NDVI predicts birth seasonality in historical Baja California Sur, Mexico: adaptive responses to arid ecosystems and the North American Monsoon

Abstract

ABSTRACT Birth seasonality is a phenomenon whereby populations can be characterized by a single month or season in which births peak. While non-human animal research suggests that seasonal birth-pulses are related to variation in climate and local energy availability, social scientists debate the mechanisms responsible for it in humans. Here we investigate the role of precipitation, temperature, and energy availability on seasonal conception and birth pulses using a historical dataset from the Baja California peninsula – a hot, arid desert that experiences seasonal climatic fluctuations associated with the North American Monsoon. Analyses suggest that 1) local energy availability had a negative relationship with conception pulses; and 2) birth pulses had a positive relationship with local energy availability and a negative relationship with temperature. Taken together, our analyses suggest that women timed conceptions when local energy availability was lowest (challenging expectations of conception rates as simply reflecting ecological influences on female fecundity), so that children were born during the seasonal “green-up” associated with the North American Monsoon. Given our results, we speculate that birth seasonality represents a form of traditional ecological knowledge to improve neonate health and wellbeing.