BE/CNH: Human Ecodynamics in the Hawaiian Ecosystem, 1200 to 200 Years Before the Present

该项目将研究一个与世隔绝的人口与其自然环境之间1000年的复杂、动态的相互作用，重点是夏威夷群岛(特别是毛伊岛和夏威夷群岛)的两个景观样本。这项研究的四个主要研究主题是：(1)确定农业发展进程如何与地貌和生物地球化学镶嵌和梯度相联系；(2)评估人口增长与农业发展和集约化之间的动态联系；(3)跟踪人口增长和农业变化方面新出现的社会文化复杂性；以及(4)了解人口增长和农业经济基础密集的人口增长如何影响自然资源基础。该项目是多学科的，将由一个代表考古学、土壤学、生态学、人口学和古植物学学科的科学家团队合作进行实地考察。实地工作将建立在团队成员先前密集的考古、生态和土壤学研究的基础上，但将重点放在研究景观中生物地球化学变化的新的综合工作上，以及获取解决上述研究主题所需的额外古人口统计和古植物学数据方面。不同的数据集将使用地理信息系统方法进行整合，并将使用分层建模来检验关于人与环境随时间的相互作用的假设。该项目将重点放在夏威夷群岛，因为该群岛提供了独特的机会来限制人与环境相互作用的分析(例如，短时间尺度、孤立、明显的生物地球化学梯度)。然而，需要解决的问题是全球性的。将要研究的文化和自然进化过程--例如前所未有的人口增长、大范围的森林砍伐、养分枯竭导致的土壤退化、人口向边缘土地的迁移以及政治和经济集中化和控制的加强--今天都在全球范围内发生。通过在约1000年的受控时间尺度上研究这些过程，本研究将产生这些关键因素之间因果联系的动态模型，这些模型可以帮助我们理解由人与自然系统耦合驱动的不可逆转的环境和文化变化。这种模式应与正在进行的发展可持续人类生态系统的努力有相当大的相关性。因此，这一项目的结果将引起一系列学科的广泛兴趣，包括生态学、人口学、人类学、经济学和生物地理学。该项目是2001财年环境中生物复杂性特别竞赛的奖项，重点是自然和人类耦合系统的动力学。

The project will study the complex, dynamic interactions between an isolated human population and its natural environment over the course of 1,000 years, focusing on two sample landscapes in the Hawaiian Islands (specifically, Maui and Hawaii Islands). Four main research themes motivate this research: (1) determining how processes of agricultural development were linked to geomorphological and biogeochemical mosaics and gradients; (2) assessing the dynamic links between human population growth and agricultural development and intensification; (3) tracking emerging sociocultural complexity in relation to demographic growth and agricultural change; and (4) understanding how a growing human population, with an intensive agricultural economic base, affected the natural resource base. The project is multidisciplinary, and will involve collaborative fieldwork by a team of scientists representing the disciplines of archaeology, soil science, ecology, demography, and paleobotany. Fieldwork will build upon prior intensive archaeological, ecological, and pedological research by team members, but will emphasize new, integrative work on biogeochemical variation across the study landscapes, and on acquiring additional paleo-demographic and paleobotanical data necessary to address the research themes noted above. The varied data sets will be integrated using a geographic information systems approach, and hierarchical modeling will be used to test hypotheses regarding human-environment interactions over time.The project focuses on the Hawaiian Islands because this archipelago offers unique opportunities to constrain the analysis of human-environment interactions (e.g., short time scale, isolation, pronounced biogeochemical gradients). The issues to be addressed, however, are global. The cultural and natural evolutionary processes to be studied--such as unprecedented population growth, widespread deforestation, soil degradation through nutrient depletion, population migrations into marginal lands, and increased political and economic centralization and control--are all taking place today on a global scale. By studying these processes on a controlled time scale of approximately 1,000 years, this research will produce dynamic models of the causal links between such key factors, models which can help us to understand the irreversible environmental and cultural changes driven by the coupling of human and natural systems. Such models should be of considerable relevance to on-going attempts to develop sustainable human ecosystems. The results of this project will therefore be of wide interest to a range of disciplines, including ecology, demography, anthropology, economics, and biogeography. This project is an award emanating from the FY2001 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.