Achievement

Dr. Greg Cushman, IGERT participating faculty member and environmental historian, followed the trail of Peruvian labor trade, marine birds, and El Niño to Easter Island. Faced with the popularized notion that Easter Island is a modern morality tale for Earth Island, Cushman found more questions than answers regarding the extinction of the island's indigenous culture. By working with IGERT participating faculty member and climatologist Dr. Johan Feddema and IGERT Trainee and soil scientist Trish Jackson, Cushman learned that the Easter Islanders (Rapa Nui) likely were not responsible for their own demise based on Feddema's water balance and crop yield models and a study of indigenous agricultural technologies and volcanic activity by Jackson.