Anthropogenic Fire, Human Foraging Strategies, and Ecosystem Dynamics in the Western Desert of Australia

斯坦福大学人类学家丽贝卡·布莱奇·伯德博士和道格拉斯·W·伯德博士将对澳大利亚西部沙漠中马尔图原住民觅食、景观燃烧和栖息地改变的社会和生态背景进行研究。在美国和世界各地，土著焚烧日益被认为是塑造植物群落和生物多样性的重要力量。然而，科学家直接观察人类文化与生存、气候变化和火灾模式之间复杂关系的能力受到以下事实的阻碍：很少有土著社区在焚烧方面拥有相对的自主权。在这方面，澳大利亚提供了一个独特的研究机会。人为火灾的影响被认为在澳大利亚特别显著，在那里，土著焚烧被认为从根本上改变了该大陆的生物地理。此外，干旱内陆的许多原住民社区在火灾应用方面仍有相对的自主权。因此，审查澳大利亚做法的研究将：(A)为美国类似干旱地区的火灾管理模式提供信息；(B)阐明在人为燃烧一直是栖息地结构的关键组成部分的情况下灭火的效果；(C)检验人类对环境的影响不是始于农业，而是在整个人类进化史上延伸到猎人和采集者的假设。研究人员将开发基本的分析工具并收集新的数据，以表征土地使用和火灾处理如何影响干旱土地多样性和栖息地碎片化关键组成部分的可变性。他们将使用各种研究方法，包括气候数据和陆地卫星照片的分析、详细的景观地图、马尔图个体的焦点跟踪、样带地图和基于代理的建模。这项研究很重要，因为它将让科学家更好地了解气候变化如何调节土地利用和火灾之间的相互作用，如何影响动植物的密度和分布，以及在一个政治分权的社会中，个人如何克服集体行动的问题，提供未来从焚烧中获得的好处。该项目还将支持研究生和本科教育。

Stanford University anthropologists, Dr. Rebecca Bliege Bird and Dr. Douglas W. Bird, will undertake research on the social and ecological contexts of foraging, landscape burning, and habitat modification among Martu aborigines in Australia's Western Desert. Indigenous burning is increasingly recognized as an important force in shaping plant communities and biodiversity in the United States and around the world. However, the ability of scientists to directly observe the complex relationships between human culture and subsistence, climate change, and the patterning of fire is hampered by the fact that few indigenous communities have relative autonomy in burning. In this regard, Australia provides a unique research opportunity.The impact of anthropogenic fire is considered to be particularly significant in Australia, where indigenous burning has been hypothesized to have radically altered the continent's biogeography. Furthermore, many aboriginal communities in the arid interior still have relative autonomy in fire application. Therefore, research that examines Australian practices will (a) inform models of fire management in similar arid regions in the United States; (b) illuminate the effects of fire suppression in contexts where anthropogenic burning has been a critical component of habitat structure; and (c) test the hypothesis that human impacts on the environment did not begin with agriculture, but extend to hunters and gatherers throughout human evolutionary history. The researchers will develop basic analytical tools and collect new data to characterize how land-use and fire treatment affects variability in key components of arid lands diversity and habitat fragmentation. They will employ a variety of research methods including analysis of climate data and LandSat photos, detailed landscape mappings, focal follows of Martu individuals, transect mappings, and agent-based modeling. The research is important because it will allow scientists to better understand how the interaction between land-use and fire may be mediated by climate change, how it affects plant and animal densities and distributions, and how, in a politically decentralized society, individuals overcome problems of collective action in supplying future benefits derived from burning. The project will also support both graduate and undergraduate education.