Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Effect of Sea Level Variation of Fuelwood Sustainability

长期以来，红树林对于满足生活在热带海岸线的人们的薪材需求一直很重要。反过来，红树林对沿海生态系统的健康至关重要。该项目基于从南佛罗里达州的考古木材样本收集的数据，研究了红树林的长期构成。它利用薪材残留物这一很少开发的数据来源，调查木材选择和管理策略及其对当地森林的次生影响。正在解决的一个关键问题是资源的可持续性，木材供应的变化证明了这一点。此外，这项研究记录的木材物种及其生长周期随时间变化的趋势将有助于建立森林健康和恢复能力的长期记录，不仅可用于联系最近和正在进行的变化的规模，而且有助于了解间伐和生境减少等活动以及自然灾害(如飓风)和环境变化的遗留影响。尽管沿海森林长期以来一直被认为提供了宝贵的生态服务，但它们在全球范围内都处于濒危状态。沿海红树林群落对热带沿海和海洋环境的重要性，以及对人类居民和当地经济的重要性都不为过。这些森林为许多海洋生物提供了栖息地和繁殖地，从而支持了几个渔业。红树林缓冲海岸线以抵御飓风，并抑制陆地径流，进一步促进生态系统的健康和保护。利用考古木炭建立红树林存在和生长特征的历史时间表，将为制定现代管理准则和条例提供宝贵的背景。为此，该项目正在与当地保护组织和国家机构合作；每个组织都将通过合作和数据共享受益。此外，该研究还有助于研究生和本科生以及当地居民和项目志愿者的教育和培训。这项研究的一个方面是检验先前对海平面随时间变化的替代记录所产生的替代假设。海平面和水质直接影响红树林群落的生存和生物地理。虽然这个项目主要集中在加卢萨岛，但这项工作是一个更大的努力的一部分，该努力在区域上审查古代人与森林资源的相互作用。这里分析的木炭来自一个侵蚀的考古贝壳丘，并将有助于建立受人类活动、自然干扰和佛罗里达州西南部沿海河口系统气候变化影响的森林恢复能力的长期基线。这项研究还将启动一个考古遗址监测项目，跟踪海岸线侵蚀的速度以及对考古沉积物和现代森林/植物的影响。此外，探索性发掘将有助于记录一次地区性的、罕见的古代占领，并将提供初步数据，使未来的保护工作或遗址的抢救挖掘成为可能。最后，该项目将收集探索性的花粉数据，以评估它们作为红树林中高强度自然干扰事件(如飓风)影响的独立环境指标的潜力。

Mangroves have long been important to meet the fuelwood needs of people living along tropical coastlines. In turn, mangrove forests are critically important to coastal ecosystem health. This project examines long-term mangrove forest composition based on data collected from archaeological wood samples from South Florida. It makes use of fuelwood residues, a rarely exploited data source, to investigate wood selection and management strategies along with their secondary effects on local forests. A key question being addressed is resource sustainability, as evidenced in changing wood availability. Moreover, the time-transgressive trends in wood species and their growth cycles documented by this research will help to establish a long-term record of forest health and resilience that can be used not only to contextualize the magnitude of recent and ongoing changes, but to aid in understanding legacy effects from activities such as thinning and habitat reduction, as well as from natural disasters (e.g., hurricanes) and environmental change. Although coastal forests have long been recognized as providing valuable ecological services, they are endangered worldwide. The importance of coastal mangrove communities to tropical coastal and marine environments and thus also, to human inhabitants and local economies is difficult to exaggerate. These forests provide habitat and breeding grounds for many marine organisms, thus supporting several fisheries. Mangrove forests buffer coastlines against hurricanes and inhibit terrestrial runoff further contributing to ecosystem health and protection. The use of archaeological wood charcoal to establish an historical timeline of mangrove forest presence and growth characteristics will provide a valuable context for establishing modern management guidelines and regulations. To that end, this project is working in concert with local conservation organizations and state agencies; each will benefit through cooperation and data sharing. Furthermore, the research contributes to the education and training of both graduate and undergraduate students, as well as local residents and project volunteers. One aspect of the research is testing alternative hypotheses generated from prior study of proxy records of sea-level variability over time. Sea level and water quality have direct effects on the survival and biogeography of mangrove communities. While this project is focused primarily on Calusa Island, the work is part of a larger endeavor that examines ancient human-forest resource interactions regionally. The wood charcoal analyzed here derives from an eroding archaeological shell mound and will aid in the creation of a long-term baseline of forest resilience as influenced by human activity, natural disturbances, and climate change in Southwest Florida's coastal estuary system. The research will also initiate an archaeological site monitoring project that will track rates of shoreline erosion and impacts on both the archaeological deposits and the modern forest/flora. Further, the exploratory excavations will aid in documenting a regionally, rare Archaic Period occupation and will provide preliminary data that will enable future conservation work or salvage excavations at the site. Finally, this project will collect exploratory pollen data to evaluate their potential for use as an independent environmental proxy on the influence of high-intensity, natural disturbance events, such as hurricanes, among the mangroves.