Erosion, Geological History, and Indigenous Agriculture: A Tale of Two Valleys

Erosion, Geological History, and Indigenous Agriculture: A Tale of Two Valleys. Vitousek, P. M., Chadwick, O. A., Hilley, G., Kirch, P. V., & Ladefoged, T. N. Ecosystems, 13(5):782–793, August, 2010.

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Irrigated pondﬁelds and rainfed ﬁeld systems represented alternative pathways of agricultural intensiﬁcation that were unevenly distributed across the Hawaiian Archipelago prior to European contact, with pondﬁelds on wetter soils and older islands and rainfed systems on fertile, moderaterainfall upland sites on younger islands. The spatial separation of these systems is thought to have contributed to the dynamics of social and political organization in pre-contact Hawai’i. However, deep stream valleys on older Hawaiian Islands often retain the remains of rainfed dryland agriculture on their lower slopes. We evaluated why rainfed agriculture developed on valley slopes on older but not younger islands by comparing soils of Polol ¯u Valley on the young island of Hawai’i with those of Halawa Valley on the older island of Moloka’i. Alluvial valley-bottom and colluvial slope soils of both valleys are enriched 4–5-fold in base saturation and in P that can be weathered, and greater than 10-fold in resin-extractable P and weatherable Ca, compared to soils of their surrounding uplands.

@article{vitousek_erosion_2010,
	title = {Erosion, {Geological} {History}, and {Indigenous} {Agriculture}: {A} {Tale} of {Two} {Valleys}},
	volume = {13},
	issn = {1432-9840, 1435-0629},
	shorttitle = {Erosion, {Geological} {History}, and {Indigenous} {Agriculture}},
	url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10021-010-9354-1},
	doi = {10.1007/s10021-010-9354-1},
	abstract = {Irrigated pondﬁelds and rainfed ﬁeld systems represented alternative pathways of agricultural intensiﬁcation that were unevenly distributed across the Hawaiian Archipelago prior to European contact, with pondﬁelds on wetter soils and older islands and rainfed systems on fertile, moderaterainfall upland sites on younger islands. The spatial separation of these systems is thought to have contributed to the dynamics of social and political organization in pre-contact Hawai’i. However, deep stream valleys on older Hawaiian Islands often retain the remains of rainfed dryland agriculture on their lower slopes. We evaluated why rainfed agriculture developed on valley slopes on older but not younger islands by comparing soils of Polol ¯u Valley on the young island of Hawai’i with those of Halawa Valley on the older island of Moloka’i. Alluvial valley-bottom and colluvial slope soils of both valleys are enriched 4–5-fold in base saturation and in P that can be weathered, and greater than 10-fold in resin-extractable P and weatherable Ca, compared to soils of their surrounding uplands.},
	language = {en},
	number = {5},
	urldate = {2025-07-02},
	journal = {Ecosystems},
	author = {Vitousek, Peter M. and Chadwick, Oliver A. and Hilley, George and Kirch, Patrick V. and Ladefoged, Thegn N.},
	month = aug,
	year = {2010},
	pages = {782--793},
}

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