Doctoral Dissertation Research: Examination of Long Term Organization of Oyster Management Systems

这个博士论文项目解决的问题，如何在很长一段时间内，资源可以有效地通过地方，集体谈判的机构进行管理。牡蛎就是这种资源的一个例子，是与健康的生态系统、渔业和经济直接相关的重要关键物种。该项目提供了对过去指导牡蛎管理系统的行动，目标和机构的长期观点，同时生成与现代牡蛎管理和恢复工作相关的数据。与坦帕湾河口计划和佛罗里达鱼类和野生动物研究所合作，该项目提供了考古基线从佛罗里达最大的开放水域河口，可以完善栖息地的适宜性模型，用于管理和繁殖的框架，可适用于世界各地的河口。该项目的重点是研究佛罗里达坦帕湾美洲原住民社会使用的牡蛎管理系统的证据，并将其与当代牡蛎法规进行对比。通过整合集体行动理论和历史生态学的概念，本研究评估了跨时间和空间的牡蛎礁管理机构的弹性。将管理系统设想为选择性收获做法、保有权制度和增强战略的组合，提供了一个可检验假设的框架。这项研究借鉴了以前挖掘的材料和正在进行的挖掘在三个林地时期的贝壳轴承岛屿网站在下游的坦帕湾河口。牡蛎形态学，稳定同位素和微量元素地球化学，以及动物考古学方法从良好的日期背景下入伍，通过估计牡蛎收获的季节和环境，选择性偏好，和收获率提供见解牡蛎管理系统。牡蛎从国内和公共空间进行了比较，阐明潜在的差异权属系统。考古数据集的背景下，强大的数据集的现代牡蛎从各种栖息地。当代环境之间的贝壳形态的差异被用来估计考古贝壳的收获栖息地。这种跨学科的方法产生了新的比较方法，并展示了考古学在现代河口管理中的相关性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This doctoral dissertation project addresses the question of how, over long periods of time resources can be effectively managed through local, collectively negotiated institutions. Oysters are an example of such resources and are a vital keystone species directly related to healthy ecosystems, fisheries, and economies. This project provides long-term perspectives on the actions, goals, and institutions that guided oyster management systems in the past while generating data relevant to modern oyster management and restoration efforts. Collaborating with the Tampa Bay Estuary Program and Florida Fish and Wildlife Research Institute, this project provides archaeological baselines from Florida’s largest open-water estuary that can refine habitat suitability models used in management and restoration—a framework that can be applied to estuaries worldwide. The focus of the project is to examine the evidence of oyster management systems used by Native American societies of Tampa Bay, Florida, and to contrast them with contemporary oyster regulations. By integrating concepts from collective action theory and historical ecology, this study assesses the resilience of the institutions governing oyster reefs across time and space. Envisioning management systems as a combination of selective harvesting practices, tenure systems, and enhancement strategies provides a framework of testable hypotheses. The research draws on previously excavated materials and ongoing excavations at three Woodland period shell-bearing island sites in the lower reaches of the Tampa Bay Estuary. Oyster morphology, stable isotope and trace element geochemistry, and zooarchaeological methods from well-dated contexts are enlisted to provide insights into oyster management systems by estimating the season and environment of oyster harvest, selective preferences, and harvesting rates. Oysters from domestic and public spaces are compared to elucidate potential differences in tenure systems. Archaeological datasets are contextualized by robust datasets of modern oysters from a variety of habitats. The differences in shell morphology between contemporary environments are used to estimate the harvesting habitats of the archaeological shells. This interdisciplinary approach generates new comparative methods and demonstrate the relevance of archaeology in modern estuary 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.