Human Adaptations to Environmental Change on the California Channel Islands

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

This paper provides an overview of human adaptations to environmental change during 13,000 years of human occupation on the California Channel Islands. In particular, I consider how the range of economically important species shifted with changing environmental conditions and how different foraging strategies for marine and terrestrial resources correlated to fluctuations in sea surface temperature and rates of precipitation. A case study of Middle Holocene (approximately 6500-3500 BP) sites on Santa Cruz Island includes data from faunal and floral (both macrobotanical and starch grain) assemblages alongside stable oxygen isotope data measuring sea surface temperature. This paper also discusses how environmental change will likely impact cultural resources on the Channel Islands in the future, using data on sea cliff retreat and rising sea levels. Finally, I include hazard maps with concentrations of cultural resources at greatest risk for erosion and inundation, alongside a discussion of management strategies.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)   •
• Palaeoeconomic and Environmental Reconstructions in Island and Coastal Archaeology

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 23193