Research Interests
Conservation Paleobiology, Taphonomy, Quantitative Paleoecology
Conservation paleobiology uses the fossil record to fill in large gaps in our knowledge of ecosystems or groups of organisms. With a better picture of the ecological history of a species or a habitat, we can better understand how and why they might be struggling today due to human impacts or climate changes. Unlike most modern conservation biology, a paleontological perspective allows access to much longer, deep-time records of thousands or tens of thousands of years. As the planet is continues to face dramatic changes in climate, sea-level rise, and increasing human impacts, this deep-time view can provide vital targets for conservation, restoration, and an understanding of the natural world. I hope that through my research I can work with policy-makers and conservation managers to ensure the preservation of the planet's biodiversity and environments.
Conservation Paleobiology, Taphonomy, Quantitative Paleoecology
Conservation paleobiology uses the fossil record to fill in large gaps in our knowledge of ecosystems or groups of organisms. With a better picture of the ecological history of a species or a habitat, we can better understand how and why they might be struggling today due to human impacts or climate changes. Unlike most modern conservation biology, a paleontological perspective allows access to much longer, deep-time records of thousands or tens of thousands of years. As the planet is continues to face dramatic changes in climate, sea-level rise, and increasing human impacts, this deep-time view can provide vital targets for conservation, restoration, and an understanding of the natural world. I hope that through my research I can work with policy-makers and conservation managers to ensure the preservation of the planet's biodiversity and environments.
Current Projects
Recovery of the Wakulla River from Hurricane Michael
By comparing the freshwater fossil record of the Wakulla River with the modern molluscan community from before and after Hurricane Michael devastated the region in 2018, we can study how the river's biodiversity is recovering and how this recovery compares to molluscan communities throughout the river's ecological history.
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Freshwater taphonomy & time averaging
Taphonomy addresses how an organism's remains change as it decays and sometimes fossilizes. There is little research in how this process effects invertebrates in freshwater springs and rivers, along with the mixing that might occur between recently dead and much older fossil material. Understanding the components of the death assemblage, the loose shell material in a river, is often critical of understanding the larger history of its biodiversity.
Kusnerik, K.M., G.H. Means, R.W. Portell, M. Brenner, Q. Hua, A. Kannai, R. Means, M.A. Monroe, M. Kowalewski, 2020, Live, dead, and fossil mollusks in Florida freshwater springs and spring-fed rivers: Taphonomic pathways and the formation of multi-sourced, time-averaged death assemblages: Paleobiology. 46(3):356-378. |
Conservation paleobiology of Florida's freshwater springs and rivers
Florida's springs and rivers have been impacted by human activities for hundreds of years, however written records of their biological health often span only decades, leaving restoration and conservation managers to work with incomplete data. Conservation paleobiology can fill this gap from the fossil and death assemblage record to create a baseline for what a healthy, natural ecosystem should look like.
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