DISES:Restoration of a southwestern cultural keystone species: Integrating socio-ecological systems to predict resilience of traditional acorn harvest by western Apache communities

对于许多美洲原住民社区来说，精神和文化活动依赖于为传统手工艺提供食物、染料、药品和材料的自然资源。在美国西南部，西部的阿帕奇人用埃默里橡子(chi-chil)来烹饪传统或仪式上的食物。数千年来，阿帕奇部落管理着橡树林地的关键工序，在地形上移动橡子，塑造火灾模式，并猎杀以橡子和幼小植物为食的野生动物。同样，橡树林支持文化习俗，提供营养食物，鼓励家庭聚会，让长辈有机会向新一代传授传统生活方式。出于这些原因，阿帕奇社区和橡树林地的健康是联系在一起的。在19世纪大多数阿帕奇人被转移到保留地后，西部阿帕奇部落和埃默里橡树之间的关系被打破。现在，由于干旱等因素，埃默里橡树正在减少，而由于气候变化，干旱的严重程度正在增加。与此同时，与过去相比，阿帕奇部落的年轻成员收获橡子的人数减少了。通过研究隐藏在埃默里橡树DNA和树轮中的模式，结合部落长老的知识，研究人员和部落成员拼凑出阿帕契人和橡树之间传统关系的关键方面。过去的经验教训与对现代橡树林地的了解相结合，使研究人员能够制定更好地保护橡树的策略，并在这样做的同时，支持与橡子收获相关的阿帕奇传统。该项目将通过接触历史上土著学习机构的本科生实习生和研究生研究员，为土著学者的培训作出贡献。布罗德的影响还将来自一项新颖的导师计划，该计划包括部落专业人士和/或学生咨询团队中的长老，以培养支持性的学习环境，增加学生保留率，并将传统生态知识融入西方科学知识框架。这项研究将支持部落青年倡议和代际知识转让，并将整理社会学和生态信息，以确保区域土著知识的持久性。数千年来，阿帕奇人影响了橡树生态系统，他们在地形上移动橡子，改变了火灾制度等干扰模式，并影响了橡子和树苗的野生动物消费。当阿帕奇社区搬迁到保留地时，这些橡树林地的传统管理和知识在很大程度上消失了。今天，橡树种群正在减少，越来越少的阿帕奇年轻人从事传统的收获活动。就埃默里橡树而言，气候变化迫使栖息地迁往更凉爽或更潮湿的地区，有时远离部落土地，并加剧了干旱和火灾等干扰，这些干扰可能会摧毁传统的采集地点。为了解决这个问题，本研究使用阿帕奇口述历史和过去的生态信息重建了过去埃默里橡树-西方阿帕奇系统的关键组件。生态数据将从树木年轮和遗传样本中收集。研究人员将把这些历史信息整合到模型中，并结合使用多范式建模技术描述当前生态功能和文化实践的数据。这些分析方法将在复杂的社会生态系统中整合社会和生态变量、流动和反馈，并推进社会生态建模，这需要将不同的数据类型纳入量化框架，以探索新出现的系统属性。该奖项反映了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。

For many Native American communities, spiritual and cultural activities rely on natural resources that provide food, dyes, medicines, and materials for traditional crafts. In the southwestern US, western Apache people use Emory oak acorns (Chi-chil) to cook traditional or ceremonial foods. For thousands of years, Apache Tribes managed key processes in oak woodlands, moving acorns around the landscape, shaping fire patterns, and hunting wildlife that feed on acorns and young plants. Similarly, oak forests supported cultural practices, provided nutritious food, and encouraged families to meet, giving elders the opportunity to teach new generations about traditional life ways. For these reasons, the health of both Apache communities and oak woodlands are linked. The relationship between western Apache Tribes and Emory oaks was disrupted after most Apache people were moved to reservations in the 1800s. Now, Emory oaks are declining due to factors like drought, which are increasing in severity due to climate change. At the same time, fewer young Apache Tribal members harvest acorns than in the past. By examining patterns hidden in the DNA and tree rings of Emory oak, combined with the knowledge of tribal elders, researchers, and tribal members piece together key aspects of the traditional relationship between Apache people and oaks. Lessons from the past combined with an understanding of modern oak woodlands allows researchers to develop strategies to better conserve oaks, and in doing so, support Apache traditions related to acorn harvest. The project will contribute to the training of Indigenous scholars by reaching out to undergraduate interns and graduate fellows at historically Indigenous learning institutions. Broder impacts will also arise from a novel mentorship program that includes Tribal professionals and/or elders on student advising teams to foster a supportive learning environment, increase student retention, and integrate traditional ecological knowledge into western scientific knowledge frameworks. The research will support tribal youth initiatives and intergenerational knowledge transfer, and it will curate sociological and ecological information to ensure persistence of regional Indigenous knowledge. For thousands of years the Apache people influenced the oak ecosystems, by moving acorns around the landscape, altering patterns of disturbance like fire regimes, and affecting wildlife consumption of acorns and seedlings. When Apache communities were relocated onto reservations, traditional management and knowledge of these oak woodlands was largely lost. Today, oak populations are declining, and fewer Apache youth practice traditional harvest. In the case of Emory oaks, climate change drives habitats to cooler or wetter areas, sometimes away from tribal lands, and intensifies disturbances like drought and fire that can destroy traditional gathering sites. To address this problem, this research reconstructs key components of the past Emory oak-western Apache system using Apache oral history and ecological messages from the past. Ecological Data will be collected from tree rings and genetic sampling. The researchers will integrate this historical information into models, in combination with data describing current ecological function and cultural practices using multi-paradigm modeling techniques. These analytical methods will integrate social and ecological variables, flows, and feedbacks within complex socio-ecological systems and advance socio- ecological modeling, which necessitates the incorporation of disparate data types into quantitative frameworks to explore emergent system properties.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.