Long Term Coastal Adaptation and Ecological Change

This project conducts research examining long-term patterns of human-environment interactions along the Pacific Coast. The study site is adjacent to a highly productive hard coral reef, which is an important habitat for numerous marine species and is at the intersection of major ocean currents. The archaeological record provides a strong opportunity to understand the relationship between environmental change, human use of natural resources, and ecosystem resiliency over millennia-scale time periods. The ecological and paleoenvironmental data from this project provides a long-term context for local and global fisheries, including data on anthropogenic impacts, environmental change, and ecosystem resilience. The results of this project provide important information about how marine productivity affects the timing of population expansion. The project has the potential to fill in important geographic and chronological gaps in our understanding of hunter-gatherer along ocean coastlines. This research also addresses the increased risk of archaeological site loss and destruction, currently prevelant. The work conducted during this project includes close collaboration with international archaeologists and includes engagement of the local community through public lectures. It also include graduate student training . The research team conducts archaeological survey and limited excavation along the Pacific coastline, along with radiocarbon dating and analyzing marine shells and fish otoliths for stable isotopic measurements, to develop a chronology for coastal human occupation and paleoenvironmental change. This project has four primary objectives: 1) determine the geographic distribution and chronology of occupation for coastal archaeological sites; 2) reconstruct patterns of mobility and resource use in the context of long-term environmental change; 3) track human adaptations in the local ecosystem related to natural and anthropogenic changes in resource availability; and (4) reconstruct aspects of nearshore paleoenvironments and ecology, including collecting fish demographic and lifecycle data for comparisons with modern fisheries. This work generates biological and ecological data about the distribution and abundance of fish, shellfish, and other marine species along the Pacific Coast. Chronological, season of harvest, and subsistence data addresses questions about settlement chronology, marine resource use, and sea surface temperature change. Analysis of shellfish and fish species after excavation provide critical insight into how dietary shifts and environmental adaptations are linked to natural and anthropogenic patterns. The research goals of this project speak to broader contemporary concerns about coastal adaptation and marine resource sustainability during the current time of global change. 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.