Snow, landscape and people: Fieldwork in Sweden	Fieldwork from project: Snow, landscape and people: Modelling variations in snow distribution and melt across the landscape and the implications for human activities. Method: Snow depth and density were measured in the pre-snow melt period from March 24th to April 7th 2009. A transect between the ‘Abisko Birch’ (AB) and ‘Abisko Tundra’ (AT) research sites was surveyed with depth and density measured every 50 m using a snow tube and snow probe. Four additional depth measurements were made at each sampling point 2 m from the tube core location in N, S, E and W directions. At a research site between AB and AT named the ‘Intensive Valley’ (IV), snow depth was measured across a grid with 46 points at intervals of 25, 50 and 100m, and snow density was measured at 9 locations by digging snow pits. Higher resolution snow depth measurements were also taken along a 354 m transect in the IV (which included 3 snow pit locations), with snow depth sampled every 2 m. The relationships between climate, vegetation, topography and snowcover were explored (see attached figure). Summary and implications of findings: In the pre-melt period of 2009, snow depth increases with vegetation height as reflected by the greater mean snow depth in forested areas where blowing snow is trapped. Density was greater in open areas where dense wind crusts form on the snow, and density decreases with vegetation height. Variations in these relationships are due to snow drifts of deeper, less dense snow forming in topographic hollows and sheltered lee slopes in the exposed open areas. Mean SWE was greater in forested areas, however there was not a significant relationship between SWE and vegetation height, likely because in the pre-melt period the greater depth in the forest is compensated for by lower densities. In the pre-melt period the snow depth and density variation isn’t significantly different between the forest and open areas. It is likely that this would change during the melt period when the open areas would melt earlier and at a greater rate thus resulting in patchy, more variable snow cover. There appears to be a clear differentiation in this pre-melt period between clearing and forest in terms of depth and density. Less dense snow in the forested areas results in the winter transport routes concentrating in the open areas, as observed in the field. If a warming climate resulted in earlier snow melt, these transport routes would become unusable earlier in the spring, especially since many of them cross frozen lakes or marsh area. If this area was to be considered for farming and settlement in a warmer, less snow covered climate, proximity of farming sites to patches of birch forest would be an important consideration to optimise soil moisture and fresh water supply in the spring melt period.
	Snow, landscape and people: Fieldwork in Norway	Fieldwork from project: Snow, landscape and people: Modelling variations in snow distribution and melt across the landscape and the implications for human activities. Snow surveys were completed in Heidal valley, Oppland, along three discontinuous transects from valley bottom to top, two on the sunny side and one on the shady side. The transects were surveyed twice, firstly between the 28th February and the 9th March 2010, and secondly between the 22nd and 27th April 2010. Snow depth was measured with a probe every 5 metres, and a snow tube measurement was taken every 50 metres, from which snow density and SWE was calculated. Meteorological data was recorded through the melt period at varying elevations along the transects. The relationships between climate, vegetation, topography and snowcover were explored. Results: Snow depth is generally lower in clearings than forested areas due to the trapping of wind blown snow by higher vegetation. Snow melted faster in the clearings than the forested areas due to the direct radiation, and at lower elevations due to the higher temperatures. On the shaded side of the valley snow at the lower farming elevations melted almost 2 weeks earlier than on the shaded side (where landuse is used more for logging than farming, especially at higher elevations). Snow density was generally greater in the clearings where wind crusted denser snow and earlier melt occurs. Snow density increases over the melt period as the snow crystals metamorphose over time and with the weight of the overlying snow. Snow Water Equivalent (SWE) was therefore similar in the forest and clearings in the pre-melt period since the greater depths in the forest are compensated for by lower densities than in the clearings. Mid-melt, SWE was greater in the forest despite lower densities than the clearings because of the earlier melt in the clearings resulting in zero snow depths at the lower and mid-elevations clearings, especially on the sunny side of the valley. Despite snow density increasing throughout the melt period, mean SWE decreased in the clearings due to the large decreases in snow depth during melt. In forested areas, SWE increased through the melt period since the smaller decrease in snow depth due to melting was not enough to compensate for the increase in density. Implications: Throughout the winter period, higher densities in clearings result in easier mobility across the land than through the less dense snow of the forests. Whilst SWE is similar in forests and clearings through the winter period since differences in depth and density compensate for each other, the difference in vegetation becomes an important factor in the variation of SWE through the melt period. Forested areas retain snow for longer periods of time delaying the spring melt, and the increased vegetation height traps blowing snow thus increasing the magnitude of the spring melt locally. This is particularly noticeable on south facing slopes which receive more direct radiation causing exposed snow in the clearings to melt earlier and at a greater rate. Earlier melt of snow in clearings is important for farming since it allows a longer growing season, but the surrounding forests are key in maintaining soil moisture and fresh water throughout the spring after the snow has melted from the clearings. Future increases in temperature will result in earlier snow melt, thus the delayed melt in forested areas will become even more important for water supply and soil moisture levels, and a possible reduction in snow precipitation as a result of increased temperatures will increase the importance of forested areas in trapping the reduced volume blowing snow.
