Understanding Climate Change and Environmental Transition: Analyses of Sediment Core Materials from the Sesecapa Lagoon, Pacific Coastal Guatemala

在国家科学基金会的支持下，莫莉·摩根博士将协调对从危地马拉太平洋沿岸的塞塞卡帕泻湖收集的地质岩芯的分析。利用放射性碳测年、植物、动物群以及地质和化学分析，摩根博士将对太平洋海岸这一部分的气候变化和环境变化进行详细且具有年代性的重建。由于人类在这一沿海地区的居住时间超过数千年，它提供了一个比较记录，使研究人员能够检查环境变化和社会反应之间的多方向互动。预计核心将记录约6000年，从而涵盖整个占领范围。从考古角度来看，该区域记录了从居民流动和低水平粮食生产向永久封建和社会文化复杂性的转变以及复杂社会的兴起。最近的古气候研究认识到，在上一个“冰河时代”之后的这段时期经历了气候变化，这肯定影响了人类，但对当地机制的了解往往不足，与之相关的详细文化变化仍然含糊不清。在中美洲的太平洋海岸，以及世界上许多其他地区的热带海岸，这些变化包括泻湖的形成、海滩的形成和进积。这些将被记录在核心中。除了将为区域考古带来新的曙光外，该项目还具有多种更广泛的影响。这项研究将记录一种主要的景观过渡类型--关闭咸水河口，随后形成淡水泻湖--这是太平洋海岸目前正在进行的一个过程。这项工作将提供对海滩堆积率和景观效应的详细了解。今天生活在这个湿地地区的社区可以利用这些信息来规划他们将面临的变化，因为河流继续沿着海岸倾倒沉积物，河口环境发生变化。其次，这些结果可能更广泛地被推广。

With support from the National Science Foundation Dr. Molly Morgan will coordinate the analysis of a geological core collected from the Sesecapa Lagoon in Pacific coastal Guatemala. Using radiocarbon dating, floral, faunal and geological and chemical analysis Dr. Morgan will develop a detailed and chronologically sensitive reconstruction of climate change and environmental transformation for this portion of the Pacific coast. Because human habitation of this coastal region extends over multiple millennia it provides a comparative record which will allow researchers to examine the multi-directional interactions between environmental change and societal response. It is expected that the core will document ca. 6,000 years and thus cover the entire occupation span. Archaeologically the region documents athe shift from residential mobility and low-level food production to permanent sedentism and sociocultural complexity and the rise of complex society.Recent paleoclimatic research recognizes that this period following the last "Ice Age" experienced shifts in climate that must have affected human populations, but understanding of local mechanisms are often lacking and detailed associated culture change remain obscure. On the Pacific coast of Middle America, as well as tropic coasts in many other regions of the world, these changes included the formation of lagoons and beach formation and progradation. These would be documented in the core. In addition to the new light which will be shed on regional archaeology the project has multiple broader impacts. The research will document a major type of landscape transition - the closing off of saltwater estuaries and the subsequent formation of freshwater lagoons - a currently ongoing process on the Pacific coast. The work will provide a detailed understanding of beach accumulation rates and landscape effects. Communities living in this wetland area today can use this information to plan for changes that they will face as rivers continue to dump sediments along the coast and estuary environments transform. Secondly the results may be more broadly generalized.