Resource risk and stability in the zooarchaeological record: the case of Pueblo fishing in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico

Dombrosky, Jonathan; Besser, Alexi C.; Elliott Smith, Emma A.; Conrad, Cyler; Barceló, Laura Pagès; Newsome, Seth D.

doi:10.1007/s12520-020-01193-0

Original Paper
Published: 30 September 2020

Resource risk and stability in the zooarchaeological record: the case of Pueblo fishing in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico

Jonathan Dombrosky ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0001-5279-1404¹,
Alexi C. Besser²,
Emma A. Elliott Smith³,
Cyler Conrad^1,4,
Laura Pagès Barceló² &
Seth D. Newsome²

Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences volume 12, Article number: 248 (2020) Cite this article

415 Accesses
5 Citations
23 Altmetric
Metrics details

Abstract

Disarticulated fish remains are frequently recovered from late preHispanic and early historic archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande basin of central New Mexico, but they are rare during earlier time periods. Increased aquatic habitat quality brought on by wetter climatic conditions may have impacted Ancestral Pueblo foraging goals related to risk minimization, leading to an uptick in fish exploitation. Wetter stream conditions can increase the number of different energy channels that help support fish populations and increase ecological stability, which makes fish less risky to pursue for human foragers. Here, we illustrate how to identify stable ecological communities in the archaeological record using stable carbon and nitrogen isotope values of fish bones recovered from archaeological sites in the Middle Rio Grande. We find that energy derived from terrestrial C₄ plants—a stabilizing “slow” allochthonous energy source—was important for the Middle Rio Grande aquatic food web during the late preHispanic/early historic period. This result suggests that fish populations were supported by a broader resource base and were thus more stable and less risky to pursue for Ancestral Pueblo people.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price includes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

