Motivation
Canaveral National Seashore contains several of the largest, most intact, and most significant prehistoric shell mounds on the east coast of Florida. The mounds were key prehistoric/proto-historic monuments and settlements which later served as important navigational landmarks during the early European exploration and colonization of the Americas. Everglades National Park is also home to a variety of pre-historic shell mounds and interior wetland tree island cultural resource sites.
Climate change is already producing severe, measurable and detrimental impacts on these nationally significant archeological resources with irrevocable consequences. Impacts from sea level rise and increased storm activities are predicted to accelerate erosion, increase the likelihood of losing archeological data, and eventually may result in the loss of cultural resource sites. The collaborative research being conducted by the Southeast Archeological Center and the Center for Ocean-Atmospheric Prediction Studies is motivated by the need to quantify changes in the climate within lands managed by the National Park Service, with a primary goal of assessing the risks to cultural resources.
