Browse > Article

Soil Erosion and Environmental Change in Central Mexico  

Park, Jung-Jae (Department of Geography, Chonnam National University)
Publication Information
Journal of the Korean Geographical Society / v.44, no.1, 2009 , pp. 17-30 More about this Journal
Abstract
Paleostudies using lake sediment are essential to reconstruct environmental history of cental Mexico, where few documents on ancient civilizations and the colonial period exist. This study aims to reveal changes in the soil erosion rates through the calculation of sediment influx into the lake. The calculation is based on different kinds of chronologies and LOI. Sediment influx and dates for important events could be obtained in great detail through various chronological methods. Results show that corn agriculture was the most important reason to degrade the environmental status of the lake basin and European cattle raising was not much influential within the lake basin at least. It was possible to reveal a lot of recent environmental changes in detail, because the lake sediment used for this study has a very high sedimentation rate. Also, due to an accurate chronological framework, fundamental problems with the sediment were solved and reliable results could be produced.
Keywords
soil erosion; sediment influx; cattle raising; environmental change; central Mexico; chronological methods;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 Cook, S. F., 1949b, Soil Erosion and Population in Central Mexico, Berkeley and Los Angeles
2 Crosby, A. W., 1986, Ecological Imperialism, the Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK
3 Fisher, C. T., Pollard, H. P., Israde-Alcantara, I., Garduno-Monroy, V. H., and Banerjee, S. K., 2003, A reexamination of human-induced environmental change within the Lake Pazcuaro Basin, Michoacan, Mexico, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100, 4957-4962   DOI   ScienceOn
4 Metcalfe, F. A., Davies, S. J., Braisby, J. D., Leng, M. J., Newton, A. J., Terrett, N. L., and O’Hara, S. L., 2007, Long and short-term change in the P$\acute{a}$tzcuaro Basin, central Mexico, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 247, 272-295   DOI   ScienceOn
5 Park, J., 2005, Holocene environmental change and human impact in Hoya Rincon de Parangueo, Guanajuato, Mexico, Korean Journal of Ecology, 28, 245-254   DOI
6 Wilcox, R. E., 1954, Petrology of Paricutin Volcano, Mexico, US Geological Survey Bulletin, 965C, 281-353
7 Appleby, P. G. and Oldfieldz, F., 1983, The assessment of 210Pb data from sites with varying sediment accumulation rates, Hydrobiologia, 103, 29-35   DOI
8 Conserva, M., 2003, Climate and Vegetation Change in Central Mexico: Implications for Mesoamerican Prehistory, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of California, Berkeley
9 Murphy, M. E., 1986, Irrigation in the Bajio Region of Colonial Mexico, Unpublished Ph.D. Dissertation, University of California, Berkeley
10 Denevan, W. M., 1992, The pristine myth: the landscape of the Americas in 1492, Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 82, 369-385   DOI   ScienceOn
11 O’Hara, S. L., Street-Perrot, F. A., and Burt, T. P., 1993, Accelerated soil erosion around a Mexican highland lake caused by prehispanic agriculture, Nature, 362, 48-51   DOI
12 Aguilera Gomez, L. I., 1991, Estudio Flor$\acute{i}$stico y Sinecologico de la Vegetaci$\acute{o}$n en el Crater 'Hoya de Rincon de Parangueo', Valle de Santiago, Gto. Unpublished Masters thesis, Colegio de Postgraduados, Montecillo, Mexico
13 Melville, E. G., 1994, A Plague of Sheep: Environmental Consequences of the Conquest of Mexico, University of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, New Mexico
14 Martinez, H., 1948, Reportorio de los Tiempos e Historia Natural de Nueva Expana. Introd. Francisco de la Maza, Bibliographic appendix by Francisco Gonzalez de Cossio. Secretaria de Educacion Publica, Mexico City
15 Butzer, K. W. and Butzer, E. K., 1993, The sixteenthcentury environment of the Central Mexican Bajio: archival reconstruction from Colonial land grants, in Mathewson, K. (ed.), Culture, Place and Form, Geoscience and Man Publications, Baton Rouge, 89-124
16 Stuiver, M., Reimer, P. J., Bard, E., Beck, J. W., Burr, G. S., Hughen, K. A., Kromer, G., McCormac, B., van der Plicht, J., and Spurk, M., 1998, INTCAL98 Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 24000-0 cal BP, Radiocarbon, 40, 1041-1083   DOI
17 Sale, K., 1990, Conquest of Paradise, Penguin Books, New York
18 박정재, 2005, '멕시코 중부 고산 지역에서 스페인 식민 통치 시기를 전후하여 일어난 인위적 환경 변화,' 대한지리학회지, 40, 428-440
19 Butzer, K. W. and Butzer, E. K., 1997, The ‘natural’ vegetation of the Mexican Bajio: archival documentation of a 16th-century savanna environment, Quaternary International, 43/44, 161-172   DOI   ScienceOn
20 Simpson, L. B., 1952, Exploitation of Land in Sixteenth Century Mexico, Berkeley and Los Angeles
21 Cook, S. F., 1949a, The Historical Demography and Ecology of the Teotlapan, Berkeley and Los Angeles
22 Braniff, B., 2000, A summary of the archaeology of north-central Mesoamerica: Guanajuato, Quer$\acute{e}$taro, and San Luis Potosi, in Foster, M. S. and Gorenstein, S. (eds.), Greater Mesoamerica - the Archaeology of West and Northwest Mexico. The University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, 35-42
23 Aguilar-Robledo, M., 2003, Formation of the miraflores hacienda: lands, indians, and livestock in eastern New Spain at the end of the sixteenth century, Journal of Latin American Geography, 2, 87-110   DOI
24 Frederick, C. D., 1995, Fluvial Response to Late Quaternary Climate Change and Land Use in Central Mexico, Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Austin, Texas
25 Luhr, J., 1981, Colima: history and cyclicity of eruptions, Volcano News, 7, 1-3
26 Scarth, A., 1999, Vulcan’s Fury: Man against the Volcano, Yale University Press