References

Akins NJ (1987) Animal utilization in the Middle Rio Grande Valley area. In: Poore AV, Montgomery J (eds) Secrets of a city: papers on Albuquerque area archaeology, in Honor of Richard A. Bice. The Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Google Scholar
Akins NJ (1995) Faunal Analysis. In: Wiseman R (ed) The Belen Bridge Site and the Late Elmendorf Phase of Central New Mexico, vol Archaeology Notes 137. Museum of New Mexico, Office of Archaeological Studies, Santa Fe, NM, pp 103–116
Akins NJ (2004) Faunal Analysis. In: Akins NJ (ed) Excavations at San Antonio De Padua (LA 24), NM 14, Bernalillo County. New Mexico. Museum of New Mexico: Office of Archaeological Studies, Santa Fe, pp 169–186
Google Scholar
Allan JD, Castillo MM (2009) Stream ecology: structure and function of running waters. Springer, Dordrecht
Google Scholar
Arce Funck J, Bec A, Perrière F, Felten V, Danger M (2015) Aquatic Hyphomycetes: a potential source of polyunsaturated fatty acids in detritus-based stream food webs. Fungal Ecol 13:205–210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.funeco.2014.09.004
Article Google Scholar
Arntzen KK, Speth JD (2004) Seasonality of catfish procurement at the Henderson Site. In: Speth JD (ed) . Life on the Periphery: Economic Change in Late Prehistoric Southeast New Mexico. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan Memoirs, Number 37, Ann Arbor, pp 320–328
Badenhorst S, Driver JC (2009) Faunal changes in farming communities from Basketmaker II to Pueblo III (AD 1-1300) in the San Juan Basin of the American Southwest. J Archaeol Sci 36:1832–1841. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.04.006
Article Google Scholar
Barrett EM (2009) Conquest and catastrophe: changing Rio Grande Pueblo settlement patterns in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque
Google Scholar
Bartley TJ, McCann KS, Bieg C, Cazelles K, Granados M, Guzzo MM, MacDougall AS, Tunney TD, McMeans BC (2019) Food web rewiring in a changing world. Nat Ecol Evol 3:345–354. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0772-3
Article Google Scholar
Benson LV, Berry MS, Jolie EA, Spangler JD, Stahle DW, Hattori EM (2007) Possible impacts of early-11^th-, middle-12^th-, and late-13^th-century droughts on Western Native Americans and the Mississippian Cahokians. Quat Sci Rev 26:336–350. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quascirev.2006.08.001
Article Google Scholar
Blanchard JL (2015) A rewired food web. Nature 527:173–174. https://doi.org/10.1038/nature16311
Article Google Scholar
Broughton JM (1994) Declines in mammalian foraging efficiency during the late Holocene, San Francisco Bay, California. J Anthropol Archaeol 13:371–401. https://doi.org/10.1006/jaar.1994.1019
Article Google Scholar
Broughton JM, Cannon MD (2010) Evolutionary ecology and archaeology: applications to problems in human evolution and prehistory. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City
Google Scholar
Broughton JM, Cannon MD, Bayham FE, Byers DA (2011) Prey body size and ranking in zooarchaeology: theory, empirical evidence, and applications from the Northern Great Basin. Am Antiq 76:403–428. https://doi.org/10.7183/0002-7316.76.3.403
Article Google Scholar
Busch DE, Fisher SG (1981) Metabolism of a desert stream. Freshw Biol 11:301–307. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2427.1981.tb01263.x
Article Google Scholar
Byers DA, Ugan A (2005) Should we expect large game specialization in the Late Pleistocene? An optimal foraging perspective on Early Paleoindian prey choice. J Archaeol Sci 32:1624–1640. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2005.05.003
Article Google Scholar
Clark TC (2007) An Assessment of the Archaeofaunal Remains from Pottery Mound. In: Schaafsma P (ed) New Perspectives on Pottery Mound Pueblo. University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, NM, pp 207–228
Google Scholar
Caraco T (1981) Risk-sensitivity and foraging groups. Ecology 62:527–531. https://doi.org/10.2307/1937716
Article Google Scholar
Caraco T (1982) Aspects of risk-aversion in foraging White-crowned Sparrows. Anim Behav 30:719–727. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(82)80143-7
Caraco T, Martindale S, Whittam TS (1980) An empirical demonstration of risk-sensitive foraging preferences. Anim Behav 28:820–830. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0003-3472(80)80142-4
Article Google Scholar
Cashdan E (1990) Risk and uncertainty in tribal and peasant economies. West View Press, Boulder
Google Scholar
Charnov EL, Gordon HO, Hyatt K (1976) Ecological implications of resource depression. Am Nat 110:247–259. https://doi.org/10.2307/2459490
Article Google Scholar
