Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Life Sciences Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 2 of 2

Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences

Terracing, Land Management And Agricultural Soils In The Andagua Valley Of The Southern Peruvian Andes, Blaise Murphy Jan 2017

Terracing, Land Management And Agricultural Soils In The Andagua Valley Of The Southern Peruvian Andes, Blaise Murphy

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Demographic, socio-political and climatic changes can drastically alter agricultural land management practices, affecting the availability of agriculturally relevant nutrients in the soil. This project investigates the use, reconstruction and abandonment of agricultural terraces and the implications these conditions have on agricultural soil properties of the Andagua Valley in the Western Cordillera of the Southern Peruvian Andes. During the 2016 summer field season, topsoil samples were collected from cultivated and abandoned agricultural terraces between 3229m and 3688m a. s. l. with a range of aspects and ages. Collaboration with a team of archaeologists and anthropologists gave insight into the local and …


Exploring Historical Coffee And Climate Relations In Southern Guatemala: An Integration Of Tree Ring Analysis And Remote Sensing Data, Diego Pons Jan 2017

Exploring Historical Coffee And Climate Relations In Southern Guatemala: An Integration Of Tree Ring Analysis And Remote Sensing Data, Diego Pons

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation makes use of a physical geography perspective to examine the relationship between agriculture and climate in Guatemala using dendrochronology. I examined the potential of high-resolution climate proxy data from dendrochronology to help fill in the gaps of past climate information to better understand the natural and anthropogenic variability of precipitation which, in turn, can inform Guatemala’s agriculture sector. This research has demonstrated successful cross-dating and climate sensitivity of Abies guatemalensis in the Pacific slope of Guatemala. Based on this, I have produced a 124-year record of mean precipitation from June-July-August. The mean precipitation from June-July-August at this site …