HAWAII HISTORY SPELLED OUT IN ISLANDS’SOILS By Gail Gallessich, Contributing Writer for 93106 (Vol. 15, No.15)
Soil expert Oliver Chadwick studies Hawaii’s geography to understand its people’s history.
Oliver Chadwick is a doctor of dirt. The soil scientist––or biogeochemist, as he is known in some circles––is helping to shed light on the historical interactions between people and the soils of Hawaii. One of the world leaders in relating soils to ecology and earth system science, Chadwick’s research utilizes Hawaii as a model ecosystem to understand changes in the sources of rainforest nutrients.
The professor of geography and environmental science explains that Hawaii is a natural laboratory since it is enclosed and isolated, and because humans arrived there relatively recently, perhaps around 1,200 years ago. The results of his work have been published in scientific journals in the past year. click for more details
