Historic land survey records (LSRs) offer important details on local- and landscape-scale vegetation patterns related to Native American land-use practices prior to widespread Euro-American settlement. This study’s use of an expanded range of vegetation-related variables derived from LSR sources, combined with archaeological site distribution data, and analysed using complementary multivariate statistical methods, has provided new insights on the spatial and compositional dynamics of the vegetation of central New York State, USA, an area historically occupied by the Cayuga and Onondaga nations. The upland vegetation of the study area was modulated primarily by fire, followed by soil fertility, and canopy disturbance. Clear signals of Native American agriculture and silviculture were associated with a number of fire-tolerant vegetation communities that were geographically concentrated within an area most conducive to maize cultivation. Numerical classification partitioned the LSR vegetation data into distinct community types: mesophytic upland forest and xerophytic upland forest. This latter type was secondarily differentiated into an unequivocally anthropogenic landscape (Iroquoian agricultural mosaic) and a series of fire-tolerant forest and savanna communities with possible connections to silvicultural land-use practices. Distance analysis of ordination scores indicated statistically-significant spatial trends associated with the distribution of archaeological sites, with disturbance most heavily concentrated within 6 km of most sites. Given the success of this methodology, we recommend that this integrated approach become the standard for LSR-based research of Native American vegetation disturbance.

中文翻译：

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公元18世纪后期，美国纽约州中部森林的美洲原住民植被扰动特征

历史土地调查记录（LSR）提供了有关在广泛的欧美移民之前与美洲印第安人土地使用实践相关的局部和景观尺度植被格局的重要细节。这项研究使用了来自LSR来源的广泛的与植被相关的变量，结合考古现场分布数据，并使用补充的多元统计方法进行了分析，从而为纽约州中部植被的空间和组成动态提供了新见解美国，这是一个历史上由卡尤加（Cayuga）和奥南达加（Onondaga）民族占领的地区。研究区的高地植被主要受火势影响，其次是土壤肥力和冠层扰动。美洲原住民农业和造林的明确信号与许多耐火植被群落有关，这些群落地理分布在最有利于玉米种植的地区。数值分类将LSR植被数据划分为不同的群落类型：中生旱地森林和旱生旱地森林。后一种类型又被区分为一个明确的人为景观（易洛魁人的农业马赛克）和一系列耐火的森林和热带稀树草原社区，它们可能与造林用地的做法有关。整理分数的距离分析表明，与考古遗址的分布有关的统计学上显着的空间趋势，扰动最集中在大多数遗址的6 km之内。考虑到这种方法的成功，我们建议这种综合方法成为基于LSR的美洲印第安人植被扰动研究的标准。