Soils, Agriculture, and Society in Precontact Hawai`i

Vitousek, Peter M.; Ladefoged, Thegn N.; Kirch, P. V.; Hartshorn, Anthony S.; Graves, Michael W.; Hotchkiss, Sara C.; Tuljapurkar, Shripad; Chadwick, Oliver A.

doi:10.1126/science.1099619

Cited by 158 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…Soils on Hawai'i are very young and likely have depleted nitrogen when compared to soils on the other islands. However, as climate changes have more of an effect, phosphorus may also become co-limited (Vitousek et al 2004;Menge et al 2012). Also, seasonal fluctuations of soil inorganic nitrogen in the tropics has been previously illustrated (Song et al 2015).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable isotope ratios and reforestation potential in Acacia koa populations on Hawai’i

Lawson

Pike

2017

Ann. For. Res.

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Lawson S. S., Pike C. C. 2017. Stable isotope ratios and reforestation potential in Acacia koa populations on Hawai'i. Ann. For. Res. 60(2): 279-295.Abstract. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes can be influenced by a multitude of factors including elevation, precipitation rate, season, and temperature. This work examined variability in foliar stable carbon (δ13C) and nitrogen (δ15N) isotope ratios of koa (Acacia koa) across 17 sites on Hawai'i Island, delineated by elevation and precipitation gradients. Sites were identified and grouped with respect to mean annual precipitation (MAP), mean annual temperature (MAT) and position along three elevation transects. Analysis of resultant δ13C and δ15N isotope ratios from multiple individuals across ecoregions indicated certain regions exhibited a correlation between carbon and/or nitrogen content, isotope ratios, precipitation, and elevation however, many comparisons showed no correlation. We used publicly available temperature and moisture data to help eliminate confounding effects by climatic drivers and capture possible points of contention. At sites where the temperature, precipitation, and elevation data were not significantly different, we compared stable isotope information to determine if additional variables might have contributed to a lack of definitive data. Our results identified several areas within the Waiakea Forest Reserve and Volcanoes National Park where, based on isotope analyses, reforestation efforts could be most successfully initiated.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Stable isotope ratios and reforestation potential in Acacia koa populations on Hawai’i

Lawson

Pike

2017

Ann. For. Res.

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“…for agriculture, but retain nutrients more effectively than acid soils 28 . Thus, from an observational standpoint, the most naturally fertile soils are relatively uncommon-and hypothetically, their relatively low prevalence may result from intrinsic aspects of their chemistry.…”

Section: Letter Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Water balance creates a threshold in soil pH at the global scale

Slessarev

Lin

Bingham

et al. 2016

Nature

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440

255

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Soil pH regulates the capacity of soils to store and supply nutrients, and thus contributes substantially to controlling productivity in terrestrial ecosystems 1 . However, soil pH is not an independent regulator of soil fertility-rather, it is ultimately controlled by environmental forcing. In particular, small changes in water balance cause a steep transition from alkaline to acid soils across natural climate gradients 2,3 . Although the processes governing this threshold in soil pH are well understood, the threshold has not been quantified at the global scale, where the influence of climate may be confounded by the effects of topography and mineralogy. Here we evaluate the global relationship between water balance and soil pH by extracting a spatially random sample (n = 20,000) from an extensive compilation of 60,291 soil pH measurements. We show that there is an abrupt transition from alkaline to acid soil pH that occurs at the point where mean annual precipitation begins to exceed mean annual potential evapotranspiration. We evaluate deviations from this global pattern, showing that they may result from seasonality, climate history, erosion and mineralogy. These results demonstrate that climate creates a nonlinear pattern in soil solution chemistry at the global scale; they also reveal conditions under which soils maintain pH out of equilibrium with modern climate.Climate controls many aspects of soil chemistry, affecting soil pH (ref. 4). Alkaline soils are known to be common in arid climates, while acid soils are known to be common in humid climates 1 . Surprisingly, however, the global-scale mechanisms governing this pattern remain broadly defined, and untested by direct observation. What are the dominant chemical equilibria that constrain soil pH? What aspect of climate defines the transition between alkaline and acid soils, and is the transition linear? The answers to these questions are fundamental to understanding soil development and surface geochemistry at the global scale. Furthermore, achieving this understanding may prove essential for representing soils in models of the terrestrial biosphere, given that soil pH controls many aspects of soil fertility 5,6 . Here we illustrate that simple geochemical and hydrological concepts can be used to build a mechanistic understanding of soil pH at the global scale.Interpretations of acid-titration experiments indicate that the soil pH is typically most strongly buffered by equilibrium with two secondary minerals: calcite (CaCO 3 ), or gibbsite (Al(OH) 3 ) 7,8 Fig. 1).Local studies of climate gradients have shown that the relative importance of these two buffers is determined by leaching, which removes Ca 2+ from the soil 2,3,8,9 . In climates where evaporative demand exceeds precipitation, leaching rates are low, and dissolved Ca 2+ accumulates as CaCO 3 -buffering soil pH near 8.2 (ref. 4). Conversely, in climates where precipitation exceeds evaporative demand, water leaches through the soil, removing Ca 2+ and allowing accumulation of relatively immobile...

