The Legacy of Terracing

When trying to analyze human impact on the environment one of the first questions that comes to mind is what long-term effects agriculture has on the land. This research examines the effect of agricultural terracing in terms of soil content and fertility. Specifically, does prehistoric agricultural terracing affect the number and type of seeds in the soil, and thereby the soil’s fertility? Soil fertility is a complex question and studies have been done to analyze the chemical content of soils to determine whether or not they have optimal growing conditions. This project however looked at seed bank data in the context of an experimental study. In essence, I took seed bank samples from on and off agricultural terraces and then put them through the same experimental conditions to see whether or not they yielded similar results in the number and types of plants that grew.