This dissertation presents the results of an archaeological investigation into the environmental strategies of emergent aggregated societies in coastal Lebanon over the course of the Early Bronze Age (c. 3200-2400 BCE). The Early Bronze Age marked not only the rise of large-scale urbanized polities in neighboring regions of Mesopotamia and, to a lesser extent, the Southern Levant, but it took place during the dramatic climate variability of the Middle Holocene. This dissertation uses the analysis of microbotanical and ground stone tool data to assess agricultural strategies, land use, and plant processing technologies at two settlements along the Lebanese littoral during this time of political and climatic upheaval. By comparing phytolith data, stone tool use-wear and microbotanical residues from grinding tools from the sites of Sidon and Tell Fadous-Kfarabida, this project reconstructs local plant and stone environments and the choices that populations were making about those resources over time. It concludes that selectivity between conservative and innovative plant management technologies allowed these settlements to maintain small-scale local networks built into the landscape and to participate with, while resisting incorporation into, growing urban and state economies nearby.

One out of every three workers on the planet is employed in agriculture. Consequently, major changes to the way that agriculture is practiced will have outsized effects on society. This dissertation focuses on technology and climate change, two key variables that will exert increasing influence on the rural sector and broader patterns of economic development. While the implementation of new technologies to increase crop productivity will be essential in satisfying rising global food demand, shifts in global climate may undermine those productivity gains in terms of both agronomic and labor market output. Chapter 2 exploits a quasi-experimental research design to assess how crop productivity gains resulting from a new technology affect gender wage disparities in agricultural labor markets. Using high-frequency temperature data merged with nationally representative time use data from Indian workers, Chapter 3 estimates a labor supply response function to temperature shocks that informs projected labor market effects under climate change. Chapter 4 demonstrates that a very parsimonious statistical model offers accurate out-of-sample predictions and provides a discussion on modeling weather's role in agriculture and the current state of adaptation research.

As climate change impacts a growing number of aspects of economic activity, it is becoming ever more vital to understand how these effects will manifest. This work advances the study of the impacts of environmental change. First, I provide a panel analysis at the country level that identifies the effects of dust storms on economic activity in West Africa. I also find some evidence in the agricultural sector to support the finding of damaging effects. Second, I examine the extent to which dust storms and climate shocks affect migration in the same region. While temperatures and precipitation are found to play important roles, dust storms do not appear to have a significant influence. Third, I consider the role of adaptation to climate change in the United States. I build a model that predicts the locations most likely to be used in agriculture in the future, allowing for better forecasting of shifts in the areas used for agricultural production.

This study describes how farmers manage climate variability in dryland crop production, and aims to contribute to the theory and practice of decision support for managing climate variability. The intent was to study farmer decision making to see how DSS could be used to deliver information and procedures on climate risk to farmers more effectively. The study investigated whether there are significant differences between farmers' subjective distributions of seasonal rainfall and its derivatives (such as crop yield and fallow recharge) and a probability distribution derived from long-term records and simulation models, and whether these differences in risk assessment lead to changes in the optimum decision. Subjective probability distributions of rainfall and its derivatives were collected from farmers and advisers and it was found the overall match between these and long term records and simulation models was close. This study found little evidence to support the role of DSS for routine decision making, but this does not lessen the value of distributions derived from simulation models. Rather, it provides an opportunity for both farmers and scientists to learn. / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Thesis (M. Inst. Agrar. (Soil Science))--University of Pretoria, 2000. / Includes bibliographical referencess.

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

This item was digitized as part of the Million Books Project led by Carnegie Mellon University and supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF). Cornell University coordinated the participation of land-grant and agricultural libraries in providing historical agricultural information for the digitization project; the University of Arizona Libraries, the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, and the Office of Arid Lands Studies collaborated in the selection and provision of material for the digitization project.

No description available.

No description available.

Thesis--University of Wisconsin--Madison. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 262-270).