Doctoral Dissertation Research: Human-Landscape Interactions and Response to Holocene Sea-Level Rise and Climate Change in Coastal New Hampshire, USA

彼得·利奇将对全新世中后期人类、文化材料和景观对海平面上升、气候变化和生态系统变异性的反应进行调查。这将通过对美国缅因湾潮间带全新世中晚期考古遗址进行地质考古评估来实现。这个接触前、多组分的遗址被全新世晚期海平面上升淹没，现在被1.0-2.0米的盐沼泥炭掩埋。由于遗址被淹没，它展示了对未燃烧的动物遗骸、多组分地层和有机物质的特殊保存。主要目标是了解时间和自然地点淹没情况，绘制文化材料和自然地貌的空间分布图，并继续对短期地貌过程进行高分辨率无人机[无人机]分析。了解保护潜力和当地地理/地质变量的影响将极大地加强海平面上升对遗址生存的模拟。这将产生与埋藏在更远的近海的较老遗址相关的信息。目前的项目和未来的相关研究将提供本科生和研究生培训，并将产生非常适合公开传播的科学数据。项目成果将提高人们对盐沼下接触前场地潜力的认识，这是一个在施工和工程活动中经常被忽视的研究区域。项目数据将通过阐明潮间带和水下遗址所需的努力和研究潜力，使历史保护官员受益。这反过来应导致改善关于湿地修复或基础设施改善期间环境影响评估的法规。这些和其他数据将证明持续监测的必要性，并强调确定受海岸侵蚀威胁的考古遗址的紧迫性。在北美东北部和北半球许多其他地点，全新世早期至中期的沿海遗址因相对海平面上升而被淹没，并可能由于当地地貌因素而被不同程度地保存下来。研究人员试图了解过去和正在进行的地貌过程，这些过程影响了人类对景观的使用，以及水下和潮间带遗址的长期保存潜力。研究人员将使用放射性碳测年来限制场地组件的年龄和海平面上升的时间。实验室技术将提取和稳定受涝地点独有的有机物质。传统的考古野外方法将通过人工提取岩心、高分辨率无人机调查和密集的空间数据分析来补充。现场层面的推断将增强海洋海侵地貌的地质模型，并证明需要在考古尺度上进行改进。无人机测绘优于激光雷达和粗尺度定性侵蚀评估，研究人员创新地使用这项技术将产生定量数据，并改进短期(单一风暴事件)侵蚀和沉积模型。虽然目前的项目侧重于接触前人类和生态系统对海平面上升和气候变化的反应，但产生的数据将有助于模拟类似系统对未来环境变化的反应。

Peter Leach will undertake an investigation of the response of mid- to late-Holocene people, cultural materials and landscapes to sea-level rise, climate change and ecosystem variability. This will be accomplished through geoarchaeological evaluation of an intertidal mid-to-late Holocene archaeological site on the Gulf of Maine, USA. This precontact, multi-component site was drowned by late Holocene sea-level rise and it is now buried by 1.0-2.0 meters of salt marsh peat. Because the site was submerged, it exhibits exceptional preservation of unburned faunal remains, multi-component stratigraphy, and organic materials. The main goals are to understand the timing and nature site submergence, map the spatial distribution of cultural materials and natural features, and to continue high-resolution unmanned aerial vehicle [UAV] analyses of short-term geomorphic processes. An understanding of preservation potential and the influence of local geographic/geological variables will greatly enhance modeling of site survival through sea-level rise. This will generate information relevant to older sites buried farther offshore. The current project and related future research will provide undergraduate and graduate student training and will generate scientific data ideally suited for public dissemination. Project results will raise awareness of precontact site potential beneath salt marshes, a study area that is frequently overlooked during construction and engineering activities. Project data will benefit Historical Preservation Officers by elucidating the effort required and research potential of intertidal and submerged sites. This in turn should lead to improved regulations regarding environmental impact assessments during wetland remediation or infrastructure improvements. These and other data will demonstrate the need for continuous monitoring and underscore the urgency of identifying archaeological sites threatened by coastal erosion.In northeastern North America and many other northern hemisphere locations, early- to mid-Holocene coastal sites were submerged through relative sea-level rise and are likely variably preserved due to local geomorphic factors. The investigators seek an understanding of past and on-going geomorphic processes that influence human use of landscapes and long-term preservation potential of submerged and intertidal sites. The researchers will use radiocarbon dating to constrain the age of site components and the timing of sea-level rise. Laboratory techniques will extract and stabilize organic materials unique to waterlogged sites. Traditional archaeological field methods will be augmented by manual core extraction, high-resolution UAV surveys, and intensive spatial data analyses. Site-level inferences will augment geologic models of marine-transgressed landscapes and demonstrate the need for refinement at archaeological scales. UAV mapping is superior to LiDAR and coarse-scale qualitative erosion assessments, and the researchers' innovative use of this technology will generate quantitative data and improve models of short-term (single storm event) erosion and deposition. Though the current project focuses on precontact human and ecosystem responses to sea-level rise and climate change, data generated will help to model the responses of similar systems to future environmental variations.