NSF Award
2401101
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. <br/><br/>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.<br/><br/>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.