	Parent Project: Barbuda Historical Ecology Project Barbuda Historical Ecology Project	This project is a multi-disciplinary longitudinal research effort focusing on the island of Barbuda from first human settlement through to the present day. The goal of the project is to investigate human/environment interactions on the island of Barbuda and define the island’s place within the cultural and climatic realm of the Lesser Antilles and the circum-Atlantic region. It is a multi-disciplinary project with scholars from across the spectrum of social and hard sciences. Issues of island biogeography, cultural geography, subsistence through each cultural epoch, resilience and vulnerability in the face of extreme weather and environmental/landscape changes,as well as regional and oceanic connections will be approached through multiple disciplines and then analyzed in a collaborative forum. The project emphasis is on interdisciplinary, international collaboration of scientists, education and outreach. The project is part of a large initiative funded by the National Science Foundation Office of Polar Programs on Islands of Change (IOC). The IOC initiative will connect progressive interdisciplinary science with innovative approaches to science education and heritage outreach to connect two small rural island communities of Barbuda, West Indies and Thingeyjarsveit, Iceland with the large urban island community of New York City. The islands present strong contrasts in scale, history, ethnicity, and natural environment, but common themes and processes connect these islands in both past and present. The islands today are faced by challenges associated with rapid global change- climate change, sea level rise, changes in plant and animal life, and the social and economic disruptions caused by dramatic shifts in world economy. They also share histories of external colonization, local adaptation, human impacts on landscape and resources, and changing impacts of past global economic connections. These islands are products of complex historical interaction of humans and environment which continues to affect their potential for future sustainability and likewise face common twenty first century challenges of educating citizens and future leaders for resilience and nurturing young scientists with strong social commitment. The Islands of Change program is working to connect local and global educational efforts with exciting new field science to provide lasting benefits to local communities as well as students from the City University of New York.
	Seaview	Excavation of this early Saladoid site has been ongoing since 2008. What began as a salvaging effort to rescue midden deposits being eroded away by the sea has evolved into an open-area excavation of a large settlement. The 2011 excavation, aimed at retrieval of prehistoric cultural remains and student training, has been one component of a broader BHEP effort investigating human/environment interactions on the island of Barbuda and seeking to define the island’s place within the cultural and climatic realm of the Lesser Antilles and the circum-Atlantic region. Field School students under the supervision of Dr. Sophia Perdikaris continued work begun in 2008 at Seaview, aimed at further exploration of cultural features surrounding a possible early Saladoid plaza. The excavation consisted of a large open-area trench connecting with one of the 2008 test trenches (TRB5), which produced a large posthole. Based on 2008 and 2009 C14 dates, we suspect that the inland test trenches and subsequent excavations this year represent an earlier phase of Saladoid settlement on Barbuda, relative to the midden excavations along the erosion face. The excavation was successful in finding further evidence of a Saladoid settlement situated around a plaza. The finds included artifacts and ecofacts, numerous sunken features including postholes, cooking pits, and dumping pits.
