Land, Forest and Water Management in a Tropical Environment

该项目将调查在热带环境中支持复杂社会发展的土地和水管理策略。本研究要解决的一个主要理论问题集中在环境问题地区的古代居民如何能够维持城市人口。这个问题的必然结果是，如何实现农业集约化以及如何管理诸如水和林产品等其他基本资源。研究计划包括生态评估，例如生物量和物种多样性，以及审查各种土地利用做法的可持续性，所有这些都将有助于管理目前在土地和水的竞争中共存的令人不安的紧张局势的区域。该项目是一个三国项目，涉及来自多个国家的研究人员和学生，并为来自每个国家的研究生提供培训。这个考古遗址为研究人类与环境相互作用的变化轨迹提供了一个理想的测试案例，因为它在新世界古典时期成长为最重要的城市之一，也是政治经济强国之一。这项研究将审查在面对不断变化的环境和政治经济条件时能够持续占领和增长的水力、农业和森林管理战略。它将为适应策略的可变性和社会复杂性的上升提供见解。这些问题将由一个跨学科的研究团队来解决，该团队包括植物学、古生态学、地质考古学、遥感、地理信息系统和人类学考古学方面的专业人员和学生，并将采用古环境和考古方法的独特组合。获取该地区的激光雷达图像将允许团队选择各种地形设置，可能的古代农田，水库和住宅区进行挖掘和取心，从而提供跨环境背景和社会阶层的资源管理数据。这些分析将包括eDNA，它为古代土地利用和生存提供了新的见解。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识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 will investigate the land and water management strategies that supported the development of complex society in a tropical environment. A primary theoretical question to be addressed in this study focuses on how the ancient inhabitants in the environmentally problematic region were able to sustain an urban population. A corollary to this question asks how agricultural intensification was achieved and how other essential resources, such as water and forest products, were managed. The research plan includes ecological assessments such as biomass and species diversity, as well as examination of the sustainability of various land use practices all of which will be useful for the management of the region which currently co-exists in an uneasy tension in competition for land and water. The project is tri-national, involving researchers and students from multiple countries and provides training for graduate students from each country.The archaeological site provides an ideal test case for examining the changing trajectories of human- environment interactions because it grew into one of the paramount cities and political-economic powers during the New World Classic period. The research will examine the hydraulic, agricultural, and forest management strategies that allowed the persistent occupation and growth in the face of changing environmental and political economic conditions. It will provide insights into the variability of adaptive strategies and the rise of social complexity. These issues will be addressed by an interdisciplinary research team that includes professionals and students with training in botany, paleoecology, geoarchaeology, remote sensing, GIS, and anthropological archaeology and will employ a unique combination of paleoenvironmental and archaeological methods. The acquisition of lidar imagery of the area will allow the team to select a variety of topographic settings, probable ancient agricultural fields, reservoirs, and residential areas for excavation and coring, thus providing data on resource management across the spectrum of environmental contexts and social strata. These analyses will include eDNA which offers novel insights into ancient land use and subsistence.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.