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Central North Atlantic Marine Historical Ecology Project
The Central North Atlantic Marine Historical Ecology Project (CAMHEP) seeks to better understand the relationship between humans, near-shore marine ecologies and changing climates in the waters around Iceland. The main species they are focusing on, aside from humans, is Atlantic Cod, Gadus morhua. For over a millennium, this species has been crucial for Atlantic communities, sustaining communities and driving trade. Current management decisions for this important species hinge on scientists' understanding of 'baseline' cod populations. These baselines, ideas of what a normal cod population should look and act like, come primarily from data from the last century. These baselines help determine what normal population sizes, fish sizes, ages, and their response to environmental changes should be. Now, interdisciplinary techniques from marine biology, archaeology, and history allow us to extend this baseline over the past millennium, providing deeper insights into marine ecological conditions and population trends.
The project involves analyzing bones of cod and other coastal species from archaeological sites in Iceland, dating from the 9th to the 19th centuries. Biochemical analysis of these bones will offer data on population size, age and body length, and dietary changes over the past thousand years. Combined with archaeological and historical methods, this data will enable a more comprehensive understanding of the evolving relationship between cod, humans, and the environment. This in-depth record will help inform sustainable management of this pivotal species through the rapidly changing conditions of today and the future.
The PIs of CAMHEP are Dr. George Hambrecht (University of Maryland, College Park), Dr. Nicole Misarti (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Dr. Arni Daniel Juliosson (Stefansson Institute, Akureyri, Iceland).
For more information, please contact George Hambrecht at ghambrec@umd.edu.
Article submitted by George Hambrecht & team.
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