略的成功或失败。这一信息对当今对全球资源限制和管理的关切具有重要意义。过去的人类和他们的食草动物是如何改变当地生态系统的，从他们的史前长期可持续发展战略中可以学到什么？斯威夫特将利用四个不同的波利尼西亚群岛的比较研究作为模型系统，以了解物种引进和长期的人类与环境的相互作用：曼加雷瓦，马克萨斯，夏威夷和蒂科皮亚。波利尼西亚群岛为比较分析提供了富有成果的基础，因为它们的第一批人类居民相对较晚才到达（约200年）。公元900-1000年），起源于共同的祖先波利尼西亚文化。蒂科皮亚岛被称为“波利尼西亚离群点”，与其他岛屿形成对比，其史前史可以追溯到公元前900年，包括与波利尼西亚和非波利尼西亚海洋人口的相互作用。这些第一批波利尼西亚定居者运输了一套植物，动物和文化习俗，随后他们适应了新的岛屿，这些岛屿在年龄，大小，气候和资源可用性等关键因素方面有所不同。这项研究将利用考古骨骼的稳定同位素分析（碳和氮）来重建与人类一起到达岛屿的两种哺乳动物的饮食：猪（Sus scrofa）和太平洋鼠（Rattus exulans）。重建猪的饮食将调查过去的畜牧业的做法，动物往往与人类竞争食物资源，在一个有限的岛屿环境。有限的家庭范围的Rattus exulans将允许调查的环境条件在一个本地化的规模，和老鼠的饮食分析将导致深入了解这个物种的作用，在岛屿森林砍伐，保护和灭绝。比较方法将确定阻碍或鼓励人口长期可持续性的关键环境和文化变量。这项研究将通过与法属波利尼西亚大学的国际合作研究进行，并为伯克利加州大学的本科生提供动物考古实验室方法和稳定同位素分析方面的培训机会。

For her doctoral dissertation research and under the direction of Dr. Patrick Kirch, Jillian Swift of the University of California, Berkeley, will study the impacts of prehistorically introduced commensal animals on local environments and human societies (or "socioecosystems"). The introduction of new species can have unintended and irreversible consequences for humans and their surroundings that often remain unrecognized until they have become too large to mitigate. Archaeology affords a unique opportunity to investigate long-term processes of species introductions to understand their impacts and evaluate the success or failure of past animal and resource management strategies. This information has critical implications for present-day concerns over global resource limitations and management. How did past peoples and their commensal animals transform local ecosystems, and what can be learned from their prehistoric strategies for long-term sustainability?Swift will utilize comparative research of four different Polynesian Islands as model systems for understanding species introductions and long-term human-environment interaction: Mangareva, the Marquesas, Hawaii, and Tikopia. The islands of Polynesia provide fruitful grounds for comparative analysis, as their first human inhabitants arrived relatively recently (ca. AD 900-1000) and originate from a shared ancestral Polynesian culture. Tikopia, known as a "Polynesian outlier," provides contrast to the other islands with a prehistory that extends back to 900 BC and includes interactions with both Polynesian and non-Polynesian oceanic populations. These first Polynesian settlers transported a suite of plants, animals, and cultural practices which they subsequently adapted to new islands that varied in key factors such as age, size, climate, and resource availability. The research will utilize stable isotope analysis (carbon and nitrogen) of archaeological bone to reconstruct the diet of two commensal species that arrived to the islands with humans: pig (Sus scrofa) and Pacific rat (Rattus exulans). Reconstruction of pig diet will investigate the past animal husbandry practices of an animal which often competed with humans for food resources in a constrained island environment. The limited home range of Rattus exulans will allow for investigation of environmental conditions on a localized scale, and analysis of rat diet will lead to insight into this species' role in island deforestation, extinctions, and extirpations. The comparative approach will identify key environmental and cultural variables that either hindered or encouraged the long-term sustainability of human populations. The study will be undertaken through collaborative international research with the University of French Polynesia and provide training opportunities for undergraduate students in zooarchaeological laboratory methods and stable isotope analysis at the University of California, Berkeley.