Geoarchaeological Evidence of Landscape Change

该奖项是作为NSF社会、行为和经济学博士后研究奖学金(SPRF)计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决重要的科学问题，以推进他们各自的学科领域。在Arlene Rosen博士和德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校的赞助下，这项博士后奖学金奖项支持一位早期职业科学家进行一项关于耕作系统在新墨西哥州北部引入时对这些系统的多标度影响的地质考古调查，作为公元16-19世纪西班牙殖民项目的一部分。殖民前和殖民时代晚期的西南地区发生了一系列戏剧性的、长达数十年的干旱事件，对结果产生了深远的影响。从西班牙殖民者到北美西南部的技术、植物、动物和疾病的“哥伦布交流”对该地区的历史产生了深远的影响。然而，很少有人进行研究，以产生记录土地地貌变化的经验数据。该项目确定并测试了西班牙殖民统治下西南地区的三个景观变化模型。它将首次对沉积物的地质考古和微植物学数据进行直接分析，这些沉积物是从新墨西哥州北部里奥格兰德河谷地区受殖民影响的两个殖民定居点和一个普韦布洛定居点--分别是Dixon、Cuyumunge和Picuris Pueblo--毗邻和下游的已知农业区的地质剖面上系统采集的。这样的沉积物切片保存了随时间推移的景观过程的证据，例如沉积物迁移(侵蚀模式)、沉积物盐碱化(表明灌溉制度、土地稳定性，从而表明人类活动模式)、地下水位(表明侵蚀性土地利用做法或筑坝)和有机含量(以评估存在什么类型的环境，包括干旱时期)。研究这些部分将使该项目的研究人员能够评估土地过程是如何相对于新墨西哥州北部殖民过程中引入的其他变化而发生变化的，并评估人们如何应对不断变化的地形。特别值得注意的是，该项目与该地区的两个项目合作，这两个项目首次由当地后代社区主办-这些后代社区的参与将加强对采样区的访问，对数据和历史的背景知识，以及对社区遗产利益的更广泛贡献。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry, or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two year of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctroal Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Posdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions tat advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Arlene Rosen and the University of Texas-Austin, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist conducting a geoarchaeological investigation of the multi-scalar impacts of farming systems on the landscapes of northern New Mexico upon the introduction of those systems as part of the Spanish colonial project of the 16th-19th centuries CE. The late pre-colonial and colonial Southwest was marked by a series of dramatic multi-decadal drought episodes that profoundly affected outcomes. The "Columbian Exchange" of technologies, plants, animals, and diseases from Spanish colonists to the North American Southwest has had profound impact on the history of the region. However, very little research has been conducted to produce empirical data documenting the geomorphological changes to the land. This project identifies and tests three models for landscape change in the Southwest under Spanish colonization. It will produce the first direct analysis of geoarchaeological and microbotanical data from sediments systematically sampled from geological sections adjacent to and downstream from known agricultural areas of two colonial settlements and one Pueblo settlement under colonial influence in the Rio Grande River Valley region of northern New Mexico: Dixon, Cuyumunge, and Picuris Pueblo, respectively. Sediment sections such as these preserve evidence for landscape processes over time, such as sediment transportation (erosional patterns), salinization of sediments (indicating irrigation regimes, land stability, and therefore human mobility patterns), water table levels (indicative of erosive land use practice or damming), and organic content (to assess what kinds of environments were present, including aridification episodes). Studying these sections will allow the researcher of this project to assess how land processes changed in relation to the other changes introduced over the course of colonization in northern New Mexico, and to assess how people responded to their changing landscape. It is particularly notable that this project is in cooperation with two projects in the region that are being hosted by local descendent communities for the first time - the participation of these descendent communities will enhance the accessibility to sampling areas, the contextual knowledge of the data and history, and the broader contribution to community heritage interests.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.