This five-year project (2009-2014), funded by the National Science Foundation Opportunities for Enhancing Diversity in the Geosciences (OEDG) Program, uses core samples from the bottoms of six lakes on the Fond du Lac Reservation to reconstruct the historical distribution and abundance of wild rice (manoomin, Zizania palustris) in six lakes on the Fond du Lac Reservation, and will connect this record with sedimentary indicators of lake level, nutrient conditions, and substrate composition, as well as with oral history and land use records. Tribal college, high school, and junior high students and their teachers conduct field work and laboratory research with guidance from University of Minnesota scientists, Fond du Lac Resource Management staff, and others.
The project does not involve research on the genetics of wild rice.
This project is a collaboration between the University of Minnesota (Diana Dalbotten, Emi Ito, Amy Myrbo), Fond Du Lac Tribal and Community College (Andrew Wold), and Fond Du Lac Resource Management (Tom Howes, Nancy Schuldt).
2012 Camp Research Projects
Project Posters
Project Posters