Environmental dynamics of drought and its impact on sixteenth-century indigenous populations in the Central Mississippi Valley.

摘要

Early Sixteenth-Century indigenous populations in the Central Mississippi Valley were wide-spread and vibrant prior to contact with Europeans in 1541. By the late Seventeenth-Century, only a small remnant population remained in the area Archaeologists have largely assumed the depopulation was directly attributable to European contact. However, tree-ring data indicate a megadrought event occurred during the Sixteenth-Century. The impact of this environmental perturbation would have made maize agriculture unsustainable for as long as 20 years. This study examines the impact of such an event on the biotic and abiotic environment and the related impacts on the human population including available risk management strategies and their probable effectiveness.