Search for: All records

In the early years of Maya archaeology, Belize was considered a “periphery” and the wetlands were at the far edge of this pseudo-backwater. It was not until the 1970s with Turner and Harrison’s seminal study of Pulltrouser Swamp that Belize and its wetlands moved from the periphery to center stage in Maya archaeology. Northern Belize contains some of the largest tracts of wetlands throughout the Maya Lowlands, providing rich repositories of well-preserved pollen, phytoliths, and macrobotanical remains, which have yielded some of the earliest evidence of Maya cultivation. Geomorphological studies have greatly advanced our understanding of the construction, use, and abandonment of Maya ditched and drained fields in Belize. And in more recent years, LiDAR and other geospatial technologies used as mapping tools have shown that wetland modifications in Belize were much more expansive than previously thought. Our own work in Belize’s Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary reveals wetland enhancements were vast but also more varied, with some being used primarily as large-scale fish-trapping facilities, rather than as agricultural fields. In tracing the last fifty years of archaeological investigations, we show how Belize has moved the field forward and remains at the cutting edge of wetland research across the Maya Lowlands. 

Abstract Novel observation techniques (e.g., smart tracers) for characterizing coupled hydrological and biogeochemical processes are improving understanding of stream network transport and transformation dynamics. In turn, these observations are thought to enable increasingly sophisticated representations within transient storage models (TSMs). However, TSM parameter estimation is prone to issues with insensitivity and equifinality, which grow as parameters are added to model formulations. Currently, it is unclear whether (or not) observations from different tracers may lead to greater process inference and reduced parameter uncertainty in the context of TSM. Herein, we aim to unravel the role of in‐stream processes alongside metabolically active (MATS) and inactive storage zones (MITS) using variable TSM formulations. Models with one (1SZ) and two storage zones (2SZ) and with and without reactivity were applied to simulate conservative and smart tracer observations obtained experimentally for two reaches with differing morphologies. As we show, smart tracers are unsurprisingly superior to conservative tracers when it comes to partitioning MITS and MATS. However, when transient storage is lumped within a 1SZ formulation, little improvement in parameter uncertainty is gained by using a smart tracer, suggesting the addition of observations should scale with model complexity. Importantly, our work identifies several inconsistencies and open questions related to reconciling time scales of tracer observation with conceptual processes (parameters) estimated within TSM. Approaching TSM with multiple models and tracer observations may be key to gaining improved insight into transient storage simulation as well as advancing feedback loops between models and observations within hydrologic science.