CNH-Ex: The Collapse of the Ancient Maya: Interdisciplinary Research on Society and the Environment

我们的研究解决了文明的崩溃和热带地区森林砍伐的后果。大约公元800年，古玛雅人达到了很高的人口密度，砍伐了他们的大部分环境，并在墨西哥南部和中美洲北部造成了严重的土壤侵蚀。在接下来的一个世纪里，他们的文明在大片地区衰落，一些地区的人口减少了90%。我们的目标是：1)了解古玛雅人和他们的环境之间的相互作用，这些相互作用导致了他们在中美洲伯利兹西北部的文明的崩溃；2)评估1200年前古玛雅人的土地使用对现在环境的影响。为了做到这一点，我们将在同一研究地点研究考古学、地质学和生态学，并将结果叠加在一起，揭示古代土地利用、古代对土壤和地形的影响以及热带森林现在的土壤特征和树种组成之间的联系。我们将在一个地区工作，那里有各种各样的古玛雅土地集约利用，但自从玛雅人崩溃和森林重新生长以来，这里几乎没有受到干扰，这意味着古玛雅人的足迹在我们的研究区域应该比其他地方更明显。这项研究将在伯利兹的一个保护组织伯利兹方案管理的25万英亩的布拉沃保护和管理区进行，并在德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校管理的伯利兹方案考古项目的主持下进行。人类对地球的影响越来越大，例如，砍伐森林和加速土壤侵蚀。这些变化可能导致“临界点”，即生态系统突然发生根本变化，不再支持农业、提供充足的水或以其他方式满足人类需求。科学家需要研究这些影响，并提出如何缓解目前的变化和防止未来的临界点的建议。但我们也可以通过研究过去达到的临界点来学习，比如上面描述的古玛雅文明的崩溃。为了理解这种崩溃，我们将社会科学（考古学）、地球科学和生态科学结合起来，研究古代玛雅文明遗址在今天的伯利兹发生的事件。我们队的考古学家将研究过去的土地利用。地质考古学家将研究过去的地形和土壤。生态学家将研究过去和现在的森林环境。我们的工作以一个模型为指导，该模型将古代土地利用、森林砍伐和土壤侵蚀、对环境的影响以及古玛雅人对这些景观变化的反应联系起来。除了了解过去的事件，我们还对古代森林砍伐对当今森林的长期影响感兴趣。古代森林砍伐（在此之后，伯利兹的现代、相当多样化的森林重新生长）和现代森林砍伐之间的异同可以为现代土地利用的后果提供线索，并为改善土地利用提供建议。我们的另一个目标是在社会、地质和生物科学家之间建立一种合作模式，用于研究古玛雅和现代森林，这可以成为研究和管理环境问题的一般模式。

Our research addresses the collapse of a civilization and the consequences of deforestation in the tropics. The ancient Maya reached a high population density, deforested much of their environment, and caused significant soil erosion in southern Mexico and northern Central America by about 800 AD. In the next century their civilization declined over large areas, with populations reduced by 90% in some regions. Our goals are to: 1) understand the interactions between the ancient Maya and their environment that contributed to the collapse of their civilization in northwest Belize, Central America, and 2) to assess the impact of ancient Maya land use, ending 1200 years ago, on the present environment. To do this we will study archaeology, geology, and ecology at the same research sites and overlay the results to reveal connections among ancient land use, ancient impacts on soil and topography, and the present soil characteristics and tree species composition of a tropical forest. We will work in an area where there was a variety of intensive ancient Maya land uses, but where there has been little disturbance since the collapse of the Maya and the re-growth of the forest beginning c. 1200 years ago, which means that the footprint of the ancient Maya in our study area should be more evident than in other places. The study will be carried out in the 250,000-acre Rio Bravo Conservation and Management Area, administered by the Programme for Belize (PfB), a Belizean conservation organization, and be conducted under the auspices of the PfB Archaeology Project, operated by the University of Texas at Austin. Humans increasingly affect the planet, for example, by deforesting the landscape and accelerating soil erosion. These changes could lead to "tipping points", when ecosystems suddenly change radically and no longer support agriculture, provide adequate water, or otherwise supply human needs. Scientists need to study these impacts and suggest how to mitigate the present changes and prevent future tipping points. But we can also learn by studying tipping points reached in the past, such as the collapse of the ancient Maya described above. To understand that collapse we are combining social science (archaeology), geo-science, and ecological science to study past events at sites of ancient Maya civilization in present-day Belize. Archaeologists in our team will study past land use. Geo-archaeologists will study past topography and soils. Ecologists will study past and present forest environments. Our work is guided by a model connecting ancient land use, deforestation and soil erosion, consequences for the environment, and responses by the ancient Maya to these landscape changes. In addition to understanding past events we are interested in the long-term consequences of ancient deforestation for the present-day forests. The similarities and differences between ancient deforestation (after which the modern, fairly diverse forest re-grew in Belize) and modern deforestation could provide clues to the consequences of modern land use and provide recommendations for improved use. Another goal for us is to create a model collaboration between social, geological, and biological scientists for the study of the ancient Maya and the modern forest, and that can be a general model for studying and managing environmental problems.