Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Ecosystem Indicators of Productivity of Lithic-Mulched Fields

这个项目调查了哥伦布时代以前的农田，这些农田依赖于美国古代西南部独有的径流灌溉技术。了解径流灌溉和水管理如何影响植被生产力，对于了解这项技术在该地区某些地区的广泛应用至关重要，并对理解人类如何塑造当代生态系统具有重要意义。除了有助于对径流灌溉技术的功能和持久性的科学理解之外，这项研究还解决了关于传统耕作方式在现代应用的好处的问题。由于这些特征是在水资源有限的环境中发展起来的，只有通过考古研究才能知道，有关它们的特征和功能的事实有助于提供对当今旱地农业非常重要的信息，并对调水和保护有影响。最后，该项目将有助于对考古学和环境科学领域的本科生进行野外和实验室技术培训。在新墨西哥州北部，古代径流灌溉田地的相对生产力将以从几个世纪到一年的尺度进行衡量。将特别关注用鹅卵石和鹅卵石覆盖的田地。这种类型的油田特别丰富，技术显然在这一地区很发达。西南部其他旱地类型的土壤和植被特征已被记录在案，但在岩石覆盖的田地上进行的可比研究很少。这项研究将纠正这一知识鸿沟，并产生数据，以便在整个西南地区进行比较。将测量建立在田地上的树木生长年轮宽度的年际变化，以确定水源涵养功能如何缓冲树木免受周期性干旱的影响。土壤中有机物质的相对水平来自植物物质，它们追踪了过去几个世纪以来水源涵养特征如何改变植物生产力。土壤化学和树木年轮将有助于回答有关古代农业投资如何继续影响当代生态系统生产力的问题，以及从公元1300年到17世纪西班牙人接触新墨西哥州北部的大型社区时，这一基础设施所起的作用。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project investigates Pre-Columbian agricultural fields which relied on runoff irrigation technologies unique to the ancient southwestern United States. Understanding how runoff irrigation and water management influenced vegetative productivity is critical to understanding the widespread occurrence of this technology in certain parts of the region and has implications for understanding how humans have shaped contemporary ecosystems. In addition to contributing to a scientific understanding of the function and persistence of runoff irrigation technology, this research addresses questions about the benefits for the application of traditional farming practices in the modern day. Because these features developed in a water limited environments, and are known only through archaeological research, facts regarding their character and function contribute information important to agriculture in present day drylands and have implications for water diversion and conservation. Finally, the project will contribute to undergraduate student training in field and laboratory techniques in he fields of archaeology and environmental science. The relative productivity of ancient runoff irrigated fields will be measured at scales ranging from centuries to single years in northern New Mexico. Particular focus will be given to fields that were mulched with pebbles and cobbles. Fields of this type are particularly abundant, and the technology was apparently well developed in this area. Soil and vegetation characteristics have been documented for other dryland field types in the Southwest, but few comparable studies have been conducted on rock-mulched fields. The study will rectify this knowledge gap and generate data that will allow comparison across the Southwest. Year-to-year changes in the width of growth rings for trees established on fields will be measured to determine how water conserving features may buffer trees from periodic droughts. Relative levels of organic material in soils, which are derived from plant matter, track how water conserving features alter plant productivity over the last few centuries. Together, soil chemistry and tree-rings will help answer questions about how ancient agricultural investments continue to effect contemporary ecosystem productivity, and the role this infrastructure played in supporting the large communities of northern New Mexico from 1300 A.D. until Spanish contact in the 1600s.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.