Riverine Settlement in the Evolution of Prehistoric Land-Use Systems in the Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico

Ecosystem management should be based on the fullest possible knowledge of ecological structures and processes. In prehistoric North America, the involvement of Indian populations in ecosystem processes ranged from inadvertent alteration of the distribution and abundance of species to large-scale management of landscapes. The knowledge needed to manage ecosystems today is incomplete without understanding past human involvement in ecological processes, and the adjustments of ecosystems to human components. This paper describes changes in prehistoric land use in part of the Middle Rio Grande Valley, New Mexico. Processes of economic change, land-use intensification, and regional abandonment suggest that there were periods of significant prehistoric disturbance to both upland and valley ecosystems