ABSTRACT
California is an ideal place to investigate anthropogenic burning and the role it played in the formation, maintenance, and conversion of vegetation communities. Contemporary vegetation in non-agricultural areas of the central California coast is characterized by herbaceous rangelands, north coast scrub shrublands, and mixed conifer forests cut by riparian corridors and interspersed with wetlands, hardwood woodlands, and maritime chaparral. Historical ecology differs from environmental history, and a number of other related disciplines, in that it focuses on documenting trends in ecological form, function, resilience, and varying responses of particular systems to disturbance, rather than a historical inventory of largely anthropogenic changes to environmental resources. Archaeo-botanical remains differ in their likelihood of preservation based on structural characteristics and on how they were collected, processed, and discarded. Riparian corridors contain many plant food resources such as salmonberry, buckeye and nettles. Since the advent of flotation in 1960s, macro botanical analysis has become an integral component of archaeological research throughout the United States.
