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Legacies of Prehistoric Agricultural Practices Within Plant and Soil Properties Across an Arid Ecosystem

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Abstract

Closely integrated research between archaeologists and ecologists provides a long-term view of human land use that is rare in the ecological literature, allowing for investigation of activities that lead to enduring environmental outcomes. This extended temporal perspective is particularly important in aridlands where succession occurs slowly and ecosystem processes are mediated by abiotic, geomorphic factors. Numerous studies show that impacts from ancient human actions can persist, but few have explored the types of practices or mechanisms that lead to either transient or long-term environmental change. We compared plant and soil properties and processes from a range of landscape patch types in the Sonoran Desert of the US Southwest that supported different, well-documented prehistoric farming practices from AD 750–1300. Our results show that the types of ancient human activities that leave long-term ecological legacies in aridlands are those that fundamentally alter “slow variables” such as soil properties that regulate the timing and supply of water. Prehistoric Hohokam floodwater-irrigation practices, but not dryland farming techniques, substantially altered soil texture, which was strongly associated with desert plant community and functional composition. However, prehistoric agriculture did not consistently alter long-term nutrient availability and thus had no impact on “fast variables” such as production of seasonal annual plants that are restricted to periods of ample rainfall. In this arid ecosystem, the inverse texture model explained patterns in plant functional composition at large scales, but is less predictive of production of short-lived desert annuals that experience a more mesic precipitation regime.

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Acknowledgments

We would like to thank archaeologist and collaborator Kate Spielmann for leading the interdisciplinary Legacies on the Landscape group with patience and enthusiasm over the last several years. Also, we thank Rob Wilson (NRCS) and Tony Hartshorn (Montana State University) for insight and training on pedology at the Cave Creek site, and numerous ASU staff and students for their time in the field and laboratory, including Jennifer Learned, David Huber, Elizabeth Cook, Matt Camba, Rebecca Hale, Scott Collins, and Darin Jenke. We are grateful to Gary Huckleberry and two anonymous reviewers for their scientific critique that greatly improved this manuscript. This work was funded by NSF-DEB 0614349 and the CAP LTER, NSF-BCS 1026865.

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Correspondence to Sharon J. Hall.

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This collaborative work was developed as a part of the interdisciplinary Legacies on the Landscape Project at ASU. Archaeologist HS and ecologists JB and SJH conceived of the project, and SJH and JB received the primary NSF grant. SJH received NSF REU funding for this work, analyzed the data, oversaw field, laboratory, and mentoring activities, and wrote the manuscript. Graduate students JT and DN led the field data collection and laboratory analyses, mentored undergraduate students, and helped to prepare figures. Data used in this manuscript were included in JT’s M.S. thesis at ASU. HS helped to develop the initial experimental design and collected plant community composition data. Archaeologists CS and MKP helped to guide the experimental design in the field, provided invaluable context and insight about Southwestern human prehistory throughout the project, and assisted with figure and table preparation. All authors contributed to the final editing of the manuscript.

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Hall, S.J., Trujillo, J., Nakase, D. et al. Legacies of Prehistoric Agricultural Practices Within Plant and Soil Properties Across an Arid Ecosystem. Ecosystems 16, 1273–1293 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-013-9681-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-013-9681-0

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