Chikaraishi Y, Steffan SA, Ogawa NO, Ishikawa NF, Sasaki Y, Tsuchiya M, Ohkouchi N (2014) High-resolution food webs based on nitrogen isotopic composition of amino acids. Ecol Evol 4:2423–2449. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.1103
Article Google Scholar
Clapcott JE, Bunn SE (2003) Can C₄ plants contribute to aquatic food webs of subtropical streams? Freshw Biol 48:1105–1116. https://doi.org/10.1046/j.1365-2427.2003.01077.x
Article Google Scholar
Clements FE (1936) Nature and structure of the climax. J Ecol 24:252–284. https://doi.org/10.2307/2256278
Article Google Scholar
Codding BF, Bird DW, Bliege Bird R (2010) Interpreting abundance indices: some zooarchaeological implications of Martu foraging. J Archaeol Sci 37:3200–3210. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2010.07.020
Article Google Scholar
Cook BI, Cook ER, Smerdon JE, Seager R, Williams AP, Coats S, Stahle DW, Díaz JV (2016) North American megadroughts in the common era: reconstructions and simulations. WIREs Clim Chang 7:411–432. https://doi.org/10.1002/wcc.394
Article Google Scholar
Cordell LS, Doyel DE, Kintigh KW (1994) Processes of aggregation in the prehistoric Southwest. In: Gumerman GJ (ed) Themes in Southwest Prehistory. School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, pp 109–133
Google Scholar
Damuth J (1982) Analysis of the preservation of community structure in assemblages of fossil mammals. Paleobiology 8:434–446. https://doi.org/10.1017/S009483730000717X
Article Google Scholar
Dombrosky J (2015) The descriptive paleontology and applied ichthyoarchaeology of the Ponsipa fauna. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of North Texas, Denton
Dombrosky J (2020) A ~1000-year ¹³C Suess correction model for the study of past ecosystems. The Holocene 30:474–478. https://doi.org/10.1177/0959683619887416
Article Google Scholar
Donohue I, Hillebrand H, Montoya JM, Petchey OL, Pimm SL, Fowler MS, Healy K, Jackson AL, Lurgi M, McClean D, O'Connor NE, O'Gorman EJ, Yang Q (2016) Navigating the complexity of ecological stability. Ecol Lett 19:1172–1185. https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.12648
Article Google Scholar
Doolittle WE (2000) Cultivated landscapes of Native North America. Oxford University Press, New York
Google Scholar
Douglass AE (1929) The secret of the Southwest solved by talkative tree rings. Natl Geogr 56:736–770
Elliott Smith EA, Harrod C, Newsome SD (2018) The importance of kelp to an intertidal ecosystem varies by trophic level: insights from amino acid δ¹³C analysis. Ecosphere 9:e02516. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.2516
Article Google Scholar
Elton C (1927) Animal Ecology. University of Chicago Press, Chicago
Fagerstrom JA (1964) Fossil communities in paleoecology: their recognition and significance. Geol Soc Am Bull 75:1197–1216. https://doi.org/10.1130/0016-7606(1964)75[1197:fciptr]2.0.co;2
Article Google Scholar
Fry B (2007) Stable isotope ecology. Springer, New York
Google Scholar
Gardner MR, Ashby WR (1970) Connectance of large dynamic (cybernetic) systems: critical values for stability. Nature 228:784–784. https://doi.org/10.1038/228784a0
Article Google Scholar
Gleason HA (1926) The individualistic concept of the plant association. Bull Torrey Bot Club 53:7–26. https://doi.org/10.2307/2479933
Article Google Scholar
Gremillion KJ (1996) Diffusion and adoption of crops in evolutionary perspective. J Anthropol Archaeol 15:183–204. https://doi.org/10.1006/jaar.1996.0007
Article Google Scholar
Hagen EM, McCluney KE, Wyant KA, Soykan CU, Keller AC, Luttermoser KC, Holmes EJ, Moore JC, Sabo JL (2012) A meta-analysis of the effects of detritus on primary producers and consumers in marine, freshwater, and terrestrial ecosystems. Oikos 121:1507–1515. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1600-0706.2011.19666.x
Article Google Scholar
Halstead P, O'Shea J (eds) (1989) Bad year economics: cultural responses to risk and uncertainty. Cambridge University Press, New York
Google Scholar
Higham TFG, Horn PL (2000) Seasonal dating using fish otoliths: results from the Shag River Mouth Site, New Zealand. J Archaeol Sci 27:439–448. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0473
Article Google Scholar
Hodell DA, Brenner M, Curtis JH, Guilderson T (2001) Solar forcing of drought frequency in the Maya lowlands. Science 292:1367–1370. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1057759
Article Google Scholar
Hoffman A (1979) Community paleoecology as an epiphenomenal science. Paleobiology 5:357–379. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0094837300016894
Article Google Scholar
Holling CS (1973) Resilience and stability of ecological systems. Annu Rev Ecol Syst 4:1–23. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.es.04.110173.000245
