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This paper presents the results of a study on the isotopic ecology of guanacos in central western Argentina. We examine the historical population ecology of guanacos using stable isotope analysis of bone collagen from pre-Hispanic and modern guanaco populations (n = 129), considering variability in two ecoregions: the Monte hot desert and the Andean-Patagonian cold desert. Our study addresses the consistency of guanaco diets over time, evaluating palaeoecology to provide information for conservation of this taxon. We found significant differences in isotopic niche size between modern and archaeological guanacos. When analyzed by ecoregion, there were significant differences in niche size through time, indicating that guanacos had distinctive dietary habits and occupied different ecological niches across the ecoregions. Comparing Standard Ellipse Areas (SEA) through time and across space, we observed that the archaeological SEA for guanacos is smaller than its modern counterpart in the Andean-Patagonia ecoregion. Conversely, in Monte, the archaeological SEA is larger than the one established for modern samples. The contrast between pre-Hispanic and modern populations highlight the impact of human activity and conservation efforts on the distribution and ecology of guanacos. These findings have important implications for understanding guanaco ecology with consequences for conservation policies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The southern boundary of prehispanic farming in South America occurs in central Mendoza Province, Argentina at approximately 34 degrees south latitude. Archaeological evidence of farming includes the recovery of macrobotanical remains of cultigens and isotopic chemistry of human bone. Since the 1990s, archaeologists have also hypothesized that the llama (Lama glama), a domesticated South American camelid, was also herded near the southern boundary of prehispanic farming. The remains of a wild congeneric camelid, the guanaco (Lama guanicoe), however, are common in archaeological sites throughout Mendoza Province. It is difficult to distinguish bones of the domestic llama from wild guanaco in terms of osteological morphology, and therefore, claims that llama were in geographic areas where guanaco were also present based on osteometric analysis alone remain equivocal. A recent study, for example, claimed that twenty-five percent of the camelid remains from the high elevation Andes site of Laguna del Diamante S4 were identified based on osteometric evidence as domestic llama, but guanaco are also a likely candidate since the two species overlap in size. We test the hypothesis that domesticated camelids occurred in prehispanic, southern Mendoza through analysis of ancient DNA. We generated whole mitochondrial genome datasets from 41 samples from southern Mendoza late Holocene archaeological sites, located between 450 and 3400 meters above sea level (masl). All camelid samples from those sites were identified as guanaco; thus, we have no evidence to support the hypothesis that the domestic llama occurred in prehispanic southern Mendoza. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The status of species in freshwater systems shift over time due to natural and anthropogenic causes. Determining the magnitude and cause of these shifts requires a long‐term perspective. This process is complicated when there are also questions about the taxonomic validity of a species. Addressing these issues is important because both can undermine conservation and management efforts if incorrect. Pleurobema riddellii, Louisiana Pigtoe, is under review for protection under the U.S. Endangered Species Act, but its status in the Trinity River basin, where the taxon was described, remains in doubt due to questions about its taxonomy and occurrence within this basin. To address these questions, we compared shell morphometrics of P. riddellii dating to the late Holocene with modern P. riddellii, late Holocene Fusconaia sp., and modern Fusconaia sp. using multivariate analyses to test associations between the putative morphotypes. Based on these analyses, we demonstrate that P. riddellii was likely present in the Trinity during the late Holocene, which indicates questions about its taxonomic validity or presence in this basin are unfounded. Our study further highlights the role zooarchaeological studies can play in status assessments and their utility in better understanding biogeographic patterns for rare species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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]

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The Lesser Rhea (Rhea pennata), a large flightless bird native to South America, held historical significance as a vital resource for Patagonian hunter–gatherer societies. Despite the species' cultural and ecological importance, the historical population dynamics of R. pennata remain poorly understood. Although present in the archaeological record, its abundance is not consistently documented and the reasons remain unclear. This study investigates the late Holocene population trends of R. pennata using ancient DNA analysis. By analyzing complete mitochondrial genome sequences from dated archaeological specimens, we reveal a significant population increase from 700 to 500 years Before Present (BP), followed by a period of relative stability from 500 to 300 years BP. Subsequently, a subtle decline in population size is observed, coinciding with the arrival of European settlers; however, due to considerable uncertainty in population estimates, definitive conclusions regarding this decline are challenging to make. Historical records indicate heightened rhea hunting during this period, coterminous with a decrease in the abundance of rhea eggshell fragments. It is suggested that climatic factors may have influenced these population dynamics, particularly favoring rhea population growth from 700 to 500 years BP. This study contributes to our understanding of the historical ecology and human‐rhea interactions in Patagonia, emphasizing the importance of interdisciplinary approaches in reconstructing past population dynamics. [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]

Frameworks derived from evolutionary ecology are often applied to hunter-gatherers but less often to societies representing the transition to agriculture. Our case study of Mesa Verde subsistence utilizes optimal foraging theory models from evolutionary ecology to study small animal resource use during the Pueblo II to Terminal Pueblo III periods. Turkey and lagomorph indices have been used extensively in the Southwest, but these measures can be more explicitly tied to foraging theory. We frame these indices as measures of changing patch exploitation using faunal data from eleven sites in the McElmo Dome area of the Mesa Verde region and contextualize our results within the greater regional assemblage. Our results indicate that turkey husbandry became increasingly important at the same time that wild game populations were depressed by harvest pressure. Just before the region was depopulated, however, turkey and lagomorph populations declined, possibly as a result of deteriorating environmental conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]