Projects Benefit from Nova Scotia Museum Research Grants

NOTE: A list of research grant recipients follows this release.

Five research projects in the areas of marine history, archaeology, cultural history, palaeontology and natural history will benefit from grants announced today, May 14, by the Nova Scotia Museum board of governors.

A total of $18,895 will be distributed between the five recipients.

"Providing support for researchers to continue their projects is important. Their findings will help us better understand the world around us," said David Wilson, Minister of Communities, Culture and Heritage.

"The board of governors was impressed with the quality of the research proposals this year and considers it important to continue to support projects that augment the work of the museum," said Sandra Nowlan, chair, Research Grant Committee, Nova Scotia Museum board of governors.

Successful recipients have demonstrated their projects will improve Nova Scotians' understanding of heritage or offer a different interpretation of the province's cultural history. Results from the research can generate artifacts and specimens for the provincial collections.

Sandra Barr, one of the recipients, will use microscopic fossils called acritarchs and trace fossils to help determine the age of rock beds in Nova Scotia.

Fossils from rocks found in southern Nova Scotia and parts of Cape Breton have never been studied before and will provide new insights on the evolution of life and on Nova Scotia's palaeogeography. The research will be available to other scientists and the public and the fossils will be added to the Nova Scotia Museum collection.

"We are studying tiny microscopic fossils in rocks now exposed on land in Nova Scotia that formed from sediments deposited on the ocean floor about 550 to 475 million years ago," said Ms. Barr. "By comparing these organic remains to those in rocks of similar age elsewhere in the world, we can better understand the early evolution of animals and the oceans in which they lived."

The board received 33 grant applications.

For more information on the projects visit http://museum.gov.ns.ca .

2012 research grant recipients:

• Roger Marsters, Mahone Bay, Marine History Category, $4,000. He will examine the province's economic and cultural connections with fishing communities on the Labrador coast during the 19th and early 20th century
• Dorota Forfa, Halifax, Archaeology Category, $3,450. The project will identify clay deposits near Bear River that were used by the Mi'kmaq for pottery clay
• Kirsten Aletta Greer, Kingston, Ont., Cultural History Category, $4,000. She will document the role of the British Navy and military in researching early North Atlantic natural history and geography
• Sandra Barr, Wolfville, Palaeontology Category, $4,000, will use fossils to help determine the age of rock beds in Nova Scotia
• Kate Rawlinson, Halifax, Natural History Category, $3,445, wil survey habitats of the polyclad flatworm.