Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Timothy P. Beach, and Nicholas P. Dunning
PNAS March 6, 2012 109 (10) 3646-3651; https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1114919109
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach
For correspondence: slbeach@gmu.edu beacht@georgetown.edu nicholas.dunning@uc.edu
Timothy P. Beach
Nicholas P. Dunning
Edited* by Karl W. Butzer, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX, and approved November 17, 2011 (received for review September 9, 2011)
Getting at the Maya Collapse has both temporal and geographic dimensions, because it occurred over centuries and great distances. This requires a wide range of research sites and proxy records, ranging from lake cores to geomorphic evidence, such as stratigraphy and speleothems. This article synthesizes these lines of evidence, together with previously undescribed findings on Maya wetland formation and use in a key region near the heart of the central Maya Lowlands. Growing lines of evidence point to dryer periods in Maya history, which correlate to major periods of transition. The main line of evidence in this paper comes from wetland use and formation studies, which show evidence for both large-scale environmental change and human adaptation or response. Based on multiproxy studies, Maya wetland fields had a long and varied history, but most evidence indicates the start of disuse during or shortly after the Maya Terminal Classic. Hence, the pervasiveness of collapse extended into a range of wetlands, including perennial wetlands, which should have been less responsive to drought as a driver of disuse. A synthesis of the lines of evidence for canal infilling shows no attempts to reclaim them after the Classic Period.
wetland agriculture
↵1To whom correspondence may be addressed. E-mail: slbeach{at}gmu.edu, beacht{at}georgetown.edu, or nicholas.dunning{at}uc.edu.
Author contributions: S.L.-B., T.P.B., and N.P.D. designed research, performed research, analyzed data, and wrote the paper.
↵*This Direct Submission article had a prearranged editor.
This article contains supporting information online at www.pnas.org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1073/pnas.1114919109/-/DCSupplemental.
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beacha,1,
Timothy P. Beachb,1, and
Nicholas P. Dunningc,1
aDepartment of Geography and Geoinformation Science, George Mason University, Fairfax, VA 22307;
bScience, Technology, and International Affairs, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University, Washington, DC 20057; and
cDepartment of Geography, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221
You are going to email the following Wetland fields as mirrors of drought and the Maya abandonment
Sheryl Luzzadder-Beach, Timothy P. Beach, Nicholas P. Dunning
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences Mar 2012, 109 (10) 3646-3651; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1114919109
Article Classifications
Climate and Evidence for Drought
Study Area and Background