Collaborative Research: Long Term Maintenance of Sustainable Agriculture

随着全球人口增长和气候不稳定对粮食安全构成新的挑战，建立可持续和生产性农业系统变得越来越重要。然而，评估真正的长期可持续性所需的数百年或数千年的时间尺度往往无法通过当代生态数据集获得。因此，考古学家分析的深层文化和环境数据集为理解数千年来可持续的农业实践提供了一个独特的窗口，使研究人员能够洞察促成(或抑制)生产性农业生态系统长寿的社会和环境因素。该项目将应用多学科考古学和生态学方法，调查迎风的夏威夷山谷(莫洛卡岛的HalāWa山谷)800多年来的土著农业活动，并评估其长期生产力和可持续性。它将为集约农业系统的建立和发展提供新的见解，包括农业对当地土壤、用水和植被的影响，以及过去人们适应气候波动和资源限制的方式。作为一个以社区为基础的参与性研究项目，研究人员将与当地社区成员和非营利组织合作，为当地利益攸关方提供考古和遗产管理培训机会，并将研究成果应用于莫洛卡伊的生态系统恢复和可持续农业。这项研究还将在田野、实验室和博物馆环境中为夏威夷原住民和其他代表性不足的利益攸关方提供STEM培训机会。该项目将结合对以前出土的考古收藏品的重新分析，以及对HalāWa山谷的重新实地调查和挖掘，以检验集约化湿谷夏威夷农业生态系统不仅具有高生产力，而且在几个世纪的农业活动中是可持续的这一假设。这项研究将涉及六个主要目标：(1)将应用考古调查和测绘、定向挖掘和新的高精度放射性碳测年来记录灌溉农业的发展和水流控制机制。(2)将应用地理信息系统制图、土壤和微型植物学分析来调查山谷内的堆积坡地农业的性质和范围，这是HalāWa山谷中一个研究不足但可能是粮食生产的关键组成部分。(3)土壤样本的化学分析将表征整个山谷的土壤肥力，并检查几个世纪的农业对土壤养分有效性的影响。(4)对档案记录的分析将调查接触后早期的土地使用和水权，以描述HalāWa农业系统过去的社会和政治背景。(5)对考古动物遗骸的分析将审查畜牧业的发展及其与粮食生产和资源分配决策的结合。对猪、狗和老鼠遗骸的稳定同位素分析将检查整个农业生态系统中食物网和养分流动的变化，以评估不断变化的土地利用和可持续性。(6)夏威夷农业神庙(Heiau)遗址的有限测试挖掘将为山谷中与农业集约化和生产力相关的社会政治发展提供一个时间顺序。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Establishing sustainable and productive agricultural systems is increasingly important as global population growth and climatic instability pose new challenges to food security. However, the centuries- or millennia-long time scales necessary to evaluate true long-term sustainability are often inaccessible through contemporary ecological datasets. The deep-time cultural and environmental datasets analyzed by archaeologists therefore offer a unique window into understanding sustainable agricultural practices across millennia, allowing researchers insight into both the social and environmental factors that contribute to (or inhibit) the longevity of productive agro-ecosystems systems. This project will apply a multidisciplinary archaeological and ecological approach to investigate 800+ years of indigenous agricultural activities in a windward Hawaiian Valley (Halāwa Valley, Moloka‘i Island) and evaluate its long-term productivity and sustainability. It will provide new insight into the establishment and growth of intensive agricultural systems, including the impacts of agriculture on local soils, water use, and vegetation, as well as the ways past people adapted to climatic fluctuations and resource limitations. As a community-based participatory research project, researchers will work in collaboration with local community members and non-profit organizations to facilitate archaeology and heritage management training opportunities for local stakeholders, and to apply research results towards ecosystem restoration and sustainable agriculture on Moloka‘i. This research will also offer STEM training opportunities for Native Hawaiians and other underrepresented stakeholders in field, laboratory, and museum settings. This project will combine re-analysis of previously excavated archaeological collections with renewed field survey and excavations in Halāwa Valley to test the hypothesis that intensive wet-valley Hawaiian agro-ecosystems were not only highly productive, but sustainable across centuries of agricultural activities. This research will address six primary objectives: (1) archaeological survey and mapping, targeted excavation, and new high-precision radiocarbon dating will be applied to document the development of irrigated agriculture and water flow control mechanisms. (2) GIS mapping, soil, and microbotanical analyses will be applied to investigate the nature and extent of colluvial slope agriculture within the valley, an under-researched but likely critical component of food production in Halāwa Valley. (3) Chemical analyses of soil samples will characterize soil fertility across the valley and examine the impacts of centuries of agriculture on soil nutrient availability. (4) Analysis of archival records will investigate early post-contact land use and water rights to characterize the past social and political context of agricultural systems in Halāwa. (5) Analysis of archaeological faunal remains will examine the development of animal husbandry and its integration into food production and resource allocation decisions. Stable isotope analysis of pig, dog, and rat remains will examine changes to food webs and nutrient flows across agro-ecosystems to evaluate changing land use and sustainability. (6) Limited test excavations at Hawaiian agricultural temple (heiau) sites will provide a chronological sequence for sociopolitical developments in the valley linked to agricultural intensification and productivity.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.