Remotely sensed seasonal and interannual variability of vegetation and temperature indices from Ancestral Pueblo fields in the lower Rio Chama basin, New Mexico, USA.

Summary

An analysis of multispectral satellite imagery in the lower Rio Chama basin, in northern New Mexico, reveal that seasonal patterns of vegetation cover (NDVI) are significantly altered by Pre-Hispanic agricultural features surrounding ancestral Tewa pueblos. Interannual variability of NDVI on previously cultivated upland surfaces is similar to a model derived from terrain attributes of minimally-modified watersheds. However, in relict agricultural fields late-summer and autumn NDVI tends to be higher, and temperatures somewhat warmer, than expected. Though there is some uncertainty, this effect appears sensitive to seasonal patterns of precipitation. These observations are important for better understanding the function of pre-Hispanic agricultural features in the upper Rio Grande, the use of which is undocumented historically. This knowledge has implications for contextualizing the Tewa ritual and agricultural works cycle, models of the resilience of late Classic communities in the Upper Rio Grande to environmental perturbation, and the long term ecological legacies of past anthropogenic environmental modification.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17232