Space Archeology Overview at Gordion: 2010 to 2012

In fiscal years 2010, 2011, and 2012, Compton Tucker was the principal investigator of a NASA Space Archaeology project that worked at Gordion, in Central Turkey. Tucker was assisted by an excellent team of co-workers including Joseph Nigro and Daniel Slayback of Science Systems Applications Incorporated, Jenny Strum of the University of New Mexico, and Karina Yager, a post doctoral fellow at NASA/GSFC. This report summaries their research activities at Gordion for the field seasons of 2010, 2011, and 2012. Because of the possible use of our findings at Gordion for tomb robbing there and/or the encouragement of potential tomb robbers using our geophysical survey methods to locate areas to loot, we have not published any of our survey results in the open literature nor placed any of these results on any web sites. These 2010- 2012 survey results remain in the confidential archives of the University of Pennsylvania's University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, the group that leads the Gordion Excavation and Research Project. Excavations are planned for 2013 at Gordion, including several that will be based upon the research results in this report. The site of Gordion in central Turkey, famous as the home of King Midas, whose father's intricately tied knot gave the site its name, also served as the center of the Phrygian kingdom that ruled much of Central Anatolia in Asia Minor during the early first millennium B.C. Gordion has been a University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology excavation project since 1950, yet the site is incompletely published despite six decades of research. The primary obstacles related to the site and its preservation were two problems that NASA technology could address: (1) critical survey errors in the hundreds of maps and plans produced by the earlier excavators, most of which used mutually incompatible geospatial referencing systems, that prevented any systematic understanding of the site; and (2) agricultural encroachment upon the site that was compromising its archaeological integrity. Our NASA Space Archaeology proposal was written to address both of these problems. When we started working at Gordion in 2010, we added a third objective, (3) ground penetrating radar and magnetic geophysical surveys of threatened areas. The first objective our NASA Space Archaeology Project was to provide the University of Pennsylvania's Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology a system to rectify and incorporate all existing survey data from Gordion, including previous aerial photographs of the site, detailed site surveys, maps, and excavation plans, into a common mapping system. This was accomplished with a Geographic Information System (GIS) based upon a 60 cm Quickbird satellite image ortho-rectified using Shuttle Radar Topographic Mission (SRTM) 30 m digital elevation data and tied to a known datum at Gordion. This enabled the first accurate, multi-layer plan of this complex site, occupied almost continuously from the Bronze Age to the 1st millennium CE, and made possible Gordion's three-dimensional development for the first time

Understanding and Integrating Local Perceptions of Trees and Forests into Incentives for Sustainable Landscape Management

We examine five forested landscapes in Africa (Cameroon, Madagascar, and Tanzania) and Asia (Indonesia and Laos) at different stages of landscape change. In all five areas, forest cover (outside of protected areas) continues to decrease despite local people’s recognition of the importance of forest products and services. After forest conversion, agroforestry systems and fallows provide multiple functions and valued products, and retain significant biodiversity. But there are indications that such land use is transitory, with gradual simplification and loss of complex agroforests and fallows as land use becomes increasingly individualistic and profit driven. In Indonesia and Tanzania, farmers favor monocultures (rubber and oil palm, and sugarcane, respectively) for their high financial returns, with these systems replacing existing complex agroforests. In the study sites in Madagascar and Laos, investments in agroforests and new crops remain rare, despite government attempts to eradicate swidden systems and their multifunctional fallows. We discuss approaches to assessing local values related to landscape cover and associated goods and services. We highlight discrepancies between individual and collective responses in characterizing land use tendencies, and discuss the effects of accessibility on land management. We conclude that a combination of social, economic, and spatially explicit assessment methods is necessary to inform land use planning. Furthermore, any efforts to modify current trends will require clear incentives, such as through carbon finance. We speculate on the nature of such incentive schemes and the possibility of rewarding the provision of ecosystem services at a landscape scale and in a socially equitable manner

Larger Pits Aid Reseeding of Semidesert Rangeland

Broad, shallow intermediate pits have proved to be longer lasting than conventional pits on semidesert range in the 6- to 8-inch summer rainfall zone in southern Arizona. Rainfall penetration averaged twice as deep in the pits as on adjacent flats. Herbage production of buffelgrass averaged 2 1/2 times as high, over a 4-year period, on the intermediate pits as on conventional pits, and five times as much as on similar adjacent untreated range.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202

