The Role Of Environmental Variation In The Appearance Of Agricultural Domesticates

奥尔巴尼-纽约州立大学的罗伯特·罗森韦格博士将与来自宾夕法尼亚州立大学、亚利桑那州立大学和中央华盛顿大学的同事们一起，对中美洲粮食生产的起源与气候变化和热带森林生态演变的关系进行研究。粮食生产是人类历史上最重要的发展之一。长期以来，人们一直认为它通过增加土地的承载能力、可能的定居程度以及更大的人口密度，为几乎所有随后的文化发展奠定了基础。因此，粮食生产是建立城市生活的必要先决条件。粮食生产对于保证社会内部的劳动分工也是必要的，这种分工使农民能够养活越来越多的非生产者，如政治统治者、工程师和科学家。气候变化通常被认为是导致文化崩溃的原因，但在本研究中，气候变化对粮食生产集约化的作用进行了评估。该项目在促进对人类粮食生产起源与中美洲热带森林生态之间相互作用的基本理解方面具有重要意义，中美洲是世界上为数不多的农业独立发展的地区之一。rossenwig和他的团队将研究干燥的环境条件如何影响人类的生存方式，以及集约化的粮食生产如何反过来影响当地的植被模式。重建中美洲伯利兹北部热带低地的人类活动和森林植物物种多样性将从公元前4000-1000年进行重建，以记录粮食生产和定居模式如何受到气候变化的影响，进而记录当地植被如何重建。这将通过结合：1。记载人类居住的考古发掘；2. 2 .湖泊沉积物取心重建具有经济价值的植物花粉的变化模式；人类为了提高土壤生产力而焚烧当地植被所产生的木炭。研究将集中在所谓的“4.2万年事件”上，该事件在公元前2200年至1900年期间造成了三个世纪的全球气候扰动。在此之前、期间和之后的人类居住模式和饮食证据将用于评估物种可用性变化的古生态证据和通过使用火的人为干扰程度。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Dr. Robert Rosenswig, of the University at Albany-SUNY, along with colleagues from Penn State, Arizona State and the University of Central Washington, will undertake research on the origins of food production in Mesoamerica in relation to the changing climate and evolving tropical forest ecology. Food production is one of the most significant developments in the history of the human species. It has long been acknowledged as setting the stage for virtually all subsequent cultural developments by increasing the carrying capacity of land, the degree of sedentism that is possible as well as greater population density. As a result, the production of food was a required prerequisite for the establishment of urban life. Food production is also necessary to underwrite the division of labor within society that allowed farmers to support ever-increasing numbers of non-producers such as political rulers, engineers and scientists. Changes in climate are often posited as resulting in cultural collapse, but is evaluated in this research for its role in the intensification of food production. This project is significant in advancing basic understanding of interactions between the origins of human food production and tropical forest ecology in response to climate change in Mesoamerica, one of the small number of locations in the world where agriculture independently developed.Dr. Rosenswig and his team will examine how drying environmental conditions impact human subsistence practices and how intensified food production, in turn, impact local vegetation patterns. The reconstruction of human occupation and forest floral species diversity in the tropical lowlands of northern Belize, Central America will be reconstructed from 4000-1000 BC to document how food production and settlement patterns were impacted by the changing climate and, in turn, how local vegetation was reconstituted. This will be accomplished by combining: 1. archaeological excavation that documents human habitation; 2. lake sediment coring to reconstruct changing patterns of plant pollen from economically useful species and 3. charcoal that result from human burning of local vegetation to increase soil productivity. Research will focus on the so-called "4.2k BP Event" that caused three centuries of climate disturbance world-wide between 2200 and 1900 BC. Evidence of human settlement patterns and diet from before, during and after this period will be used to evaluate paleoecological evidence of changing species availability and the extent of anthropogenic disturbance through the use of fire.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.