Dense human Populations, Overexploitation of Resources, and Protracted Severe Droughts: A Recipe for Classic May “Collapse”, with Mark Brenner
Since the 1960s, Earth
scientists working in the Maya Lowlands have generated data that provide
insights into the paleoclimate and paleoecology of the region. Qualitative
paleoclimate findings suggest drought played a role in Maya cultural
transformation (“collapse”), given the temporal correlation between past dry
periods and changes in the archaeological record.
Mark Brenner is a limnologist/paleolimnologist with special interests in tropical and subtropical lakes and watersheds. He has
conducted fieldwork in Mexico, Guatemala, Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, Bolivia,
Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, China,
Cambodia, Madagascar, and Florida.