We also predict that today’s butter clams are not as productive as those in past environments, likely due to a combination of less favorable ocean conditions, habitats modified by modern development, and the absence of traditional, Indigenous mariculture practices. Deeper-time baselines that more accurately represent clam population variability and allow us to assess magnitudes of change throughout time as well as the complex interactions among humans and clams are useful for modern marine resource management.īased on our understanding of clam life history, coastal ecology, and local cultural attributes, we predicted that butter clam sizes and lifespan increased over the last 11,500 y as environmental conditions became more favorable and as humans altered the intensity and strategy with which they harvested and cultivated clams. Since European contact, decline of traditional management practices and increases in industrial activities are associated with reduced clam size and growth similar to those of the early postglacial clams. Measurements of clams collected in active clam gardens and deposited in middens suggest that clam gardens as well as other mariculture activities enhanced clam production despite increased harvesting pressure. Environmental and cultural variables, including coarse substrate, stabilized sea surface temperature, and the presence of a clam garden wall, increased clam growth throughout the Holocene. During the early-Late Holocene, humans took increasing advantage of robust clam populations and after 3.5 ka, began constructing clam gardens (intertidal rock-walled terraces). Butter clam size and growth were restricted in early postglacial times but increased over the next few millennia. We compare butter clam size and growth patterns from different temporal, environmental, and cultural contexts spanning 11,500 y to present. We bring together paleoecological, archaeological, and modern clam records to explore the relationship between humans and butter clams ( Saxidomus gigantea) throughout the Holocene in the northern Salish Sea of British Columbia, Canada.
Historical ecology can provide insights into the long-term and complex relationships between humans and culturally important species and ecosystems, thereby extending baselines for modern management.
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