Intermediate Pits Reduce Gamble in Range Seeding in the Southwest

In four consecutive years of planting, intermediate pits have shown superior establishment and herbage yields with Boer lovegrass, Lehmann lovegrass, and kleingrass on semidesert range in the 6- to 8-inch summer rainfall zone in southern Arizona. Intermediate pits were compared to the smaller conventional pits and the larger, wider spaced bulldozer pits. Herbage production of Boer lovegrass average two times as high, over a four-year period, in intermedate pits as in conventional pits and three times as much as on similar adjacent untreated range./Debido a que la resiembra de pastizales en las áreas de baja precipitación, no han tenido gran éxito. Se inició el presente estudio para determinar el mejor método de preparación de la cama de siembra. Se utilizó el pasto Lehmann Lovegrass A-68 (Eragrostis lehmanniana) como testigo y además se sembraron A-84 Boer Lovegrass (Eragrostis curvula var. conferta3, A 12638 Kleingrass (Panicum cloratum) y la variedad "vaugh" del pasto banderilla (Bouteloua curtipendula (Michx.) Torr.). En este reports se summarizan las producciones de 1964 a 1968 de áreas plantadas en 1962, 63, 64 y 65. Las áreas sembradas se encuentran en el sureste de Willcox, Arizona. Los suelos en el área de estudio fueron migajón venenoso con una capa abajo de migajón areno arcilloso (series "Sonoita-like" y "Cowan-like") con pendientes del uno porciento a cerca de completamente planos. Se excluyó el ganado del área y se controlaron las hormigas. Las microrepresas convencionales fueron realizadas con un arado de discos modificado de un largo de 18-24 pulgadas (45.7-60.9 cms), 12 pulgadas (30.5 cms) de ancho y 6 pulgadas (15.3 cm) de profundidad. Las microrepresas con bulldozer fueron de 6 pies de largo (1.8 mts), 8-10 pies (2.4-3.1 mts) de ancho y 6 a 8 pulgadas (15.2 a 20.3 cms) de profundidad. Las microrepresas intermedias de 6 pulgadas (15.2 cms) de hondo, 6 pies (1.8 mts) de largo y 5 pies (1.5 mts) de ancho, dichas microrepresas intermedias fueron hechas con un tractor con cuchilla montada atrás. En las parcelas de microrepresas convencionales y modificadas de muestreo con 20 cuadrantes de 2, 4 pies cuadrados 0.22 m2. El muestreo sistemático incluyó toda la superficie. En las microrepresas hechas con Bulldozer el muestreo se hizo con 20 cuadrantes de 9.6 pies cuadrados (0.86 m2). Los datos de producción se tomaron después de la segunda época de crecimiento. Se concluyó que las microrepresas intermedias mostraron un establecimiento y producción de forraje más alto con Boer lovegrass, Lehmann lovegrass y Kleingrass. El pasto Boer lovegrass en promedio produjo 2 veces más materia seca total en las microrepresas intermedias que en las convencionales y 3 veces mas que en áreas adyacentes similares sin tratar y cerca de 9 veces mas que en las microrepresas hechos con bulldozer.This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries.The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact [email protected] for further information.Migrated from OJS platform August 202

Palar... A New Lovegrass for the Southwest

This item is part of the Arizona Land and People (formerly Progressive Agriculture in Arizona) archive. It was digitized from a physical copy provided by the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at The University of Arizona. For more information about this periodical, please email CALS Publications at [email protected]

Impacts of co-management on western chimpanzee (Pan troglodytes verus) habitat and conservation in Nialama Classified Forest, Republic of Guinea: A satellite perspective

The first model for co-management between local communities and government towards the sustainable utilization of forested regions in Republic of Guinea was established in the Nialama Classified Forest in 1999. Technical and financial support was provided by USAID to develop local natural resource management capacity. Long-term local chimpanzee monitoring provided the basis for delimiting the boundaries of core areas for strict protection which continue to provide refuge to the resident chimpanzee population. Using satellite imagery, we reviewed the impacts of co-management on key chimpanzee habitat between 1986 and 2009. Degradation statistics show that land cover change within areas delimited as critical chimpanzee habitat inside of the Classified Forest was far less compared to the Classified Forest as a whole, or within a 5 km buffer zone. Comparatively, critical chimpanzee habitat located outside of the Nialama Classified Forest suffered the most degradation. Here we discuss the impacts of co-management on chimpanzee habitat and causal factors surrounding the continued survival of chimpanzees in Nialama