The Interplay Between Human Habitation Impacts Barrier Island Development

A school of thought exists that habitation on tree islands in the Everglades intensified development of those islands. Barrier islands too change in response to human influences, a modern-day analogy is infrastructure built on barrier islands to reduce erosion. So too may pre-Columbian Native American settlements around Florida have influenced the development of barrier islands around the state. This presentation will display preliminary data to show how sediment data from excavations can be used to elucidate the relationship between barrier island structures and human habitation and invite collaborators to join a project to better understand this relationship.