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Prehistoric peoples chose farming locations based on environmental conditions, such as soil moisture, which plays a crucial role in crop production. Ancestral Pueblo communities of the central Mesa Verde region became increasingly reliant on maize agriculture for their subsistence needs by AD 900. Prehistoric agriculturalists (e.g., Ancestral Pueblo farmers) were dependent on having sufficient soil moisture for successful plant growth. To better understand the quality of farmland in terms of soil moisture, this study develops a static geospatial soil moisture model, the Soil Moisture Proxy Model, which uses soil and topographic variables to estimate soil moisture potential across a watershed. The model is applied to the semi-arid region of the Goodman watershed in the central Mesa Verde region of southwestern Colorado. We evaluate the model by comparing the Goodman watershed output to two other watersheds and to soil moisture sensor values. The simple framework can be used in other regions of the world, where water is also an important limiting factor for farming. The general outcome of this research is an improved understanding of potential farmland and human-environmental relationships across the local landscape. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on human‐environment interactions that informs ecological practices and guides conservation and restoration has become increasingly interdisciplinary over the last few decades. Fueled in part by the debate over defining a start date for the Anthropocene, historical disciplines like archeology, paleontology, geology, and history are playing an important role in understanding long‐term anthropogenic impacts on the planet. Pleistocene overkill, the notion that humans overhunted megafauna near the end of the Pleistocene in the Americas, Australia, and beyond, is used as prime example of the impact that humans can have on the planet. However, the importance of the overkill model for explaining human–environment interactions and anthropogenic impacts appears to differ across disciplines. There is still considerable debate, particularly within archeology, about the extent to which people may have been the cause of these extinctions. To evaluate how different disciplines interpret and use the overkill model, we conducted a citation analysis of selected works of the main proponent of the overkill model, Paul Martin. We examined the ideas and arguments for which Martin's overkill publications were cited and how they differed between archeologists and ecologists. Archeologists cite overkill as one in a combination of causal mechanisms for the extinctions. In contrast, ecologists are more likely to accept that humans caused the extinctions. Aspects of the overkill argument are also treated as established ecological processes. For some ecologists, overkill provides an analog for modern‐day human impacts and supports the argument that humans have "always" been somewhat selfish overconsumers. The Pleistocene rewilding and de‐extinction movements are built upon these perspectives. The use of overkill in ecological publications suggests that despite increasing interdisciplinarity, communication with disciplines outside of ecology is not always reciprocal or even. The overkill model of Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions has had a significant influence on ideas about anthropogenic impacts on the environment. We conducted a citation analysis showing that archaeologists and ecologists differ significantly in how they interpret the model and its supporting data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooarchaeology is the study of animal remains (bone, shell, antler, and other organic tissues) from archaeological sites, which can provide conservation biologists with data on human–environmental interactions with greater time depth than historical records. Such data are of interest because they can be used to study whether or not contemporary animal communities (in this case of freshwater mussels) have changed in terms of species composition or range as a result of human-induced changes to habitat, which is essential for determining a species’ conservation status and formulating actions to protect remaining populations. This study considers whether or not the taxonomic composition of the freshwater mussel community from the Leon River in central Texas differs between the late Holocene and today. Specifically, we analyzed two zooarchaeological assemblages and compared those results with recent surveys conducted within the Leon River. Three species proposed for listing under the Endangered Species Act are found in the zooarchaeological record, of which two are now extirpated from the river basin (Truncilla macrodon and Fusconaia mitchelli). The results of this study provide an example of how zooarchaeological data can be used to evaluate mussel community change through time and provide evidence of range curtailment for threatened mussel species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooarchaeological data are increasingly important for establishing late Holocene conservation baselines for species of concern. The blue sucker ( Cycleptus elongatus) is experiencing range reduction and is endangered in the State of New Mexico. The early historic (ca. AD 1540) distribution of blue sucker is poorly understood, and the extent of habitat loss is unclear. In 1961, two blue sucker skeletal elements were recovered from a late prehistoric/early historic archaeological site in northern New Mexico called Rainbow House (LA 217). Those remains suggest that the past range of blue sucker was larger; however, since that publication, little consideration has been given to the past presence of this species in the Upper Rio Grande. New zooarchaeological data from a site in northern New Mexico called Ponsipa (LA 297) have revealed the presence of multiple blue sucker skeletal elements. Additionally, a review of site reports and regional archaeological journal publications increased the abundance of blue sucker elements found at Rainbow House and added three archaeological sites where blue sucker has been reported in the region. Collectively, this information suggests a broader pre-impoundment distribution for blue sucker than previously recognized and can help establish a new baseline for their conservation or restoration in New Mexico. