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RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS

JANUARY 2018
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SCHOLARLY STUDIES AWARDS IN FY2018 SUPPORT 32 DIVERSE RESEARCH PROJECTS

In late December 2017, the Office of the 

Provost announced the recipients of the 

FY2018 Scholarly Studies Awards. The 

internal grants program (approximately 

$2M) is available to Smithsonian staff in 

all disciplines with a maximum $75,000 

one-year award drawn from trust and 

endowment funding. 

A group of confidential Smithsonian peer 

scholars reviewed, rated, and ranked all 

92 proposals received. Given the limited 

funding available, a total of 32 awards 

were made to Smithsonian investigators 

or investigator teams. 

The internal program will support a 

variety of research endeavors. For 

example: The evolution of domestication 

in cassava, a project proposed by Logan 

Kistler of the National Museum of 

Natural History working with a Brazilian co-Investigator; Investigating the Validity of the Planet-9 Hypothesis, 

research proposed by Matthew Payne and Matthew Holman of the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory; 

and an exhibition and book project, American Cosmos, proposed by Eleanor Harvey of the Smithsonian 

American Art Museum, to examine the impact of 19th-century naturalist Alexander von Humboldt. 

SMITHSONIAN SCHOLARS GUEST EDIT AND CONTRIBUTE TO SPECIAL EDITION JOURNAL

 

A group of Smithsonian scholars and museum peers have come together to produce an issue of Curator: The 

Museum Journal exclusively focused on ivory. The journal, published quarterly since 1958, reaches 2,800 

subscribers and invites museum professionals, researchers, and students to explore and debate the urgent 

issues shaping the museum field. 

Guest editors Scott Miller, Deputy Under Secretary for Collections and Interdisciplinary Support, Cheryl 

Braunstein of the National Zoo, and Marjorie Trusted, Senior Curator at the Victoria and Albert Museum in 

The Smithsonian's collections are the foundation for long-term research. They 

represent our nation's rich heritage, art from across the globe, and the 

immense diversity of the natural and cultural world.
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London, contributed to the issue and secured the cooperation of 24 contributors. Additional Smithsonian 

contributors include Richard Kurin, Ambassador at Large; Madelyn Shaw, National Museum of American 

History; and Barbara Stauffer, National Museum of Natural History.

The ivory issue discusses threatened African and Asian elephants but also highlights the role of historic ivory 

works of art and how museums might engage visitors on the topic of ivory. The special focus issue was triggered, 

in part, by stricter regulations in May 2016 that made it illegal to import any ivory into the U.S. Contributors 

grapple with the need for more effective measures to preserve elephants while also protecting and treasuring 

ivory in historical contexts. Director Emerita Johnnetta Betsch Cole, for example, examines the issue through 

the lens of the National Museum of African Art which has strategically used historic ivory within exhibitions to 

inspire dialogue about current policy and conservation challenges.

The special issue journal will be published in January 2018 as a double-issue with open access planned for all 

articles.

IN THE WILD, DIVERSITY DETERMINES ECOSYSTEM PRODUCTION AS MUCH AS

CLIMATE AND NUTRIENTS

Biodiversity is proving to be one of humanity’s 

best defenses against extreme weather and 

rising temperatures. In past experiments, 

diversity has fostered healthier, more productive 

ecosystems, such as shoreline vegetation that 

guards against hurricanes. However, many 

experts doubted whether these experiments 

would hold up in the real world. A Smithsonian 

and University of Michigan study published in a 

September issue of Nature offers a decisive 

answer: biodiversity’s power in the wild does not 

match that predicted by experiments—it 

surpasses it, in some cases topping even the 

effects of climate.

“Biodiversity is not just a pretty face,” said 

Emmett Duffy, lead author and marine 

ecologist. Duffy directs the Smithsonian’s 

Marine Global Earth Observatory

(MarineGEO), an international network of sites 

that track biodiversity in coastal ecosystems around the world. “Protecting it is important for keeping the 

ecosystems working for us, providing food, absorbing waste, and protecting shorelines.”

In the past, ecologists primarily tested biodiversity’s impact through carefully controlled experiments: planting 

one or several species in plots while ensuring everything else remained the same, and observing which plots 

grew best. However, those experiments in many ways do not mimic reality. In this study, biologists synthesized 

data from 67 observational studies of nature in the field, covering grasslands, forests, freshwater environments, 

and marine environments. The studies spanned all seven continents and contained data from over 600,000 

sampling locations around the world.

A school of grunts explores a shallow reef at Carrie Bow Cay, Belize, 

one of Smithsonian MarineGEO's long-term research sites. Biodiversity 

not only can make sites beautiful but can also help boost their 

biomass and make them more productive. Credit: Ross Whippo/SERC
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In every type of ecosystem the team analyzed, biodiversity went hand-in-hand with more flourishing 

ecosystems. More diverse systems had higher biomass, and the effect was stronger in natural studies than has 

been predicted from controlled experiments. This connection held true even after the team controlled for other 

environmental factors, such as temperature and nutrients. More strikingly, in nature biodiversity topped 

climate as the most powerful predictor of biomass production in roughly half the studies, and it topped nutrients 

in two-thirds of them.

