This project will build upon and integrate our independently funded research programs to study climate change and anthropogenic ecosystem disruption in Southwestern Madagascar. These seed funds will provide the basis for developing a new inter-college collaboration among Perry, Freeman, Culleton, Kennett, and external collaborator Brenner to 1) collect sediment cores from two Malagasy lakes and then 2) generate proof-of-concept, high- resolution biogeochemical, isotopic, and paleogenomic preliminary data from the collected cores. The successful collection of the cores and the initial demonstration of success with our multidisciplinary, cutting-edge analytical approaches are necessary first steps as preliminary data for external funding proposals that will then follow to conduct a large-scale, multi-disciplinary study to reconstruct at high resolution (both temporally and analytically) the history of ecosystem changes associated with the human colonization of Madagascar.
Researchers
Douglas J. Kennett
Mark Brenner
