Tuesday, August 7, 2007: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
B3&4, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
OOS 9 - Human roles in ecosystems through deep time: The North Pacific as a case study
Humans must be considered, in ecology and anthropology, one of many primary linkages in ecosystems. Embracing this perspective, this session explores roles played by prehistoric, historic, and modern Aleut people in changing the structure and functioning of the north Pacific ecosystem. This address requires multidimensional approaches; speakers in this session will interrelate modern and prehistoric, terrestrial and marine, local and regional, and empirical and theoretical explorations. Speakers will merge different disciplinary perspectives, combining archaeological, ecological, anthropological, and geological knowledge to create a synthetic transdisciplinary understanding of how the north Pacific system has changed since the last ice age, particularly focusing on the role of humans in that system through time. Session themes include: abiotic foundations – the geological and volcanic history – of the regional ecosystem; the paleoecology of the region, focusing on dynamics of key ecological components of the system over the last ten thousand years; overview of human adaptations to changes in the surrounding environment over the last six millennia; analyses of the marine intertidal ecosystem as a primary human food source from ancient to modern times; long-term ecological signatures of human settlement; analysis of the human-inclusive food web through deep time; and the dynamics of social-ecological systems and feedbacks from the perspective of complex adaptive systems and social and ecological sustainability in this ecosystem.
Organizer:Spencer Wood, University of British Columbia
Co-organizer:Roly Russell, Columbia University
Moderator:Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University
8:00 AMWhy there are no "natural" ecosystems: Humans in the North Pacific landscape
Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University, Matthew Betts, Idaho State University, Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University, Katherine Reedy-Maschner, Idaho State University, Bruce P. Finney, University of Alaska Fairbanks, James Jordan, Antioch University
8:20 AMArchaeofaunas and the reconstruction of long-term ecosystem dynamics
Matthew W. Betts, Idaho State University, Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University, Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University
8:40 AMThe united insight of ancient and contemporary data into long-term changes in marine community composition
Spencer A. Wood, University of British Columbia, Roly Russell, Columbia University
9:00 AMChanges in a Northeast Pacific marine ecosystem over the past 4,500 years: Evidence from stable isotope (C and N) analysis of bone collagen and lake sediments
Nicole Misarti, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Bruce P. Finney, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University, Matthew Wooller, University of Alaska Fairbanks
9:20 AMEffects of cattle, an exotic species, on an Aleutian island
Faith Rudebusch, Idaho State University, Kimberly D. Gilliland, Idaho State University, Jonathan Knudsen, Idaho State University, Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University
9:40 AMBreak
9:50 AMFox impacts on avian communities of an Aleutian island
Sarah Schoen, Idaho State University, Matthew Betts, Idaho State University, Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University, Herb Maschner, Idaho State University
10:10 AMModeling the ecological effects of long-term Aleut occupation of Sanak Island using archaeological data
Joseph D. Cornell, Idaho State University, Aaron King, University of Michigan, Matthew Betts, Idaho State University, Nancy Huntly, Idaho State University, Herbert Maschner, Idaho State University
10:30 AMFeedbacks between human behaviour and resources in the Sanak Island system: Complex adaptive systems and sustainability
Roly Russell, Columbia University

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