MARINE COSTAL SPECIES HITCH A RIDE ACROSS THE PACIFIC FOLLOWING TSUNAMI

The 2011 Japanese tsunami set the stage for something unprecedented. For the first time in recorded history, 

scientists have detected entire communities of coastal species crossing the ocean by floating on makeshift rafts. 

Nearly 300 species have appeared on the shores of Hawaii and the U.S. West Coast attached to tsunami debris, 

as reported by marine biologists from the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, Williams College, and 

other institutions. Their work was featured in the journal Science in September. 

The tsunami occurred on March 11, 2011, triggered 

by an earthquake of 9.0 moment magnitude that 

struck Japan the same day. At its highest point, the 

tsunami towered 125 feet over Japan’s Tōhoku 

coast and swept millions of objects out to sea, from 

small pieces of plastic to fishing boats and docks. 

These types of objects, scientists said, helped the 

species attached to them complete the 

transoceanic journey.

“I didn’t think that most of these coastal 

organisms could survive at sea for long periods of 

time,” said Greg Ruiz, a co-author and marine 

biologist at the Smithsonian Environmental 

Research Center. “But in many ways, they just 

haven’t had much opportunity in the past. Now, plastic can combine with tsunami and storm events to create 

that opportunity on a large scale.”

Scientists began finding tsunami debris washing up in Hawaii and western North America in 2012, with living 

organisms still attached. From 2012 to 2017, they continued to find debris, including buoys, crates, vessels, and 

docks. In total, they detected 289 living species on tsunami debris originating from Japan, and they suspect 

there are far more that escaped their notice. While the arrivals have slowed down, they have not stopped. The 

team was still finding new species when the study period ended in 2017.

The increase in marine plastics and other more durable debris also made survival easier, according to the 

researchers. Much of the debris the scientists found rafted ashore was made of fiberglass or other plastic 

materials that do not decompose and could easily survive six or more years at sea.

“There’s an increasing load of plastic and microplastics at sea that are thought to have significant consequences 

for biology and ecology,” Ruiz said. “This is one other dimension and consequence of plastics and manmade 

material that deserves attention.”

Examples of species rafted to the U.S. on tsunami debris. Left: 

Mediterranean mussels, barnacles and sea anemones in found Long 

Beach, Washington, in February 2017. Credit: Nancy Treneman. 

Right: Marine sea slugs washed ashore in Oregon in April 2015. 

Credit: John Chapman.
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SCIENCE AND ART COME TOGETHER AT THE SACKLER GALLERY

The only existing sixth- and seventh-century Chinese lacquer Buddha sculptures have come together for the 

first time in an exhibition at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery. Secrets of the Lacquer Buddha will be on view 

through June 10, 2018.

Modern technology and scientific analysis have revealed how these extremely rare life-sized Chinese Buddha 

sculptures were created and what they are made of. These new insights offer a deeper historical 

understanding of the three Buddha sculptures: one from the Freer Gallery of Art, one from the Walters Art 

Museum in Baltimore and one from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The exhibition 

explores the methods and ancient process of making sculptures in lacquer, a resin from native trees of 

northeast Asia.

Highlighting the impact science has on understanding art, Secrets of the Lacquer Buddha identifies the 

materials used in the creation of these centuries-old sculptures. The complex and time-consuming process 

began with a core made of wood or clay covered with cloth strips wet with lacquer and thickened with 

materials such as oils, blood, and burnt bone.

The layers of strips and lacquer created a three-dimensional surface. Each layer of lacquer was dried through 

a complex process, requiring it to set before the next coating was applied. The sculpture was painted bright 

colors to give a lifelike appearance, and gold leaf was added to resemble glowing skin. These details and other 

hidden features were revealed through sophisticated conservation techniques.

“We thought that such sculptures were expensive and fragile; through scientific analysis, we have confirmed 

this,” said Donna Strahan, the Freer|Sackler’s head of conservation and scientific research. “We found the 

methods used to make them were much more complicated than those used to create utilitarian lacquer 

objects.”

The above sculptures are both called Buddha; China, Tang dynasty (618–907), early 7th century. Both are 

hollow-core lacquer with pigment and gilding. The sculpture on the left is part of the collection of the 

Freer Endowment. The sculpture on the right is part of the collection at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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The Freer|Sackler’s Department of Conservation and Scientific Research used specialized equipment and new 

methods to analyze the sculptures, exposing microscopic details. X-radiography and computerized 

tomography scans explored details hidden to the human eye. X-ray fluorescence analysis analyzed the eyes, 

and a scanning electron microscope was used to study bone particles mixed into the lacquer. Newly 

developed methods were used to study unusual organic materials in the lacquer layers. With each method, 

insights were gained that open up a new understanding of the lacquer process used in sixth- and seventhcentury China. This technology allows visitors to peer into the science behind the art of ancient lacquer.