Ecosystem and Soil Studies of Native American Runoff Agriculture

小行星9528458 几代祖尼农民在新墨西哥州中西部现今的祖尼印第安人保留区使用雨水径流收集系统种植玉米和其他作物。 与美国西南部半干旱地区的其他普韦布洛部落一样，祖尼人的径流农业方法是传统意义上的施肥或灌溉。 农民相信短暂的雨水流，他们转移到放置良好的领域，提供水分和养分生产作物。 本研究为期三年，旨在分析描述祖尼径流场的农业生态结构与功能。 系统输入进行评估的水分，养分和土壤物质来自自然流域上坡从领域和短暂的径流运输。 系统产出将作为生产力进行评估，包括作物的即期产量和反映在农业土壤质量中的长期生产力。 本项目将采用的方法基于可持续土地用途：监测农业土壤的长期状况和制定保护生态系统资源的管理做法这两个关键研究领域。 祖尼地区，耕种了两千多年，提供了宝贵的信息，这两个努力：保留包含一些最古老的可识别的农业用地在美国的研究在这里扩展到一个时间框架内设想的可持续发展的概念，补充现代长期的生态和农业实验的农业景观的影响的知识。 这项研究还将有助于对这种半干旱生态系统的基本了解。 它将应用于其他干旱和半干旱地区的可持续农业发展，以及祖尼可持续农业系统的振兴。 该项目是祖尼部落和一个跨学科研究小组之间的伙伴关系，包括来自新墨西哥州、爱荷华州州立大学和怀俄明州大学的科学家。 祖尼部落目前的可持续农业经济重建计划对这项工作有直接的应用。

9528458 Sandor Generations of Zuni farmers have used a storm runoff harvesting system to grow maize and other crops in the area of the present day Zuni Indian Reservation in the West-central New Mexico. As with other Pueblo tribes of the semiarid southwest U.S. Zuni methods of runoff farming use on fertilizer or irrigation in the conventional sense. Farmers credit ephemeral stormwater flows, which they divert onto well placed fields, with supplying moisture and nutrients to produce crops. The goal of this three year study is to analytically describe agroecological structure and function of Zuni runoff fields. System inputs to be evaluated are moisture, nutrients, and soil materials derived from natural watersheds upslope from fields and transported by ephemeral runoff. System output will be evaluated as productivity both in terms of immediate crop yield and long-term productivity, reflected in agricultural soil quality. The approach to be used in this project is based on two key areas of research on sustainable land use: monitoring long-term condition of agricultural soils and developing management practices that conserve ecosystem resources. The Zuni area, farmed for over two thousand years, provides information valuable to both endeavors: the Reservation contains some of the oldest identifiable agricultural land in the U.S. Studies here extend knowledge about effects of agriculture on landscapes into a time frame envisioned in the concept of sustainability, complementing modern long-term ecological and agricultural experiments. This research will also contribute to basic understanding of such semiarid ecosystems. It will have applications to sustainable agriculture development in other arid and semiarid areas, and to revitalization of a sustainable agricultural system for Zuni. The project is a partnership between the Zuni Tribe and an interdisciplinary research team, including scientists from New Mexico, Iowa State University, and University of Wyoming. The Zuni Tribe's curre nt plan for redevelopment of a sustainable agarian economy has direct applications for the work.