Article Google Scholar
Howland MR, Corr LT, Young SMM, Jones V, Jim S, van der Merwe NJ, Mitchell AD, Evershed RP (2003) Expression of the dietary isotope signal in the compound-specific δ¹³C values of pig bone lipids and amino acids. Int J Osteoarchaeol 13:54–65. https://doi.org/10.1002/oa.658
Article Google Scholar
Hufthammer AK, Høie H, Folkvord A, Geffen AJ, Andersson C, Ninnemann US (2010) Seasonality of human site occupation based on stable oxygen isotope ratios of cod otoliths. J Archaeol Sci 37:78–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2009.09.001
Article Google Scholar
Humphries P, Keckeis H, Finlayson B (2014) The river wave concept: integrating river ecosystem models. BioScience 64:870–882. https://doi.org/10.1093/biosci/biu130
Article Google Scholar
Hutchinson GE (1959) Homage to Santa Rosalia or why are there so many kinds of animals? Am Nat 93:145–159. https://doi.org/10.2307/2458768
Article Google Scholar
Jackson AL, Inger R, Parnell AC, Bearhop S (2011) Comparing isotopic niche widths among and within communities: SIBER – Stable Isotope Bayesian Ellipses in R. J Anim Ecol 80:595–602. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2656.2011.01806.x
James SR (1986) Archaeofauna from Pargas Pueblo, Central New Mexico. Office of Contract Archaeology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Google Scholar
James SR (1987) Qualacu archeofauna: faunal patterns from Late Prehistoric Piro Pueblo along the Rio Grande in Western New Mexico. Office of Contract Archeology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque
Google Scholar
Jones EL (2004) Dietary evenness, prey choice, and human–environment interactions. J Archaeol Sci 31:307–317. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2003.08.011
Article Google Scholar
Jones EL (2006) Prey choice, mass collecting, and the wild European rabbit (Oryctolagus cuniculus). J Anthropol Archaeol 25:275–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2005.11.002
Article Google Scholar
Jones EL (2015) Analysis of Faunal Remains from the Isleta Pueblo Mission Complex. Prepared for the Isleta Pueblo Historic Preservation Department under a Grant from the National Park Service
Jones EL, Hurley DA (2017) Beyond depression? A review of the optimal foraging theory literature in zooarchaeology and archaeobotany. Ethnobiol Lett 8:35–42
Google Scholar
Junk WJ, Bayley PB, Sparks RE (1989) The flood pulse concept in river-floodplain systems. In: Dodge DP (ed) Proceedings of the International Large River Symposium, vol 106. Canadian Special Publication in Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences, Ottawa, pp 110–127
Google Scholar
Kintisch E (2016) Why did Greenland’s Vikings disappear? Science 354:696–701
Article Google Scholar
Kondoh M (2003) Foraging adaptation and the relationship between food-web complexity and stability. Science 299:1388–1391. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1079154
Article Google Scholar
Larsen T, Taylor DL, Leigh MB, O’Brien DM (2009) Stable isotope fingerprinting: a novel method for identifying plant, fungal, or bacterial origins of amino acids. Ecology 90:3526–3535. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-1695.1
Article Google Scholar
Larsen T, Ventura M, Andersen N, O’Brien DM, Piatkowski U, McCarthy MD (2013) Tracing carbon sources through aquatic and terrestrial food webs using amino acid stable isotope fingerprinting. PLoS ONE 8:e73441. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0073441
Article Google Scholar
Layman CA, Post DM (2008) Can stable isotope ratios provide for community-wide measures of trophic structure? Reply. Ecology 89:2358–2359. https://doi.org/10.1890/08-0167.1
Article Google Scholar
Layman CA, Quattrochi JP, Peyer CM, Allgeier JE (2007) Niche width collapse in a resilient top predator following ecosystem fragmentation. Ecol Lett 10:937–944. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1461-0248.2007.01087.x
Article Google Scholar
Lewis WM Jr, Hamilton SK, Rodríguez MA, Saunders JF III, Lasi MA (2001) Foodweb analysis of the Orinoco floodplain based on production estimates and stable isotope data. J N Am Benthol Soc 20:241–254. https://doi.org/10.2307/1468319
Article Google Scholar
Linares OF (1976) “Garden Hunting” in the American tropics. Hum Ecol 4:331–349. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf01557917
Article Google Scholar
Louys J, Wilkinson D, Bishop L (2012) Ecology needs a paleontological perspective. In: Louys J (ed) Paleontology in Ecology and Conservation. Springer Earth System Sciences. Springer, Berlin, pp 23–38. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-25038-5_3
Chapter Google Scholar
