Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Subsistence Adaptation in a High Altitude Environment

圣路易斯华盛顿大学的张正伟和刘心怡博士将与同事一起进行研究，探索在高海拔极端环境中基于动物的生存策略。最近的人类学研究丰富了人们对高海拔适应发展的理解。这些研究揭示了在不同季节确保可靠食物供应的战略方面的具体挑战。这项研究的目标是增加对如何在粮食安全和更频繁的极端气候事件的背景下实现长期复原力的理解。考古学很好地提供了关于韧性的有意义的见解，因为它提供了关于人们在很长一段时间内行为的信息。这项研究将通过记录宝贵的动物资源和在生物多样性受到威胁的恶劣地区的弹性战略来促进对过去和现在的了解。教育和外展活动将深化广泛的学术合作，促进开放学术环境的发展。通过关注人们在高海拔地区使用的动物资源，这项研究探索了社会如何能够更好地应对周期性压力，并在不适宜居住和不可预测的环境下生存下来。研究人员将对世界上最不适宜居住的地区之一的史前动物遗骸进行全面研究。农业和狩猎定居者如何设法在这个高海拔地区常年生活的问题在很大程度上仍然没有答案，而且由于迄今进行的动物考古研究的稀缺，这些问题一直被掩盖。研究人员将结合系统的动物考古学和稳定同位素分析，以及区域人种学调查。这项研究将揭示牧民群体基于动物的生存策略，并以高分辨率调查他们是如何管理牲畜和利用当地自然景观的。这项研究有可能揭示人类社区在世界极端环境中的韧性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Zhengwei Zhang and Dr. Xinyi Liu, of the Washington University in St. Louis, along with colleagues will conduct research to explore the animal-based subsistence strategies in a high altitude extreme environment. Understanding of the development of high-altitude adaptations in has been enriched by recent anthropological investigations. Such studies have revealed specific challenges regarding strategies for securing a reliable food supply in different seasons. The goal of this research is to increase understanding of how to achieve long-term resilience in the context of concerns regarding food security and more frequent extreme climate events. Archaeology is well placed to provide meaningful insights on resilience because it provides information on people’s behaviors over a long time span. This research will promote understanding of the past, as well as the present by documenting invaluable animal resources and resilient strategies in harsh areas, where biodiversity is threatened. Educational and outreach activities will deepen broad scale academic cooperation, as well as facilitate the development of open academic environments. By focusing on animal resources that people used at high altitudes, this research explores the ways that societies were able to be more resilient to periodic stresses and to survive despite the inhospitable and unpredictable environment. The researchers will conduct comprehensive study of prehistoric animal remains from one of the world’s most inhospitable areas. The questions of how farming and hunting settlers managed to live year-round in this high altitude region remain largely unanswered and have been obscured by the scarcity of zooarchaeological studies conducted to date. The researchers will combine systematic zooarchaeological and stable isotopes analyses, and regional ethnographical surveys. This research will reveal animal-based subsistence strategies of pastoral groups and investigate at high resolution how they managed livestock and utilized local natural landscapes. This research has the potential to shed light on human communities’ resilience in extreme environments worldwide.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.