Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: Human Adaptation to Long Term Environmental Change

乔治亚大学的凯瑟琳·纳波拉女士和维克多·汤普森博士将对气候变化对4500至3100年前居住在佐治亚州海岸的美洲原住民群体的影响进行研究。这项研究将阐明沿海贝壳环村遗址废弃与环境变化之间的时间关系。这项对佐治亚州海岸人类-环境相互作用动态的研究有助于更广泛地了解对主要气候变化的反应、长期环境趋势以及美国东南部关键转型期间的不同弹性。该项目将提供关于这些群体如何能够适应戏剧性生态变化的信息。这项工作还将为本科生研究人员提供机会，获得树状年代学方法方面的经验，并通过在项目过程中举行的外联和教育活动，让更广泛的公众了解东南沿海深厚的文化和环境历史。为了进行这项研究，该项目将检查贝类幼虫的末端放射性碳年代，并根据该地区出土的样本创建6000年的秃柏环形年代学。树状年代学是一种独特的方法，适用于在人类时间尺度上经历的事件的综合研究，并在深入的时间框架内得到理解。利用树木年轮数据，结合大型末期晚期古迹的最终占领日期建模，本研究旨在重建气候条件，并为佐治亚州北部海岸提供更准确的贝壳年轮遗弃时间线。这项研究将生成关于这一时期环境条件的年度规模数据，并将模拟来自贝壳环和贝壳中间地点的现有和新的放射性碳日期，以与树状年代学序列进行比较，从而允许更精确地理解生存和定居传统的转变时间。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

MS Katharine Napora and Dr. Victor Thompson of the University of Georgia will undertake research on the effects of climate shifts on the Native American groups who lived along the Georgia Coast from 4500 to 3100 years ago. This research will clarify the temporal relationships between abandonments of coastal shell ring village sites and environmental change. This research into the dynamics of human-environmental interactions on the Georgia Coast contributes to broader knowledge of responses to major climatic change, long-term environmental trends, and differential resilience during pivotal transitions in the southeastern U.S. This project will contribute information about how such groups were able to adapt to dramatic ecological shifts. This work will also provide opportunities both for undergraduate researchers to gain experience in dendrochronological methodologies and for the broader public to learn about the deep cultural and environmental history of the Southeast coast through outreach and educational events held during the course of the project. To conduct this research, the project will examine terminal radiocarbon dates from shell middens and create a 6000-year bald cypress ringwidth chronology from excavated samples from the region. Dendrochronology is a methodology uniquely suited for an integrated study of events experienced at the human timescale and understood within the context of a deep time framework. Using tree-ring data combined with modeling the final occupational dates of large terminal Late Archaic sites, this research aims to reconstruct climatic conditions and provide a more precise timeline of shell ring abandonments for the northern Georgia Coast. This study will generate annual-scale data on environmental conditions during this period and will model extant and new radiocarbon dates from shell ring and shell midden sites to compare to the dendrochronological sequence, allowing for greater precision in understanding the timing of shifts in subsistence and settlement traditions.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.