Lubinski PM (2013) What is adequate evidence for mass procurement of ungulates in zooarchaeology? Quat Int 297:167–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.quaint.2012.12.030
Article Google Scholar
Lupo KD, Schmitt DN (2005) Small prey hunting technology and zooarchaeological measures of taxonomic diversity and abundance: ethnoarchaeological evidence from Central African forest foragers. J Anthropol Archaeol 24:335–353. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2005.02.002
Article Google Scholar
Lynch AJ, Myers BJE, Chu C, Eby LA, Falke JA, Kovach RP, Krabbenhoft TJ, Kwak TJ, Lyons J, Paukert CP, Whitney JE (2016) Climate change effects on North American inland fish populations and assemblages. Fisheries 41:346–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/03632415.2016.1186016
Article Google Scholar
MacArthur R (1955) Fluctuations of animal populations and a measure of community stability. Ecology 36:533–536. https://doi.org/10.2307/1929601
Article Google Scholar
Marks JC (2019) Revisiting the fates of dead leaves that fall into streams. Annu Rev Ecol Evol Syst 50:547–568. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-ecolsys-110218-024755
Article Google Scholar
Marston JM (2017) Agricultural sustainability and environmental change at ancient Gordion. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia
Book Google Scholar
May RM (1971) Stability in multispecies community models. Math Biosci 12:59–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/0025-5564(71)90074-5
Article Google Scholar
May RM (1972) Will a large complex system be stable? Nature 238:413–414
Article Google Scholar
McCann KS, Rooney N (2009) The more food webs change, the more they stay the same. Philos Transact: Biol Sci 364:1789–1801
Article Google Scholar
McMahon KW, McCarthy MD (2016) Embracing variability in amino acid δ¹⁵N fractionation: mechanisms, implications, and applications for trophic ecology. Ecosphere 7:e01511. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.1511
Article Google Scholar
Meko DM, Woodhouse CA, Baisan CA, Knight T, Lukas JJ, Hughes MK, Salzer MW (2007) Medieval drought in the Upper Colorado River Basin. Geophys Res Lett 34:L10705. https://doi.org/10.1029/2007GL029988
Article Google Scholar
Moore JC, William Hunt H (1988) Resource compartmentation and the stability of real ecosystems. Nature 333:261–263. https://doi.org/10.1038/333261a0
Article Google Scholar
Muir RJ, Driver JC (2002) Scale of analysis and zooarchaeological interpretation: Pueblo III faunal variation in the Northern San Juan Region. J Anthropol Archaeol 21:165–199. https://doi.org/10.1006/jaar.2001.0392
Article Google Scholar
Nagaoka L (2002) The effects of resource depression on foraging efficiency, diet breadth, and patch use in Southern New Zealand. J Anthropol Archaeol 21:419–442. https://doi.org/10.1016/s0278-4165(02)00008-9
Article Google Scholar
Neusius SW (2008) Game procurement among temperate horticulturists: the case for garden hunting by the Dolores Anasazi. In: Reitz EJ, Scarry CM, Scudder SJ (eds) Case Studies in Environmental Archaeology. Springer, New York, pp 297–314
Chapter Google Scholar
Newsome SD, Yeakel JD, Wheatley PV, Tinker MT (2012) Tools for quantifying isotopic niche space and dietary variation at the individual and population level. J Mammal 93:329–341. https://doi.org/10.1644/11-mamm-s-187.1
Article Google Scholar
O’Shea J (1989) The role of wild resources in small-scale agricultural systems: tales from the lakes and the plains. In: Halstead P, O’Shea J (eds) Bad Year Economics: Cultural Responses to Risk and Uncertainty. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 57–67
Chapter Google Scholar
Paine RT (1966) Food web complexity and species diversity. Am Nat 100:65–75. https://doi.org/10.1086/282400
Article Google Scholar
Pimm SL (1984) The complexity and stability of ecosystems. Nature 307:321–326. https://doi.org/10.1038/307321a0
Article Google Scholar
Post DM (2002) Using stable isotopes to estimate trophic position: models, methods, and assumptions. Ecology 83:703–718. https://doi.org/10.2307/3071875
Article Google Scholar
Post DM, Conners ME, Goldberg DS (2000) Prey preference by a top predator and the stability of linked food chains. Ecology 81:8–14. https://doi.org/10.1890/0012-9658(2000)081[0008:ppbatp]2.0.co;2
Article Google Scholar
Reese RA (2016) Retrospective food web analysis of Gila River fishes reveals hydrologic parameters influence non-native species effects. Unpublished Master’s Thesis, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque.
Rick TC, Erlandson JM (2000) Early Holocene fishing strategies on the California Coast: evidence from CA-SBA-2057. J Archaeol Sci 27:621–633. https://doi.org/10.1006/jasc.1999.0493
Article Google Scholar
Rooney N, McCann KS (2012) Integrating food web diversity, structure and stability. Trends Ecol Evol 27:40–46
