Recent attention focused on the accelerating pace of human-induced environmental change obscures the fact that people have had profound impacts on natural systems for millennia. In the Western Hemisphere, significant changes occurred in the wake of European settlement over the last 500 years. Within central Mexico, the introduction of Spanish agricultural practices resulted in significant changes in the form and intensity of land uses. This doctoral dissertation project will examine how such changes have been recorded in the sediments of the upper Rio Laja valley. Radiocarbon dating will be used to establish an alluvial chronology of the upper Rio Laja valley; a hydrologic comparison of modern and pre-colonial rivers will be based on standard paleohydrologic techniques; rates of soil erosion will be measured in two tributary channels; and historic evidence of erosion in upland regions will be evaluated. This project will provide valuable information about the historic evolution of land-use patterns and related changes in river valley deposits. Although focusing on a specific locale in central Mexico, the study will yield broader insights into the complex ways in which human and natural systems have interacted over the last four centuries. The project also will provide an excellent opportunity for a promising young scholar to continue to develop independent research skills.