	Icelandic Freshwater Radiocarbon Reservoir Effects	The radiocarbon levels in carbon from freshwater systems of lakes and rivers can be lower than in carbon from the terrestrial biosphere. This makes freshwater carbon appear anomalously old when it is radiocarbon dated. In Iceland, freshwater systems are frequently affected by a Freshwater 14C reservoir effect, or FRE, due to inputs of ancient carbon from geothermal systems, and can appear several thousand years older than equivalent terrestrial samples. These FREs affect not only freshwater biota such as fish, but also organisms that consumed freshwater resources, such as pigs and humans. The present project centres on Myvanssveit, in the northern interior highlands of Iceland, where a large FRE has been identified in Lake Myvatn. The Norse inhabitants of the region relied upon a resource based that included freshwater resources, and consequently bone collagen from humans and pigs within the region may be affected by a FRE. The ongoing project aims to characterise and quantify the FRE within this region, and explore its impact upon 14C dating of Norse communities.
	Social-ecological Resilience in the Viking-Age to Early-Medieval Faroe Islands	This dissertation aims to evaluate the development and maintenance of social-ecological resilience during the settlement-period (ca. 9th through 11th centuries CE) in the Faroe Islands. In particular, the core objectives include the identification of the key social and natural variables involved, the examination of how these variables contributed to overall resilience, and the investigation of the initiation of the Faroese domestic economy. This research focuses primarily on an analysis of the 9th through 13th century archaeofaunal assemblage from the site of Undir Junkarinsfløtti, located on the island of Sandoy. This analysis represents the first detailed study of the Faroese settlement-period domestic economy. In addition to the Undir Junkarinsfløtti archaeofaunal data, the research presented here draws from a wide range of archaeological, paleoenvironmental, and documentary evidence. These Faroese data are compared with contemporaneous datasets from elsewhere in the North Atlantic, including Iceland, Greenland, the Northern and Western Isles of Scotland, and western coastal Norway. Interpretation of this evidence is informed by a theoretical approach rooted in historical ecology, with an emphasis on the dynamic and dialectic nature of human-environment interactions, particularly as these relate to social-ecological resilience. This study suggests that the overall resilience of the Faroese social-ecological system can largely be attributed not only to the maintenance of a broad-based domestic economy that was heavily subsidized by the sustained exploitation of robust natural resources, but also to the development of a collaborative, community-based approach to resource management and use. In particular, these factors contributed to robustness against food shortfalls.
	BHEP Post-Columbian Archaeology	These projects are part of the post-Columnbian/Historical Archaeology wing of the Barbuda Historical Ecology Project. Please contact George Hambrecht (ghambrecht@gmail.com) for any further information or questions.
	Archaeological Investigations of Codrington Castle, Codrington, Barbuda
	Highland House	Highland House was a multi-purpose complex built in the highlands of Barbuda at the direction of William Codrington. The complex was started during the 1720's and it was in use into the early 19th century. This is a distinctive site in Caribbean historical archaeology in that it was built at least in part as a hunting lodge/vacation house for European's living in or visiting the region. It had a managerial role, and possibly a defensive role as well. Not directly related to sugar production, this site has the potential to reveal new insights on the life of Georgian gentlemen, as well as the enslaved, and possibly free, Afro-caribbean residents of this region during the 18th century.
	Human-Plant Interactions in Barbuda	This archaeobotanical project is part of the larger archaeoenvironmental section of the Barbuda Historical Ecology Project. It is also part of a Ph.D. research at Université Laval (supervised by Dr. Allison Bain) that includes the study of long-term human-plant interactions in both Barbuda and French Guiana. This project aims at studying economy and ecology in response to human occupations. Therefore, five archaeobotanical types of remains are studied: seeds, charcoal, pollen, phytoliths and starch residues.

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