Article Google Scholar
Rooney N, McCann K, Gellner G, Moore JC (2006) Structural asymmetry and the stability of diverse food webs. Nature 442:265–269
Article Google Scholar
Ross DJ, Tate KR, Newton PCD, Clark H (2002) Decomposability of C₃ and C₄ grass litter sampled under different concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide at a natural CO₂ spring. Plant Soil 240:275–286. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1015779431271
Article Google Scholar
Routson CC, Woodhouse CA, Overpeck JT (2011) Second century megadrought in the Rio Grande headwaters, Colorado: how unusual was medieval drought? Geophys Res Lett 38:L22703. https://doi.org/10.1029/2011GL050015
Article Google Scholar
Schoener TW (1974) Resource partitioning in ecological communities. Science 185:27–39. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.185.4145.27
Article Google Scholar
Smith BD (1974) Middle Mississippi Exploitation of Animal Populations: A Predictive Model. American Antiquity 39:274-291. https://doi.org/10.2307/279588
Article Google Scholar
Snow CT (2002) Fish Tales: The use of freshwater fish in New Mexico from A.D. 1000 to 1900. In: Wiseman R, O’Laughlin T, Snow CT (eds) Forward into the Past: Papers in Honor of Teddy Lou and Francis Stickney, vol 28. Paper of the Archaeological Society of New Mexico. Archaeological Society of New Mexico, Albuquerque, pp 119–131
Google Scholar
Speth JD, Scott SL, Stearley RF (2004) Fish and fishing at Henderson. In: Speth JD (ed) Life on the Periphery: Economic Change in Late Prehistoric Southeastern New Mexico. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan Memoirs, Number 37, Ann Arbor, pp 305–319
Chapter Google Scholar
Steffan SA, Chikaraishi Y, Dharampal PS, Pauli JN, Guédot C, Ohkouchi N (2017) Unpacking brown food-webs: animal trophic identity reflects rampant microbivory. Ecol Evol 7:3532–3541. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.2951
Article Google Scholar
Stephens DW (1981) The logic of risk-sensitive foraging preferences. Anim Behav 29:628–629
Article Google Scholar
Stephens DW (1990) Risk and incomplete information in behavioral ecology. In: Cashdan E (ed) Risk and Uncertainty in Tribal and Peasant Economies. Westview, Boulder, pp 19–46
Google Scholar
Stephens DW, Charnov EL (1982) Optimal foraging: some simple stochastic models. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 10:251–263. https://doi.org/10.1007/bf00302814
Article Google Scholar
Stephens DW, Krebs JR (1986) Foraging theory. Princeton University Press, Princeton
Google Scholar
Stiner MC (1986) Faunal sample from LA 33223 test excavation. In: O’Leary BL, Biella JV (eds) Where's the Site? Archaeological investigations at LA 33223. Archaeological Research Consultants. Publication in Anthropology Series 106-85-2, pp 115-126.
Stiner Mary C, Munro Natalie D, Surovell Todd A (2000) The tortoise and the hare: small-game use, the broad-spectrum revolution, and paleolithic demography. Curr Anthropol 41:39–79. https://doi.org/10.1086/300102
Article Google Scholar
Strawhacker C, Snitker G, Peeples MA, Kinzig AP, Kintigh KW, Bocinsky K, Butterfield B, Freeman J, Oas S, Nelson MC, Sandor JA, Spielmann KA (2020) A landscape perspective on climate-driven risks to food security: exploring the relationship between climate and social transformation in the preHispanic U.S. Southwest. Am Antiq 85:427–451. https://doi.org/10.1017/aaq.2020.35
Article Google Scholar
Tank JL, Rosi-Marshall EJ, Griffiths NA, Entrekin SA, Stephen ML (2010) A review of allochthonous organic matter dynamics and metabolism in streams. J N Am Benthol Soc 29:118–146. https://doi.org/10.1899/08-170.1
Article Google Scholar
Thorp JH, Bowes RE (2017) Carbon sources in riverine food webs: new evidence from amino acid isotope techniques. Ecosystems 20:1029–1041. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10021-016-0091-y
Article Google Scholar
Thorp JH, Delong MD (2002) Dominance of autochthonous autotrophic carbon in food webs of heterotrophic rivers. Oikos 96:543–550. https://doi.org/10.1034/j.1600-0706.2002.960315.x
Article Google Scholar
Thorp JH, Delong MD, Greenwood KS, Casper AF (1998) Isotopic analysis of three food web theories in constricted and floodplain regions of a large river. Oecologia 117:551–563. https://doi.org/10.1007/s004420050692
Article Google Scholar
Thorp JH, Thoms MC, Delong MD (2006) The riverine ecosystem synthesis: biocomplexity in river networks across space and time. River Res Appl 22:123–147. https://doi.org/10.1002/rra.901
Article Google Scholar
Thorp JH, Martin CT, Michael DD (2008) The riverine ecosystem synthesis. Academic Press, London
Book Google Scholar
