This REU site at University of North Carolina Wilmington will bring together a multidisciplinary group of undergraduate students and faculty to address the critical societal issue of anthropogenic biodiversity loss and ecosystem modification. Nine students a year, from geology, biology, environmental studies, and archeology will participate in the project for eight weeks on site, with the opportunity to continue the research at their home institution and to present and publish their results. Students will collect and compare data from the fossil and archeological record and modern marine communities to understand anthropogenic ecosystem change. The scientific goal is to understand: 1) the structure of the marine molluscan community prior to a mass extinction in the western Atlantic about two million years ago that was similar in scale and cause to the current biodiversity crisis; 2) faunal response to and recovery from this extinction as seen in the fossil record; 3) evidence of community structure from the archeological record of shell middens prior to intensive modern anthropogenic change; and 4) the current composition, structure and health of the marine community at sites varying in degree of anthropogenic disturbance. The work will document natural variability of the system, allowing natural changes in biological systems to be disentangled from those induced or magnified by human activities. Study of temporal changes in the marine community will be used to determine the degree and nature of anthropogenic alteration, assess the health of the modern community, and identify possible approaches to protecting biodiversity. The project will create a positive research experience for a diverse group of students that will encourage them to continue in the field, equip them for graduate study and careers, and enhance abilities to work in multidisciplinary teams. The project has potential societal consequences in building a diverse pool of students who are aware of issues in biodiversity conservation and who can work across disciplines to develop innovative approaches to addressing these issues. Student collections will be reposited at the Paleontological Research Institution, where they will be available for use by other students, educators and researchers as well as form a basis for public outreach (to be funded separately), including an exhibit on biodiversity conservation at PRI?s Museum of the Earth.
program conducted at the University of North Carolina Wilmington, summers 2008-2010, provides a model for training students in the new field of conservation paleobiology. Conservation paleobiology involves the application of geohistorical data to conservation and restoration of modern biodiversity and the services that such ecosystems provide to humanity. Geohistorical data, such as those found in the Earth’s record of sediments, sedimentary rocks, ice cores, and fossils, provide the only time perspective long enough to separate natural changes in biological systems from those produced by humans. This approach is particularly important because in many cases undisturbed natural systems are no longer available to use as a baseline for comparison with systems affected by humans. A geohistorical baseline is critical to developing strategies for biodiversity conservation and revision of environmental management policies. The field of conservation paleobiology thus holds promise for predicting the possible ecological and evolutionary consequences of future environmental change, including climate change. The work conducted here is a model for future work in conservation paleobiology and has been an impetus for spearheading the new discipline. This REU program brought together a multidisciplinary (geology, paleontology, biology, environmental studies, and archeology) group of undergraduate students and faculty mentors to address anthropogenic biodiversity loss and ecosystem modification from a conservation paleobiology perspective. Our goal was to build a diverse pool of students, comfortable working in multidisciplinary teams, who are aware of issues in biodiversity conservation and who can develop innovative approaches to addressing these issues. We examined changes in the marine ecosystem of the Carolinas over the past three million years, in order to compare ongoing human-induced changes with the changes produced by natural disruptions to the system during the Pliocene and Pleistocene epochs. By understanding the natural variability of the system and the responses of the organisms to the Plio-Pleistocene extinctions, we can better understand the effects of humans on the environment and the health of the modern ecosystem. Students worked in teams and on individual projects to collect and analyze data from the paleontological and archeological record of marine systems (primarily molluscs) and compare these data with those from modern environments to understand anthropogenic ecosystem change. Our studies of diversity, ecosystem structure, and ecological interactions in the Plio-Pleistocene yielded information on natural baselines and variability and on response to environmental change. We tracked diversity in the fossil record across a multi-phased extinction and found that diversity decreases and changes in the structure of the ecosystem were not necessarily coordinated. We conducted archeological work on shell midden materials, testing hypotheses about overharvesting of shellfish by coastal Carolina Native Americans. We also employed "live-dead" analyses to compare the composition of ecosystems of the recent past (recorded in dead shells that have accumulated in the habitat) with local living communities of molluscs. This technique can be used to examine anthropogenic change in coastal habitats; of several habitats examined, the sea grass environments of Chadwick Bay are the most disturbed, based on this approach. Four peer-reviewed papers and more than 50 conference abstracts to date have presented our results. In terms of human resource development, the REU students represented a racio-ethnically diverse group. The REU included 27 students from across the U.S., including 3 African Americans, 6 Hispanic students, 1 Pacific Islander, 2 Asian and 15 Caucasian students; 13 were female. Four graduate students (3 female and 1 male) served as program assistants and mentors to the undergraduates. The primary faculty involved in the program represented three institutions and several disciplines (geology, biology, environmental studies, and education). Upon completion of the program, all REU students expressed an interest in pursuing graduate study, and two-thirds have applied, enrolled in, and/or completed graduate programs in science. One REU student later returned as a Research Experiences for Teachers participant and is now a community college faculty member. Of the four graduate student assistants, two are in PhD programs and one has completed her PhD and is a university faculty member. Thus a diverse group of REU participants learned the importance of geohistorical data to conservation efforts and the need to bring together workers from disparate fields to address biodiversity issues.
