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The article discusses the impacts of overlapping land-use and climate on ecosystem services and landscape attributes in a sensitive dryland. It discusses temporal and spatial trends and projections for categories of land-use as well as aridification in the Colorado Plateau. It also discusses pressure of land- use and climate change on environmental resources. It presents the photographs of Canyonlands National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park.

All 16 species of bats known to occur in western Colorado are found at Mesa Verde National Park (MVNP) in the southwestern United States. Since 1996, wildfires have burned more than 70% of MVNP (>15,000 ha), potentially altering food and roosting resources for bats. During the summers of 2006-2007, we investigated roost use by reproductive female western long-eared myotis (Myotis evotis). We located 33 bat roosts in rock crevices and 1 in a juniper snag. All but 2 of the roosts were in unburned habitat. Bats roosted alone or in small groups (≤3 individuals) and switched roosts frequently (1-7 roosts per bat, median = 1.5 roosts per bat, SE = 0.5 roosts per bat). We compared occupied roosts with randomly selected unoccupied crevices and used an information theoretic approach to determine which variables were most important in determining roost use at microhabitat and landscape scales. At the microhabitat scale, maternity roosts were higher above the ground and deeper than random, unoccupied rock crevices. At the landscape scale, roosts were closer to water and farther from burned habitat than random crevices, providing reproductive female M. evotis with the best opportunities to drink and forage for insects. Tree roosts are apparently not a vital resource for reproductive female M. evotis during the summer months at our study site, presumably because of the extensive availability of rock crevices. Understanding site-specific roosting behavior is important for proper management of bat populations because differences can exist between geographic regions, even among areas with similar plant communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, models of cultural evolution are used to examine one of most intensively studied archaeological areas in world: the central Mesa Verde region of southern Colorado (USA). I work back and forth between models in this case study to tease out new insights into culture change in the Mesa Verde region and to suggest ways that models of culture change can be improved. The results of a new research program, the Village Ecodynamics Project, are presented here and provide the most recent and refined account of settlement in the central Mesa Verde region. The study concludes that many factors contributed to culture change in the region, and it suggests that one factor has been overlooked in previous studies: the development of incipient social hierarchy. This study argues that the development of social inequality needs to be added to the mix offactors that produced culture change, especially immigration from the region during the tenth and thirteenth centuries. This study suggests that evolutionary models emphasizing cyclical change are more appropriate than unilinear models. A model of cyclical change that highlights the dimensions of demographic scale and the emergence of hierarchical social organization best describes the cultural trajectory of the Mesa Verde region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We determined the bat fauna at Mesa Verde National Park (Mesa Verde) in 2006 and 2007, characterized bat elevational distribution and reproduction, and investigated roosting habits of selected species. We captured 1996 bats of 15 species in mist nets set over water during 120 nights of sampling and recorded echolocation calls of an additional species. The bat fauna at Mesa Verde included every species of bat known west of the Great Plains in Colorado, except the little brown bat (Myotis lucifugus). Some species showed skewed sex ratios, primarily due to a preponderance of males. Thirteen species of bats reproduced at Mesa Verde. Major differences in spring precipitation between the 2 years of our study were associated with differences in reproductive rates and, in some species, with numbers of juveniles captured. Reduced reproductive effort during spring drought will have a greater impact on bat populations with the forecasted increase in aridity in much of western North America by models of global climate change. We radiotracked 46 bats of 5 species to roosts and describe the first-known maternity colonies of spotted bats (Euderma maculatum) in Colorado. All 5 species that we tracked to diurnal roosts relied almost exclusively on rock crevices rather than trees or snags, despite the presence of mature forests at Mesa Verde and the use of trees for roosts in similar forests elsewhere by some of these species. Comparisons with past bat surveys at Mesa Verde and in surrounding areas suggest no dramatic evidence for effects of recent stand-replacing fires on the composition of the bat community. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of debitage from Wetherill Mesa in Mesa Verde National Park indicates dramatic changes in toolstone procurement patterns through time. For much of the early occupation of Wetherill Mesa, locally available igneous and indurated shale toolstones were the primary resources utilized. During the Pueblo II period, however, there was a shift to the use of Brushy Basin chert, which outcrops approximately 20 km away By the end of the Pueblo II period, there is another change in procurement. Silicified mudstones from the Burro Canyon and Morrison formations, from approximately 10 km away, were used. These changes in toolstone provide important clues about the changing social landscape in the central Mesa Verde region over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the beginning of the thirteenth century A.D., the Mesa Verde region was densely inhabited by Ancestral Pueblo peoples. By the end of that century, Ancestral Pueblo peoples no longer permanently inhabited the region. We present detailed reconstructions of precipitation based on tree rings from five geographic subregions of Ancestral Pueblo occupation (Mesa Verde, Tsegi/Kayenta, Chama, Cibola, and Santa Fe) and a consideration of distributions of archaeological ceramic styles and types from four corresponding Ancestral Pueblo subculture areas (Mesa Verde, Kayenta, Cibola, and the Northern Rio Grande) in order to explore Ancestral Pueblo strategies of adaptation to farming under conditions of often inadequate precipitation. Our analyses examine and corroborate the notion that Ancestral Pueblo peoples of the Mesa Verde region maintained long-term relationships of social interaction primarily with groups that were proximate and also experienced different and complementary patterns of precipitation. These social relationships, along with development of a marked gradient in precipitation, may have facilitated eventual migration pathways from the Mesa Verde region to the northern Rio Grande. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using the occupation histories of 3,176 habitation sites, new estimates of maize-agriculture productivity, and an analysis of over 1,700 construction timbers, we examine the historical ecology of Pueblo peoples during their seven-century occupation (A.D. 600-1300) of a densely settled portion of the Mesa Verde archaeological region. We identify two cycles of population growth and decline, the earlier and smaller peaking in the late-A.D. 800s, the later and larger in the mid-A. D. 1200s. We also identify several episodes of immigration. Formation of aggregated settlements, which we term community centers, is positively correlated with increasing population and the time elapsed in each settlement cycle, and it persists during periods of regional population decline, but it does not correlate with climatic variation averaged over periods. Architectural and land-use practices depleted pinyon-juniper woodlands during the first cycle, but more stable field systems and greater recycling of construction timber resulted in more sustainable management of wood resources during the second cycle, despite much higher population densities. Our estimates for maize production are lower than previous estimates, especially for the A.D. 1200s, when population reached its peak in the study area. Even so, considerable potential agricultural production remained unused in the decades that immediately preceded the complete depopulation of our study area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study which examines the ecological significance of large fire history and dramatic vegetative changes in Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Mapping of the spatial extent of all fires >10 hectare (ha) that occurred during the last 150 years within a 6600-ha and turnover time are offered. Findings of the study determine that the frequency and extent of fire during the last 50 in Mesa Verde have not been greatly vary from the natural fire regime of the late 1800s.

