The default category.

Read more about the article The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Prehistoric Settlers Significantly Changed Their Ocean Environment Over Thousands of Years. Did This Mark the Start of the Anthropocene in the Caribbean Sea?
Zooarchaeological samples. From left to right: ancient duck bones, shells of marine snails and charred plant remains. Photo by Kristen Grace, Florida Museum of Natural History.

The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Prehistoric Settlers Significantly Changed Their Ocean Environment Over Thousands of Years. Did This Mark the Start of the Anthropocene in the Caribbean Sea?

In my previous blog post I noted that the prehistoric settlers of the Caribbean Islands constituted an invasion of the pristine Caribbean seascape by an intelligent, highly adaptable, and predatory alien species. I asked to what extent did their engagement with a pristine ocean change that environment? Were their numbers too low and their hunting and fishing technologies too primitive for them to have had any significant impacts on the ocean environment? Or were they natural conservationists who managed their ocean resources sustainably? Or did they assume the role of a novel keystone species and modify the ocean environment in significant ways? In this post I begin to examine these questions.

Continue ReadingThe Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Prehistoric Settlers Significantly Changed Their Ocean Environment Over Thousands of Years. Did This Mark the Start of the Anthropocene in the Caribbean Sea?
Read more about the article The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Ceramic Age Prehistoric Colonists Exploited the Abundant Ocean Resources Surrounding Their Island Homes for Thousands of Years
Archaeological investigation of a prehistoric settlement site on a Caribbean island. (Credit: Scott Fitzpatrick, CC BY-ND)

The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Ceramic Age Prehistoric Colonists Exploited the Abundant Ocean Resources Surrounding Their Island Homes for Thousands of Years

In my previous post on the humanization of the Caribbean Sea I discussed how the first humans to settle the insular Caribbean—prehistoric, Archaic Age people—made extensive use of the ocean resources associated with their new island homes. These people occupied many of the islands of the Caribbean until about 2,500 years ago when a second wave of migrants dispersed into the Caribbean Sea. They almost entirely replaced the original inhabitants and settled new islands for the first time. In this post I discuss how, like their Archaic Age precursors, these new colonists pursued a way of life that was highly dependent on the exploitation of the abundant ocean resources surrounding their island homes.

Continue ReadingThe Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Ceramic Age Prehistoric Colonists Exploited the Abundant Ocean Resources Surrounding Their Island Homes for Thousands of Years
Read more about the article <strong>The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Archaic Age Prehistoric People Made Extensive Use of Ocean Resources</strong>
Prehistoric queen conch shell midden on the British Virgin Islands (Credit: Flickr: Conch graveyard)

The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Archaic Age Prehistoric People Made Extensive Use of Ocean Resources

In my previous post on the humanization of the Caribbean Sea I traced the origins of the first humans—Archaic Age people who fashioned tools out of stone—to settle the vast, island-filled tropical marine system that we now call the Caribbean Sea. In this post I examine how these prehistoric settlers adapted to living on islands that had never experienced any form of human influence, and how their activities began to alter the natural landscapes and surrounding seascapes of these islands over thousands of years.

Continue ReadingThe Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Archaic Age Prehistoric People Made Extensive Use of Ocean Resources
Read more about the article Marine Biology – A Very Short Introductions Podcast – Episode 64 of the Oxford University Press Series<br>

Marine Biology – A Very Short Introductions Podcast – Episode 64 of the Oxford University Press Series

Oxford University Press has just released a podcast I did as part of its Very Short Introductions series. In this episode I introduce the subject of marine biology, a field whose importance is growing rapidly as our oceans undergo rapid and profound changes due to human influences.

Continue ReadingMarine Biology – A Very Short Introductions Podcast – Episode 64 of the Oxford University Press Series
Read more about the article The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Arrival of the First People
The Samaná Peninsula on the island of Hispaniola in the Greater Antilles was inhabited by some of the first settlers of the insular Caribbean (Credit: Dave Carr/Getty Images)

The Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Arrival of the First People

In this post I trace the origin of the first people to settle the vast, island-filled tropical marine system that we now call the Caribbean Sea. This was the first step in the modification by humans of this pristine seascape—the last region of the Americas to be exposed to the presence of humans.

Continue ReadingThe Humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Arrival of the First People
Read more about the article The humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Past and Future

The humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Past and Future

The Caribbean Sea provides an exemplary case study of the course of humanization of an insular seascape over thousands of years. I will argue over a series of blogs that just as we had the power to radically modify and damage the Caribbean Sea, we also have the power to reimagine its future and restore species abundance, rebuild its ecosystems, and create an ecologically productive, resilient, and much more beautiful tropical marine environment than the one we have at present. 

Continue ReadingThe humanization of the Caribbean Sea—Past and Future