Match tier Confirmed
Presence Current · Arkansas
Last published 2025
Sources OpenAlex · ORCID
Refreshed 2026-08-20

Benjamin Vining

Affiliation confirmed via AI analysis of OpenAlex, ORCID, and web sources.

Federal Grant PI

Assistant Professor

Also affiliated: Boston University (2003–2010); Wellesley College (2015)

Faculty Researcher

8 h-index 22 pubs 264 cited

Biography and Research Information

OverviewAI-generated summary

Benjamin Vining studies the long-term impacts of climate variability on human societies and ecological systems, with a particular focus on prehistoric agricultural practices and environmental adaptation. His research investigates how climatic events, such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO), have influenced vegetation productivity, agroecological niches, and the redistribution of risks in regions like northwestern South America.

Vining has received federal funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for his work. This includes a Doctoral Dissertation Research award totaling $22,644 to investigate human long-term adaptation to prehistoric ENSO-driven flooding and a Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award of $29,801 focused on sustainable agricultural practices.

His publication record includes work on ENSO's effects on arid land vegetation in South America and the relationship between climate change and agricultural niches in Peru. He has also published on dating material culture changes in the Andes. Vining maintains an active lab website and has an h-index of 8 with 257 citations across 22 publications.

Metrics

  • h-index: 8
  • Publications: 22
  • Citations: 264

Selected Publications

  • Dating the ebb and flow of Tiwanaku and post-collapse material culture across the Andes (2025)
    Quaternary International 3 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Expanded agroecological niches and redistributed risks in northern Peru’s Chicama Valley during late-Holocene ENSO climate changes (2022)
    The Holocene 4 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • El Niño Southern Oscillation and enhanced arid land vegetation productivity in NW South America (2021)
    Journal of Arid Environments 19 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Crossing the western Altiplano: The ecological context of Tiwanaku migrations (2019)
    Journal of Archaeological Science 19 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Paleoclimatic and archaeological evidence from Lake Suches for highland Andean <i>refugia</i> during the arid middle-Holocene (2018)
    The Holocene 13 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Cultural Niche Construction and Remote Sensing of Ancient Anthropogenic Environmental Change in the North Coast of Peru (2017)
    Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 13 citations DOI OpenAlex
  • Droughts, floods, and farming at Quebrada Tacahuay from late prehispanic to colonial times (2017)
    Ñawpa Pacha 4 citations DOI OpenAlex

View all publications on OpenAlex →

Federal Grants 2 $52,445 total

Collaboration Network

12 Collaborators 10 Institutions 4 Countries

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