ANCIENT MAYA EARTH SURFACE IMPACTS VERSUS LANDESQUE CAPITAL THROUGH LIDAR, LAB, AND FIELD

We contrast landesque capital and degradation by the ancient Maya and their long-term impacts on Maya ecosystems. Anthropogenic geology has focused more on human impacts on—or degradation of—geosystems since geologists started studying these topics in geomorphology, soils, hydrology, and other processes and forms. Such research showed humans became the largest geomorphic agent, soil erosion rates are higher than they have been for eons, and reservoirs have filled and robbed coastal zones of much needed beach sands. Maya examples of degradation include truncated soils, sediment clogged reservoirs, and legacies of toxic mercury. But humans have also built positive enhancements into their landscapes, which scholars designate “landesque capital” or capital invested into land that persists over time. Another related idea is “adaptation capital” or landesque capital of past adaptations that successfully countered a deleterious environmental change. Examples of landesque or adaptation capital even indicate enhanced ecosystem services in Amazonian Black Earth soils where biodiversity may be greater than elsewhere in the Amazon. Ancient Maya examples of landesque or adaptation capital include agricultural terraces, reservoirs, wetland fields and canals, causeways or roads, and amended soils, where vegetation may store more biomass and biodiversity. Using field and lab analyses and Lidar visualization we present a taxonomy of these ancient Maya landscape features and how they relate to landesque capital or to degradation. We illustrate with field cases how ancient Maya terraces and wetland fields may have increased ecosystem services, but ancient Maya erosion truncated, buried, and polluted soils and reservoirs.