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Steve Wolverton is an archaeologist and animal ecologist in the Department of Geography at UNT. His research stresses human-environment interactions in many times and places to emphasize a variety of research problems and approaches. Some of these relate to subsistence and sustainability in prehistoric cultures. Others concern the implications of studying long time scales in animal ecology for purposes of conservation. Additional research focuses on aspects of interdisciplinary problem solving through scholarly research and communication; for example, an interdisciplinary team of scientists at UNT have garnered several years of NSF funding to address methods for removing and studying food residues from archaeological pottery. Another example is a project viewing the story of prehistoric Mesa Verde depopulation in southwestern Colorado through various lenses from science, to film and nature photography, to poetry and philosophy, which has received initial funding from the CSID.
Important publications include two recent papers (2009 and 2011) in Ecological Monographs co-authored with Michael Huston (Texas State University) on the global distribution of net primary production, forest ecosystems, animal size and biomass, and other biological and cultural phenomena. In addition, Steve is working on an edited volume co-edited with R. Lee Lyman (University of Missouri) entitled “Zooarchaeological Perspectives on Conservation Biology,” which includes numerous case studies highlighting the utility of archaeological data in conservation biology. Steve is founding co-editor of Ethnobiology Letters and is serving his second term as Treasurer of the Society of Ethnobiology. He is also author of the Daily Science Professor Blog.