"The Threat from Above II: Risk Assessment of New and Potentially Dangerous Glacial Lakes in the Hongu Valley, Makalu-Barun National Park, Eastern Nepal". Above photo by Alton Buyers during previous International Glacial Lake Expedition funded by the NGS/Waitt Grants Program ~ Hongu valley, Makalu-Barun National Park

Administered by National Geographic Mission Programs, the NGS/Waitt Grants Program makes grants between $5,000 and $15,000 for exploratory research - below is a list of the most recent awards granted. To date, the program has funded over 100 field projects. For more information on the program, please visit the NGS/Waitt Grants section of our website.

Archaeology

Grantee:   Christopher Begley, Transylvania University
Region:   America/Honduras
Project:   Three-dimensional Scanning of Rock Art in Honduras: A New Approach to 3D Imaging in Remote Areas
Abstract: This proposal requests funds to test a new, exploratory methodology in the investigation of rock art and other nonportable, three dimensional features in the Mosquito Coast of eastern Honduras. This novel approach builds on extensive previous research in the area by the author. The proposed project explores the role of publiclydisplayed iconography (such as petroglyphs and large stone sculpture) in the social and political development of the region during Period V (AD 500-1000) and VI (AD 1000-1530). This type of iconography has not been analyzed in the past due to documentation difficulties, especially where the petroglyphs or sculpture was highly eroded. New portable 3-D imaging technology to be used by this project allows access to a new and valuable source of data not previously explored.

Biology

Grantee:   Patricia Salermo, University of Texas
Region:   South America/Venezuela
Project:   Treefrogs atop Tepuis:  Immigrants or natives to the Lost World?
Abstract: The flattop mountains (Tepuis) of South America are host to hundreds of endemic species (plants, amphibians, insects), most of which are unique to a single Tepui. These mountains are thought to be ancient ecosystems long isolated from the lowlands, and inspired Arthur Conan Doyle’s novel “The Lost World”. The unusually high endemicity has led researchers to generate the Lost World Hypothesis, that summit species have been isolated since Tepui formation (about 90mya). However, an alternative hypothesis proposes that paleoclimatic temperature shifts during the Pleistocene (2mya) promoted the dispersal of lowland species onto the Tepuis; thus, current highland endemics are recent colonizers. This research will use DNA sequence data to analyze relationships and estimate divergence times of treefrogs, including Tepui endemics and widespread lowland species.

Grantee:   Karen Redden Discipline, Smithsonian Institution
Region:   South America/Guyana 
Project:   Biodiversity of the Guiana Highlands: Botanical exploration of Mount Tulameng
Abstract: A six week botanical expedition to Mount Tulameng, a flat-topped sandstone mountain or tepui in the Pakaraima Mountains of west-central Guyana will provide data critical to interpreting patterns of plant diversity in the region and document this unique floristic area. This 1500 meter tepui is one of the highest elevations within Guyana whose biological diversity has never been inventoried. This expedition is expected to yield approximately 1000 fertile collections of plants and each collection will be supplemented with photographs, material for molecular studies and detailed field notes on life history information. Collections will be distributed to herbaria worldwide and will provide the primary research material that forms the basis of biogeographic and phylogenetic analyses, floristic and monographic studies and contributes valuable information that can be used for conservation planning. All data will be publically available on the Biodiversity of the Guiana Shield website (http://botany.si.edu/BDG/index.html). This expedition is likely to result in the discovery of new species and many new records of plants, all of which will contribute to the characterization of the flora of the mountains of Guyana, a flora which is very poorly known compared to that of the Venezuelan portion of the Guiana Highlands.

Grantee:   Deeann Reeder, Smithsonian Institution
Region:   Sudan, Africa
Project:   Mammals of Southern Sudan: Exploring Biodiversity in a Former Conflict Zone
Abstract: Sudan is the largest country in Africa and Southern Sudan is a region larger than Kenya, Uganda, and Rwanda combined. It is characterized primarily by moist savanna and montane forests and is historically known to house a variety of vertebrate species. However, wildlife has greatly suffered during the decades of civil war that have plagued this relatively poor nation. Because of the prolonged and nearly continuous conflict, studies of mammalian diversity in this region, particularly of small mammals, have been exceedingly rare. Building upon my previous work in the region and upon historic surveys I propose to lead an international team of scientists on an expedition to the Central and Eastern Equatoria states to conduct mammal surveys. The primary objectives are to document mammalian biodiversity by generating as complete a species list as possible, and to document (and eventually describe) any new species found. To accomplish this broad goal, a variety of methods for detecting mammals will be utilized, including trapping, acoustical surveys, motion sensitive camera traps, hair traps, and interviews with local villagers. Voucher specimens will be collected for deposit and preservation at the National Museum of Natural History (Smithsonian Institution). 