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“…There are few new sequences of agricultural change and development additional to those used originally in the formulation of the proposition for Western Polynesia and island Melanesia, where suitably long sequences can be expected -New Caledonia is a notable exception (Sand 1999(Sand , 2002Carlson 2008). In Eastern Polynesia, much more detailed information is available; for instance, most recently for Maui and Hawai'i islands (Ladefoged and Graves 2000;Ladefoged et al 2003;Kirch et al 2004;Vitousek et al 2004), Easter Island (Stevenson et al 1999(Stevenson et al , 2006Mieth and Bork 2005), and New Zealand (Barber 2004, and references therein). Initial settlement dates remain controversial, however, for many Eastern Polynesian archipelagos, making the definitive establishment of cultural sequences difficult (Spriggs In press).…”

Section: Proposition 4: a Two-stage Response To Erosion Damagementioning

confidence: 99%

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

Haberle¹,

Stevenson²,

Prebble³

2010

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terra australis 32Terra Australis reports the results of archaeological and related research within the south and east of Asia, though mainly Australia, New Guinea and island Melanesia -lands that remained terra australis incognita to generations of prehistorians. Its subject is the settlement of the diverse environments in this isolated quarter of the globe by peoples who have maintained their discrete and traditional ways of life into the recent recorded or remembered past and at times into the observable present.Since the beginning of the series, the basic colour on the spine and cover has distinguished the regional distribution of topics as follows: ochre for Australia, green for New Guinea, red for South-East Asia and blue for the Pacific Islands. From 2001, issues with a gold spine will include conference proceedings, edited papers and monographs which in topic or desired format do not fit easily within the original arrangements. All volumes are numbered within the same series. Copyright of the text remains with the contributors/authors, 2009. This book is copyright in all countries subscribing to the Berne convention. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, as permitted under the Copyright Act, no part may be reproduced by any process without written permission. Inquiries should be made to the publisher. Among saltbush greyer than seaweed we boardwalk the yeasting waves of the old golden-perch pond. List of volumes in Terra AustralisRabbit dung dots a lake bottom dry since their coming -only once, last century, after seven inches of rain a farmer had to rescue his sheep by boat.The roo bounces down-slope, a brown branch crackling.The professor's eye, noting the local runoff and what the westerlies do, observes seas that rush in and out of a continent's middle, salt lakes spreading and emptying, hills pimpling up and down with cartoon-like speed, or gullying themselves into extinction, rainforests and deserts zipping back and forth like Tom and Jerry. A human mouse plague swiftly swarms, perhaps soon gone.Impermanent planet. Impermanent surface. All under air and water. The lunette is a wave, a dumper of sand, a collapsing tower in the mad rabbit years when its top blew off and old bones winked through, with a vault's worth of fine stone cores.Once so simply mislaid in sand, now so obligingly sluiced out to the un-subincised world that smiles at stone knives. terra australis 32Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes v You might as well offer your table knife to a carpenter.Cane grass and the Dreamtime's stone fight the eroding rivulets together. In today's rare downpour each lost core, or blunted scraper crowns some tiny eroding hillock, plops its anchor in the dissolving silts.The bettong whose skin took off the stone tool's edge has vanished -sacrifice to future fertility.Through the softening soil Homo sapiens's skeleton bumps up like a carp's back.Waits for the wind to shave it off in pieces.A D-section and a ti...

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Soils, Agriculture, and Society in Precontact Hawai`i

Cited by 158 publications

References 18 publications

Stable isotope ratios and reforestation potential in Acacia koa populations on Hawai’i

Stable isotope ratios and reforestation potential in Acacia koa populations on Hawai’i

Water balance creates a threshold in soil pH at the global scale

Altered Ecologies: Fire, climate and human influence on terrestrial landscapes: Terra Australis 32

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