Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeology of Estuarine Seascapes

本博士论文研究项目的重点是重建沿海美洲原住民社会在近岸河口生态系统的建立和改造中所发挥的作用。以前的地球科学和考古工作研究了河口的演变为非人为或“前人为”生态交错区，并概念化的土著海洋社会的被动居民的邦蒂富尔和动态的环境。本论文的研究将整合地质考古学和古生态学的方法，重新概念化沿海人民的生态系统工程师和潮汐河口栖息地的产品，深时间的人与环境的相互作用。本论文的研究将产生的海洋海侵过程的历史重建沿着墨西哥湾沿岸，河口管理的土著美国人的知识，和工业化前的基线数据测量现代海平面上升和历史退化。该项目将调查古代土著社会通过建造和维护地形化的外壳工程来设计近岸生态系统的一般假设。这项研究将在几个保存完好的考古复合体沿着一个大型开放水域河口系统进行，该系统曾被美洲原住民人口集中居住。沉积岩芯和考古发掘单位的沉积学，古植物学和放射性碳分析将相互关联，以重建土著壳地形和建立受保护的，低能量的潮间带栖息地之间的地质和生态关系。通过比较核心记录与动物考古学组合和中丘建造序列，评估人为栖息地改造，生计生产和城市建筑的安置之间的反馈。这一跨学科的数据集将有助于提高生态学和人类学对潮间带生态系统的理解。该研究将在与当地和区域土地管理者和保护机构协商后进行，其明确目的是将研究成果和研究产品纳入管理、保护和恢复规划。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得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来支持。

The focus of this doctoral dissertation research project is to reconstruct the roles that coastal Native American societies played in the establishment and transformation of nearshore estuarine ecosystems. Previous geoscientific and archaeological work has studied the evolution of estuaries as non-anthropogenic or ‘pre-anthropogenic’ ecotones, and conceptualized Indigenous maritime societies as passive inhabitants of bountiful and dynamic environments. This dissertation research will integrate geoarchaeological and paleoecological approaches to reconceptualize coastal peoples as ecosystem engineers and tidal estuarine habitats as the products of deep-time human-environmental interaction. This dissertation research will produce historical reconstructions for the process of marine transgression along the Gulf Coastal strand, knowledge of estuary management by Native Americans, and pre-industrial baseline data for measuring modern sea-level rise and historical degradation. The project will investigate the general hypothesis that ancient Indigenous societies engineered nearshore ecosystems through the construction and maintenance of terraformed shellworks. The research will be conducted at several well-preserved archaeological complexes along a large open-water estuary system that was intensively occupied by Native American populations. Sedimentological, paleobotanical, and radiocarbon analyses on sediment cores and archaeological excavation units will be correlated to reconstruct the geological and ecological relationships between Indigenous shell-terraforming and the establishment of protected, low-energy intertidal habitats. Feedbacks between anthropogenic habitat modification, subsistence production, and the emplacement of civic architecture will be assessed by comparing the core records with zooarchaeological assemblages and construction sequences of midden-mounds. This interdisciplinary dataset will contribute to improved ecological and anthropological understanding of intertidal ecosystems. The study will be carried out in consultation with local and regional land managers and conservation agencies with the explicit intent that results and research products may be integrated into management, conservation, and restoration planning.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.