Geology

Grantee:   Alton Buyers, Mountain Institute
Region:   Nepal
Project:   The Threat from Above II: Risk Assessment of New and Potentially Dangerous Glacial Lakes in the Hongu Valley, Makalu-Barun National Park, Eastern Nepal.
Abstract: Between 4 October and 18 November, 2009, The Mountain Institute (TMI), in partnership with Hokkaido University, Japan, the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), Nepal, and the American Alpine Club (AAC) launched a scientific field expedition to the remote Hongu valley of Makalu-Barun National Park to scientifically assess the condition of nine (9) glacial lakes that have grown significantly over the past 20 years as a result of global warming. Using a range of field methods, expedition results provided valuable insights to existing analyses of the valley based entirely on remote sensing. L464, located at the base of Chamlang’s precipitous north face, was considered to be of concern because of its size, depth, volume, terminal moraine, and potential outburst “triggers” such as overhanging glaciers or ice. Considerable damage to downstream population centers could be expected in the event of a flood (e.g., Cheskam and beyond). We propose to continue this pioneering work by returning to the Hongu valley in October, 2010 for Phase II of the project.

Nautical Archaeology

Grantee:   Edward Von der Porten, Independent Researcher
Region:   North America/Mexico
Project:   Galleon in the Dunes
Abstract: The wreckage of the galleon San Felipe on the desert coast of Baja California provides insights into the earliest years of the China-Philippines-Mexico trade, as this winter 1576-1577 disaster is the earliest eastbound Manila galleon shipwreck. Her cargo was not yet codified for the Spanish market; rather, it is a sampler cargo which includes materials normally sent to the full range of Chinese trade contacts, from wealthy Japanese, through Indian and Indonesian rajas, to tribal peoples throughout Southeast Asia. This information comes from finds from reconnaissances conducted by our bi-national team on a complex desert site seven miles long and up to six hundred feet wide. Finds to date include 1300 Chinese porcelains of 103 types, from small fragments to complete; Chinese stonewares; lead sheets from the lower hull, and Philippine beeswax blocks.

Paleontology

Grantee:    Jessica Thompson, University of Queensland
Region:    Africa/Malawi
Project:    Testing hypotheses of the emergence and dispersal of modern humans with a long Middle Stone Age sequence from Malawi
Abstract:    Understanding the origins and dispersal of modern humans is one of the most prominent debates in paleoanthropology. One important question is if the emergence of behaviorallymodern humans took place over a short or a long time. Another is how climatic change affected demographic movements leading to modern human dispersals out of Africa. Neither problem can be addressed without long, well-dated archaeological and paleoclimatic sequences that span the critical time period known as the Middle Stone Age (MSA - from ca. 280 — 30 thousand years ago). However, most welldated MSA sequences only record a subset of this time period or are not accompanied by high-resolution paleoclimatic datasets. The proposed project will build the first such sequence with materials recovered from the Middle to Late Pleistocene Chitimwe Beds in the Karonga District of northern Malawi.

Grantee:    Nicholas Longrich, Yale University
Region:    Canada
Project:    Paleontology of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Arctic of the Northwest Territories, Canada: Asteroids and the Arctic
Abstract:    The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) mass extinction killed over 70% of all species on earth, ending the reign of dinosaurs and beginning the age of mammals. We now believe that the impact of a 10-kilometer asteroid caused the K-T extinction, but how the impact caused the extinction remains unclear. Data critical to understanding the extinction could be waiting in the remote reaches of the Canadian Arctic. Global climate change, in the form of rapid global cooling, may have been more important in the extinction than previously thought. Today, temperate and arctic animals are adapted to cold, but in the Cretaceous greenhouse world, the climate was warmer, with alligators and turtles living at high latitudes. Animals adapted to the Cretaceous greenhouse world would have been completely unprepared for heavy frosts and snows caused by asteroid debris blocking the sun. Studies of fossils from southern Canada support this idea, because the extinctions here seem to be more severe than in the United States.

Grantee:    Ryan Carney, Yale University
Region:    Europe
Project:    Archaeopteryx, the Icon of Evolution: Reconstructing the Color of the First Bird
Abstract:    Archaeopteryx (meaning “ancient wing”), the famous missing link between dinosaurs and birds, has been regarded as the icon of evolution ever since its discovery in 1861. Since that time, this species has become the most studied fossil bird, yet one crucial piece of information — the color of its plumage — has remained tantalizingly elusive to science and subject only to artistic speculation… until now. Team member Jakob Vinther has recently discovered that specialized microscopes can be used to identify coloration, based on the shape and density of pigment-containing structures called melanosomes that are preserved in certain fossil feathers. Applying this methodology to the renowned Archaeopteryx feather will thus allow us to peer back 150 million years into the past and, with statistical confidence, reconstruct the color of the very first bird. This study will also include the novel use of geographic information systems (GIS) software to map color over the entire surface of the feather and potentially detect pigmentation patterns. A second imaging technique may also be employed that would provide for the visualization and analysis of melanosomes in 3D space for the first time ever, allow for much more precise and accurate measurements than previously attainable, and detect the potential presence of feather iridescence. These special methodologies will raise the bar for future studies on fossil feather coloration, and the results will enhance our understanding of Archaeopteryx and ultimately the origins of birds and flight itself.

NGS/Waitt Grants: July Awards

Archaeology - 1
Biology - 3
Cultural Anthropology - 0
Geography - 0
Geology - 1
Nautical Archaeology, Underwater - 1
Oceanography, Biological- 0
Oceanography, Physical - 0
Paleontology - 3