This article deals with the retelling of the story of Richard Wetherill by Willa Cather in the book "The Professor's House." According to the author, the real story of Wetherill is told through the character of Tom Outland when he discovers Cliff City in Blue Mesa. The author suggests that her arrival at the retelling of Wetherill's story came about indirectly through her experience discovering Cliff Palace at Mesa Verde in Colorado, her meeting with Richard Wetherill's brother, and Cather's retelling of the discovery story in her 1916 Mesa Verde essay.

Studies the habitat of cliff dwellers in the Mesa Verde region, which is located in the extreme south western part of Colorado on the borderland of the plateau section of the Southwest and of the Rocky Mountains. Culture, ability and cultural advancement; Food sources; Physical features of the region.

Reports on the designation of the Far View Reservoir site of Mesa Verde in Colorado as a Historic Civil Engineering Landmark by the American Society of Civil Engineers. Reason behind the little credibility given to the reservoir theory; Attendees of the dedication ceremony held to formalize the historic designation in September 2004; Measurement of Morefield, the largest and oldest of the reservoirs.

Reports on the findings of archaeologist Stephen Lekson from the cliffs of Mesa Verde, Colorado on the exodus the Anasazi people. Significance of the site; Traditional view of the Anasazi's disappearance; Artifacts collected from the site.