Fire, Vegetation Change, and Human Settlement

该项目将研究印第安人利用火来增加可作为食物资源的树木的数量，如橡树上的橡子，并创造开阔的林地，在多大程度上改变了森林，开阔的林地比自然茂密的森林更受欢迎。欧洲人到达后，灭火变得普遍，森林封闭，比早期欧洲探险家所描述的接触开阔的森林更密集。许多研究人员认为，欧洲人发现的开阔森林是由闪电引发的火灾的结果，通常不归因于美洲原住民对景观的操纵。区分印第安人造成的森林变化和闪电火灾长期以来一直是科学家们面临的挑战。许多美国国家森林现在正在经历更大、更具破坏性的森林火灾，影响到许多物种，威胁到家园和财产。火灾增加的一个原因是在灭火后森林密度增加。制定新的政策，使用规定的火灾来创造一个更开放的森林，需要土地管理者了解火灾前的森林是什么样子的，是什么导致森林冠层保持开放。了解第一批欧洲探险者所遇到的开阔森林是自然火灾还是人为火灾的结果，为森林管理者提供了有关哪些过程创造了这些森林条件的信息。这些信息可以用来管理现代森林并更好地保护它们。这项研究将与当地印第安部落合作进行，并将为来自科学领域代表性不足的群体的本科生提供服务。雷击野火是任何生态系统的自然组成部分，一般认为这种火灾是森林结构的主要决定因素。然而，有重要的证据表明，尽管存在自然火灾，但美洲原住民经常对景观进行有控制的焚烧，以提高某些陆地资源的生产力，作为维持高人口密度的一种手段。该项目的研究人员将使用花粉和木炭分析来重建过去2000年的森林历史，并将其与通过树木年轮研究重建的独立气候历史进行比较，以确定森林结构的变化是否与气候模式一致。研究人员假设，如果发现美洲原住民用作食物资源的树木种类的丰度在凉爽潮湿的时期有所增加，但这些树木需要更干燥的环境和开阔的栖息地，那么最可能的原因是美洲原住民通过传统的资源管理实践而增加了火灾。研究人员将使用生态模型来测试闪电引起的火灾是否会产生特定的森林变化，或者是否也需要人为的火灾。研究人员将把森林变化的时间与印第安人的考古记录进行比较，以确定森林结构的变化是否与资源的密集利用相吻合。这个项目将通过在加州内华达山脉的一个案例研究来调查这些问题，但研究的见解将适用于整个美国的国家林地，在那里森林火灾管理是一个公众关注的问题。

This project will study the extent to which forests were altered by Native Americans using fire to increase the number of trees available for food resources, such as acorns from oak trees, and to create open woodlands, which were preferred over the naturally denser forests. After the arrival of Europeans, fire suppression became common and forests closed-up and became denser than the open forests described at contact by early European explorers. Many researchers have suggested that the open forests found by Europeans were the result of fires started due to lightning and are generally not ascribed to Native American landscape manipulation. Distinguishing forest change caused by Native Americans from lightning fires has challenged scientists for a long time. Many U.S. national forests now are experiencing larger and more destructive forest fires that impact many species and threaten homes and property. One cause of these increased fires is the increased density of forests following fire suppression. Creating new policies that use prescribed fire to create a more open forest requires land managers to understand what pre-fire suppression forests looked like and what caused the forest canopy to remain open. Knowing whether the open forests encountered by the first European explorers were the result of natural fire or human set fire provides forest managers with information regarding which processes created those forest conditions. This information can then be used to manage modern forests and better protect them. This study will be conducted in collaboration with local Native American tribes and will serve undergraduate students from groups underrepresented in the sciences. Lightning-strike wildfires are a natural part of any ecosystem, and it is generally assumed that such fires are the primary determinant of forest structure. There is significant evidence, however, that despite the presence of natural fires, Native Americans regularly conducted controlled burns of the landscape to increase productivity of certain terrestrial resources as a means of sustaining high population densities. The investigators of this project will use pollen and charcoal analysis to reconstruct the last 2,000 years of forest history and compare it with independent climate history reconstructed from tree-ring studies to determine whether forest structure changes in a manner consistent with patterns of climate. The investigators hypothesize that if the abundance of tree types that Native Americans used for food resources but which required drier conditions and open habitat are found to have increased during cool wet periods, then the most likely cause would be increased fires set by Native Americans through traditional resource-management practices. The investigators will use ecological models to test whether fires caused by lightning alone could have produced specific forest changes or whether human-set fires also were needed. The investigators will compare the timing of forest changes with the archaeological record of Native Americans to confirm whether the changes in forest structure coincide with more intense use of resources. This project will investigate these questions through a case study in the Sierra Nevada of California, but the research insights will be applicable to national forest lands throughout the United States where forest fire management is a public concern.