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Carnivore damage is typically documented in faunal assemblages to understand if attrition of elements or element portions has occurred. Thus, the amount of carnivore damage often is used to simply reflect how 'complete' the assemblage is. However, gnawing is a means for carnivores to extract within bone nutrients. Thus, according to the marginal value theorem, the amount of time a carnivore gnaws on an element should be related to the availability of higher-ranked resources or foraging efficiency. In resource-rich environments, less damage is expected than in less productive ones. This expectation was tested by examining the degree of carnivore damage on fur seal remains from three archaeological sites in New Zealand that vary in availability of high-ranked resources. The analysis indicates that the extent and intensity of carnivore damage can relate to resource availability and thus may be a useful measure in prey choice studies. This research also has implications for the hominid scavenging-hunting debate where the degree of carnivore damage has been used to determine primary (hunting) versus secondary (scavenging) access to carcasses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Behavioral depression is a decline in prey availability because of enhanced alert response, movement away from areas, increased social behavior, and other responses to predators. This form of resource depression is an alternative hypothesis to be contrasted to over-exploitation that potentially explains a decrease in hunting efficiency over time should the zooarchaeologist observe a decline in the relative abundance of remains of high-rank prey. Gregarious ungulates, such as many North American cervids, may exhibit such behavioral responses under predation. The white-tailed deer ( Odocoileus virginianus), one of the most common high-rank prey animals from Holocene archaeological sites in eastern North America, is less gregarious, more r-selected, and exhibits greater home-range fidelity than other cervids. As a result, whitetails are less likely to exhibit behavioral depression than other North American ungulates, which may explain their common occurrence in Holocene archaeological faunas, such as that from the Eagle's Ridge site in southeast Texas where resource depression appears to have occurred from 4,500 to 1,500 years ago. The behavioral ecology of ungulate species should be considered on a case-by-case basis to develop testable hypotheses about prehistoric human predation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Zooarchaeological research in New Zealand has a particularly long history, dating from the 1870s. Over the last century, it has both followed larger trends in the discipline and developed innovative approaches. Three types of research that reflect these broader movements and novel approaches are identified in this historical review of New Zealand archeofaunal studies. First, zooarchaeological studies have been used to not only illustrate human impacts on the environment, but also to examine the consequences of anthropogenic environmental change for resident human populations. Second, taphonomic research, beginning with Julius von Haast's qualitative examinations of moa-hunter butchering patterns, is considered, particularly studies relating to butchery and carnivore damage. Finally, examples of New Zealand research that are poised to make significant contributions to the burgeoning field of applied zooarchaeology are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New Zealand provides one of the earliest examples of foraging theory applications to archaeological situations (Anderson 1981). Since this landmark study, significant developments over the last twenty years have led to an increasing number of detailed analyses examining the effects of resource depression on human foraging. In particular, foraging theory analyses have become better at documenting resource depression and integrating butchery/transport studies into these analyses. Using the faunal data from the Shag River Mouth site, I illustrate how these methodological advances have resulted in a more comprehensive understanding of the processes of subsistence change in southern New Zealand. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A constrained stochastic weather generator (CSWG) for producing daily mean air temperature and precipitation based on annual mean air temperature and precipitation from tree-ring records is developed and tested in this paper. The principle for stochastically generating daily mean air temperature assumes that temperatures in any year can be approximated by a sinusoidal wave function plus a perturbation from the baseline. The CSWG for stochastically producing daily precipitation is based on three additional assumptions: (1) In each month, the total precipitation can be estimated from annual precipitation if there exists a relationship between the annual and monthly precipitations. If that relationship exists, then (2) for each month, the number of dry days and the maximum daily precipitation can be estimated from the total precipitation in that month. Finally, (3) in each month, there exists a probability distribution of daily precipitation amount for each wet day. These assumptions allow the development of a weather generator that constrains statistically relevant daily temperature and precipitation predictions based on a specified annual value, and thus this study presents a unique method that can be used to explore historic (e.g., archeological questions) or future (e.g., climate change) daily weather conditions based upon specified annual values. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]