Throop HL, Archer SR (2009) Resolving the dryland decomposition conundrum: some new perspectives on potential drivers. In: Lüttge U, Beyschlag W, Büdel B, Francis D (eds) Progress in Botany. Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, pp 171–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-68421-3_8
Chapter Google Scholar
Turner TF, Krabbenhoft TJ, Collyer ML, Krabbenhoft CA, Edwards MS, Sharp ZD (2015) Retrospective stable isotope analysis reveals ecosystem responses to river regulation over the last century. Ecology 96:3213–3226. https://doi.org/10.1890/14-1666.1
Article Google Scholar
Vanderbilt KL, White CS, Hopkins O, Craig JA (2008) Aboveground decomposition in arid environments: results of a long-term study in Central New Mexico. J Arid Environ 72:696–709. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaridenv.2007.10.010
Article Google Scholar
Vanderklift MA, Ponsard S (2003) Sources of variation in consumer-diet δ¹⁵N enrichment: a meta-analysis. Oecologia 136:169–182. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-003-1270-z
Article Google Scholar
Vannote RL, Minshall GW, Cummins KW, Sedell JR, Cushing CE (1980) The river continuum concept. Can J Fish Aquat Sci 37:130–137. https://doi.org/10.1139/f80-017
Article Google Scholar
Webster JR, Meyer JL (1997) Stream organic matter budgets: an introduction. J N Am Benthol Soc 16:3–13. https://doi.org/10.2307/1468223
Article Google Scholar
White L (1947) Notes on the ethnozoology of the Keresan Pueblo Indians vol Vol. XXXI. Published for the Michigan Academy of Science, Arts and Letters by the University of Michigan Press, Ann Arbor
Google Scholar
Whiteman PJ, Elliott Smith AE, Besser CA, Newsome SD (2019) A guide to using compound-specific stable isotope analysis to study the fates of molecules in organisms and ecosystems. Diversity 11. https://doi.org/10.3390/d11010008
Winterhalder B, Goland C (1997) An evolutionary ecology perspective on diet choice. In: People, Plants, and Landscapes: Studies in Paleoethnobotany. University of Alabama Press Tuscaloosa, AL, pp 123-162.
Wolkovich EM, Allesina S, Cottingham KL, Moore JC, Sandin SA, de Mazancourt C (2014) Linking the green and brown worlds: the prevalence and effect of multichannel feeding in food webs. Ecology 95:3376–3386. https://doi.org/10.1890/13-1721.1
Article Google Scholar
Wolverton S, Nagaoka L, Dong PL, Kennedy JH (2012) On behavioral depression in white-tailed deer. J Archaeol Method Theory 19:462–489. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10816-011-9121-4
Article Google Scholar
Woodhouse CA, Overpeck JT (1998) 2000 years of drought variability in the Central United States. Bull Am Meteorol Soc 79:2693–2714. https://doi.org/10.1175/1520-0477(1998)079<2693:yodvit>2.0.co;2
Article Google Scholar
Woodhouse CA, Meko DM, MacDonald GM, Stahle DW, Cook ER (2010) A 1,200-Year Perspective of 21st Century Drought in Southwestern North America. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107:21283-21288. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0911197107
Article Google Scholar
Worman FS (2013) Geoarchaeology and geomorphology at the Alameda school site, LA 421. In: Cordero RM (ed) Final Report on Excavations of the Alameda School Site (LA 421): A Classic Period Pueblo of the Tiguex Province. Office of Contract Archeology, Albuquerque, pp 31–58
Wurster CM, Patterson WP (2001) Late Holocene climate change for the Eastern Interior United States: evidence from high-resolution δ¹⁸O values of sagittal otoliths. Palaeogeogr Palaeoclimatol Palaeoecol 170:81–100. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0031-0182(01)00229-2
Article Google Scholar
Wurster CM, Patterson WP (2003) Metabolic rate of Late Holocene freshwater fish: evidence from δ¹³C values of otoliths. Paleobiology 29:492–505. https://doi.org/10.1666/0094-8373(2003)029<0492:MROLHF>2.0.CO;2
Article Google Scholar
Yang Q, Fowler MS, Jackson AL, Donohue I (2019) The predictability of ecological stability in a noisy world. Nat Ecol Evol 3:251–259. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0794-x
Article Google Scholar
Yodzis P (1981) The stability of real ecosystems. Nature 289:674–676. https://doi.org/10.1038/289674a0
Article Google Scholar
Zeug SC, Winemiller KO (2008) Evidence supporting the importance of terrestrial carbon in a large-river food web. Ecology 89:1733–1743. https://doi.org/10.1890/07-1064.1
Article Google Scholar
Zhao L, Zhang H, Tian W, Xu X (2018) Identifying compartments in ecological networks based on energy channels. Ecol Evol 8:309–318. https://doi.org/10.1002/ece3.3648
Article Google Scholar
Zou K, Thébault E, Lacroix G, Barot S (2016) Interactions between the green and brown food web determine ecosystem functioning. Funct Ecol 30:1454–1465. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.12626
Article Google Scholar

