NSF Org:	BCS Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences
Recipient:	REGENTS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, THE
Initial Amendment Date:	September 26, 2001
Latest Amendment Date:	June 20, 2005
Award Number:	0119819
Award Instrument:	Standard Grant
Program Manager:	John Yellen jyellen@nsf.gov  (703)292-8759 BCS  Division of Behavioral and Cognitive Sciences SBE  Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
Start Date:	December 1, 2001
End Date:	May 31, 2006 (Estimated)
Total Intended Award Amount:	$1,399,940.00
Total Awarded Amount to Date:	$1,399,940.00
Funds Obligated to Date:	FY 2001 = $1,399,940.00
History of Investigator:	Patrick Kirch (Principal Investigator) kirch@hawaii.edu Peter Vitousek (Co-Principal Investigator) Shripad Tuljapurkar (Co-Principal Investigator) Oliver Chadwick (Co-Principal Investigator) Michael Graves (Co-Principal Investigator)
Recipient Sponsored Research Office:	University of California-Berkeley 1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA  US  94710-1749 (510)643-3891
Sponsor Congressional District:	12
Primary Place of Performance:	University of California-Berkeley 1608 4TH ST STE 201 BERKELEY CA  US  94710-1749
Primary Place of Performance Congressional District:	12
Unique Entity Identifier (UEI):	GS3YEVSS12N6
Parent UEI:
NSF Program(s):	DYN COUPLED NATURAL-HUMAN, ENVIR SOCIAL & BEHAVIOR SCIENC
Primary Program Source:	01000102DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT
Program Reference Code(s):	1689, 1691, 5209, 9278, EGCH
Program Element Code(s):	169100, 520900
Award Agency Code:	4900
Fund Agency Code:	4900
Assistance Listing Number(s):	47.075

ABSTRACT

The project will study the complex, dynamic interactions between an isolated human population and its natural environment over the course of 1,000 years, focusing on two sample landscapes in the Hawaiian Islands (specifically, Maui and Hawaii Islands). Four main research themes motivate this research: (1) determining how processes of agricultural development were linked to geomorphological and biogeochemical mosaics and gradients; (2) assessing the dynamic links between human population growth and agricultural development and intensification; (3) tracking emerging sociocultural complexity in relation to demographic growth and agricultural change; and (4) understanding how a growing human population, with an intensive agricultural economic base, affected the natural resource base. The project is multidisciplinary, and will involve collaborative fieldwork by a team of scientists representing the disciplines of archaeology, soil science, ecology, demography, and paleobotany. Fieldwork will build upon prior intensive archaeological, ecological, and pedological research by team members, but will emphasize new, integrative work on biogeochemical variation across the study landscapes, and on acquiring additional paleo-demographic and paleobotanical data necessary to address the research themes noted above. The varied data sets will be integrated using a geographic information systems approach, and hierarchical modeling will be used to test hypotheses regarding human-environment interactions over time.

The project focuses on the Hawaiian Islands because this archipelago offers unique opportunities to constrain the analysis of human-environment interactions (e.g., short time scale, isolation, pronounced biogeochemical gradients). The issues to be addressed, however, are global. The cultural and natural evolutionary processes to be studied--such as unprecedented population growth, widespread deforestation, soil degradation through nutrient depletion, population migrations into marginal lands, and increased political and economic centralization and control--are all taking place today on a global scale. By studying these processes on a controlled time scale of approximately 1,000 years, this research will produce dynamic models of the causal links between such key factors, models which can help us to understand the irreversible environmental and cultural changes driven by the coupling of human and natural systems. Such models should be of considerable relevance to on-going attempts to develop sustainable human ecosystems. The results of this project will therefore be of wide interest to a range of disciplines, including ecology, demography, anthropology, economics, and biogeography. This project is an award emanating from the FY2001 special competition in Biocomplexity in the Environment focusing on the Dynamics of Coupled Natural and Human Systems.

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