Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Geoarchaeology of Estuarine Seascapes

这一博士论文研究项目的重点是重建沿海美洲原住民社会在近岸河口生态系统的建立和转变中所扮演的角色。以前的地球科学和考古工作研究了河口作为非人类活动或“前人类活动”交错带的演变，并将土著海洋社会概念化为丰富和动态环境中的被动居民。本论文的研究将结合地质考古学和古生态学的方法，将沿海人民重新定义为生态系统工程师，将潮汐河口生境重新定义为人类与环境深层相互作用的产物。这项研究将对墨西哥湾沿岸的海侵过程进行历史重建，土著美洲人对河口管理的了解，以及用于衡量现代海平面上升和历史退化的工业化前基线数据。该项目将调查古代土著社会通过建造和维护地形贝壳工程来设计近岸生态系统的一般假设。这项研究将在一个大型开阔水域河口系统沿线的几个保存完好的考古综合体进行，该河口系统主要由美洲原住民占据。对沉积物岩心和考古发掘单位进行的沉积学、古植物学和放射性碳分析将相互关联，以重建土著贝壳形成与受保护的低能量潮间带栖息地建立之间的地质和生态关系。通过将核心记录与动物考古组合和中丘的建设序列进行比较，评估人为生境修改、自给性生产和民用建筑部署之间的反馈。这一跨学科的数据集将有助于改善对潮间带生态系统的生态学和人类学理解。这项研究将与当地和地区的土地管理者和保护机构协商进行，明确的意图是将成果和研究产品整合到管理、保护和恢复规划中。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。

The focus of this doctoral dissertation research project is to reconstruct the roles that coastal Native American societies played in the establishment and transformation of nearshore estuarine ecosystems. Previous geoscientific and archaeological work has studied the evolution of estuaries as non-anthropogenic or ‘pre-anthropogenic’ ecotones, and conceptualized Indigenous maritime societies as passive inhabitants of bountiful and dynamic environments. This dissertation research will integrate geoarchaeological and paleoecological approaches to reconceptualize coastal peoples as ecosystem engineers and tidal estuarine habitats as the products of deep-time human-environmental interaction. This dissertation research will produce historical reconstructions for the process of marine transgression along the Gulf Coastal strand, knowledge of estuary management by Native Americans, and pre-industrial baseline data for measuring modern sea-level rise and historical degradation. The project will investigate the general hypothesis that ancient Indigenous societies engineered nearshore ecosystems through the construction and maintenance of terraformed shellworks. The research will be conducted at several well-preserved archaeological complexes along a large open-water estuary system that was intensively occupied by Native American populations. Sedimentological, paleobotanical, and radiocarbon analyses on sediment cores and archaeological excavation units will be correlated to reconstruct the geological and ecological relationships between Indigenous shell-terraforming and the establishment of protected, low-energy intertidal habitats. Feedbacks between anthropogenic habitat modification, subsistence production, and the emplacement of civic architecture will be assessed by comparing the core records with zooarchaeological assemblages and construction sequences of midden-mounds. This interdisciplinary dataset will contribute to improved ecological and anthropological understanding of intertidal ecosystems. The study will be carried out in consultation with local and regional land managers and conservation agencies with the explicit intent that results and research products may be integrated into management, conservation, and restoration planning.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.