Modeling Climate, Ocean Productivity and Human Population Dynamics on the North Pacific Rim

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

We explore human population trends for several maritime regions around the North Pacific Rim over the last several thousand years. These data show correlated but oscillating patterns of populations from the eastern to the western Pacific. Two alternative models explain the patterns of population peaks and crashes over the past 2500 years. The first model considers possible "bottom-up" causes, assuming that population crashes followed subsistence failure tied to long-interval, climate derived ecological regime shifts. Proxy data on changes in climate, ocean productivity and Pacific salmon returns over the past 5,000 appear to correspond with changes in past human population size on adjacent coastlines, even when the populations in question are not focused on salmon as their major resource. The second model explores the role of expanding commodities markets in the destabilization of North Pacific populations.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Global Perspectives on Climate-Human Population Dynamics During the Late Holocene   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24052