Collaborative Research: Management Practices and Microbial Communities in Prehistoric Aquaculture

This project investigates how early farmers used microbes to maintain and manage fish production. Archaeological research has identified a highly productive agricultural systems that produced wetland and dryland crops, such as sweet potato and taro. Fishpond aquaculture was a critical part of this system and was used to reliably supply fish for elite households. Stemming from agricultural practices that originated in Central and East Polynesia, which were brought to Hawai’i by Polynesian voyagers, fishponds represent a unique innovation that created a productive and resilient niche for human habitation. Based upon the diversity of forms and historically identified practices, fishpond management must have relied upon the intimate knowledge of the life cycle of various species, as well as practices that supported the micro-organisms in ponds. The archaeological investigation of fishpond management in the past aids in answering several related fundamental questions: how did ecological knowledge translate to practices that modified the natural environment, and how did these practices support a growing population well as a dynamic political economy? The research will be conducted in partnership with the local community and includes collective fieldwork and laboratory research that supports the transmission of traditional ecological knowledge along with STEM training for Hawaiian students. The research team will pair methods from microbiology and archaeology to examine the sediments of the remains of a fishpond, located within a coastal dunes and wetlands refuge. A team of archaeologists, microbiologists, paleoecologists, and local community volunteers plan to investigate a thousand-year sequence of aquacultural production. Combining sediment cores, archaeological excavations, zooarchaeological analysis of fish remains, radiocarbon dating, and the genetic analysis of microbes in sediments, the team will sequence and analyze the succession of management practices over the history of the fishpond. Sequences will be compared to a theoretical model that predicts human niche construction and entry-points for elite management. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.