Download references

Acknowledgments

Thank you to the following institutions and people for granting access to specimens and providing funding, feedback, or just general help: the Pueblo of Isleta, Emily Lena Jones, Henry Walt, Mike Marshall, the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, Karen Price, Robin Cordero, New Mexico Historic Sites, Ethan Ortega, Matthew Barbour, the Museum of Southwestern Biology (MSB) Division of Fishes, Tom Turner, Adam Barkalow, Rosalee Reese, the UNM Center for Stable Isotopes, Laura Burkemper, Viorel Atudorei, the Friends of Coronado, the whole Newsome Lab, Thatcher Rogers, Alex Kurota, and to the late Kit and Arnold Sargeant. A special thanks as well to the anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments and to Britt Starkovitch and Tiina Manne for editing this special issue and inviting us to the 2019 SAA symposium.

Availability of data and material

See Supplemental File 1.

Funding

The Friends of Coronado Scholarship Award helped provide partial funding for this research.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Department of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Jonathan Dombrosky & Cyler Conrad
Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA
Alexi C. Besser, Laura Pagès Barceló & Seth D. Newsome
Department of Anthropology, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC, USA
Emma A. Elliott Smith
Envrionmental Protection and Compliance, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM, USA
Cyler Conrad

Authors

Jonathan Dombrosky
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Alexi C. Besser
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Emma A. Elliott Smith
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Cyler Conrad
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Laura Pagès Barceló
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar
Seth D. Newsome
View author publications
You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jonathan Dombrosky.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Code availability

The R package SIBER is available at https://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/SIBER/index.html, and the corresponding author can provide code upon request.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

This article is part of the Topical Collection on Do good things come in small packages?

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(XLSX 26 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Dombrosky, J., Besser, A.C., Elliott Smith, E.A. et al. Resource risk and stability in the zooarchaeological record: the case of Pueblo fishing in the Middle Rio Grande, New Mexico. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 248 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01193-0

Download citation

Received: 22 May 2020
Accepted: 04 September 2020
Published: 30 September 2020
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01193-0

Keywords

Risk-sensitive foraging
Ecological stability
Stable isotope analysis
Ancestral Pueblo
Desert fishes