How Maize Farmers in the US Southwest Grew and Prospered Under El Niño but Suffered Under La Niña
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 5982820 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Andrew Gillreath-Brown (0000-0002-2272-5542, Washington State University), T A Kohler (0000-0002-3414-6660, Washington State University) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 90 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 455-479 |
| Publication date | 2024-10-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | KIVA (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0023-1940 • E-ISSN: 2051-6177 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/00231940.2024.2348941 |
| OpenAlex | W4399360919 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 71 |
Variability in temperature and soil moisture influenced the spread and productive potential of maize. A new low-frequency reconstruction of US Southwest summer temperatures from 3000 BC to present shows generally warmer temperatures until the first century AD. From then until AD 1000, temperatures were generally cooler, though a warming trend continuing to present begins ca. AD 400, interrupted by cooling ca. AD 900 and 1400. Proposing a “ENSO Index” for the US Southwest, we argue that El Niño-like conditions dominated much of the second millennium BC and the first millennium AD, depressing summer temperatures relative to northern hemisphere norms but providing favorable winter moisture for maize. La Niña-like conditions (much less favorable to maize) dominated most of the period from 800 BC – AD 100 and AD 1200 to ca. 1900. We connect these low-frequency trends with tendencies in how and where people lived, emphasizing developments in the ancestral Pueblo area
Agricultural economics · Agricultural science · Agronomy · Biology · Economics · Geography · Forestry · Horticulture · Plant Water Relations and Carbon Dynamics · Tree Root and Stability Studies · Tree-ring climate responses
Evolving Complexity and Environmental Risk in the Prehistoric Southwest
Variability of El Niño/Southern Oscillation activity at millennial timescales during the Holocene epoch
Long-Term Aridity Changes in the Western United States
The cultural and chronological context of early Holocene maize and squash domestication in the Central Balsas River Valley, Mexico
Hierarchy and social inequality in the American Southwest, A.D. 800–1200
Holocene changes in eastern tropical Pacific climate inferred from a Galápagos lake sediment record
Mid- to Late Holocene climate change
Quantitative Interpretation of Fossil Pollen Spectra
Highly variable Northern Hemisphere temperatures reconstructed from low- and high-resolution proxy data
The earliest archaeological maize ( Zea mays L.) from highland Mexico
El Niño variability off Peru during the last 20,000 years
Long and spatially variable Neolithic Demographic Transition in the North American Southwest
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The Depopulation of the Northern San Juan
Short-term variability of human diet at Basketmaker II Turkey Pen Ruins, Utah
Redefining the age of tattooing in western North America
A low-frequency summer temperature reconstruction for the United States Southwest, 3000 BC–AD 2000
The 'segment length curse' in long tree-ring chronology development for palaeoclimatic studies
Climate and social change at the start of the Late Antique Little Ice Age
Some thoughts on the factors that controlled prehistoric maize production in the American Southwest with application to southwestern Colorado
The stable and radio-isotope chemistry of southeastern Utah Basketmaker II burials
Chaco's Northern Prodigies
Inference From Large Sets of Radiocarbon Dates
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Climate Change and Cultural Response in the Prehistoric American Southwest
The Neolithic Demographic Transition in the U.S. Southwest
Morphological Observations on Recently Recovered Early Agricultural Period Maize Cob Fragments from Southern Arizona
The Agricultural Transition in the Northern Southwest
Foragers in Transition
Demographic and Social Dimensions of the Neolithic Revolution in Southwest Colorado
Itamu umumi yooya’ ökiwni (“We Will Arrive as Rain to You)
Anthropology of the Desert West
The Anasazi in a Changing Environment
Volcanic climate forcing, extreme cold and the Neolithic Transition in the northern US Southwest
The Short, Unhappy Use Lives of Early Agricultural Period 'Food Storage' Pits at the Las Capas Site, Southern Arizona
The Social Consequences of Climate Change in the Central Mesa Verde Region
The Better Angels of their Nature
Prehistoric Demography in the Southwest
Climate Change and the Neolithic in the American Southwest
Sunk-Cost Effects and Vulnerability to Collapse in Ancient Societies
Large-Scale Patterns in the Agricultural Demographic Transition of Mesoamerica and Southwestern North America
How to Make a Polity (In the Central Mesa Verde Region)
Reevaluation of Basketmaker II origins
| Unique citing works | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 2 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 2 |