candace gossen 

Summary
Recent Research at Ava Ranga Uka includes the coring of four water sites along an 8km long collapsed lava tube to find out if significant carbon and nitrogen relationships to drought and rainfall fluctuations could be found on the terrestrial landscape. In 2005 we conducted the first paleoecological studies using oxygen isotopes were conducted in Rano Kao and the core KAO3 produced 15,000 years of climate change cycles, periodic events and ecological changes in the forest and plant ecosystem. With this recent research we asked if the periodic water flow in Ava Ranga Uka could produce results similar to the lake water changes we discovered in Rano Kao.
In 2014, four half-meter cores were taken from water pools and waterfalls near to a newly discovered water fertility site at Henua Nua Mea. Within this site were the cultural artifacts of deliberate palm tree planting within man-made water channels. Connecting the paleoecological data from Rano Kao with the carbon/nitrogen results of Ava Ranga Uka, we begin to find patterns of drought and rainfall. When radiocarbon dates are available we may find that these climate events are related to this significant cultural site and perhaps to a cyclical climate event due to return in 2027.