A 6900-year history of landscape modification by humans in lowland Amazonia

Bush, Mark B.; Correa‐Metrio, Alexander; McMichael, Crystal N.H.; Sully, Shannon; Shadik, Courtney R.; Valencia, Bryan G.; Guilderson, T.; Steinitz‐Kannan, Miriam; Overpeck, Jonathan T.

doi:10.1016/j.quascirev.2016.03.022

Cited by 95 publications

(123 citation statements)

References 109 publications

(143 reference statements)

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“…In addition to soil amelioration, pre-Columbians used fire for domestic activities in settlement areas for food preparation, home garden management, crop cultivation, and burning waste (Pausas and Keeley, 2009;de Souza et al, 2017). As natural fire activity is rare in old growth rainforests, high abundance of charcoal in archeological settlements is interpreted as evidence of past fire (henceforth paleofire) management in Amazon forests (Bush et al, 2016). Additionally, charcoal from lake sediments, along with the presence of crop pollen, have been interpreted as unequivocal evidence for pre-Columbian crop cultivation and fire management (Bush et al, 2000(Bush et al, , 2007a(Bush et al, , 2016Whitney et al, 2012;Urrego et al, 2013;Carson et al, 2014;Maezumi et al, 2017).…”

Section: Human Impacts In the Amazonmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As natural fire activity is rare in old growth rainforests, high abundance of charcoal in archeological settlements is interpreted as evidence of past fire (henceforth paleofire) management in Amazon forests (Bush et al, 2016). Additionally, charcoal from lake sediments, along with the presence of crop pollen, have been interpreted as unequivocal evidence for pre-Columbian crop cultivation and fire management (Bush et al, 2000(Bush et al, , 2007a(Bush et al, , 2016Whitney et al, 2012;Urrego et al, 2013;Carson et al, 2014;Maezumi et al, 2017). To date however, very little is known about the history or impact of paleofire management strategies in forests associated with ADE soils (henceforth ADE forests) in the Amazon.…”

Section: Human Impacts In the Amazonmentioning

confidence: 99%

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New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests

et al. 2018

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Anthropogenic climate change driven by increased carbon emissions is leading to more severe fire seasons and increasing the frequency of mega-fires in the Amazon. This has the potential to convert Amazon forests from net carbon sinks to net carbon sources. Although modern human influence over the Earth is substantial, debate remains over when humans began to dominate Earth's natural systems. To date, little is known about the history of human land use in key regions like the Amazon. Here, we examine the history of human occupation from a ∼8,500 year-old sediment core record from Lake Caranã (LC) in the eastern Amazon. The onset of pre-Columbian activity at LC (∼4,500 cal yr B.P.) is associated with the beginning of fire management and crop cultivation, later followed by the formation of Amazonian Dark Earth soils (ADEs) ∼2,000 cal yr B.P. Selective forest enrichment of edible plants and low-severity fire activity altered the composition and structure of forests growing on ADEs (ADE forests) making them more drought susceptible and fire-prone. Following European colonization (1661 A.D.), the Amazon rubber boom (mid-1800s to 1920 A.D.) is associated with record-low fire activity despite drier regional climate, indicating fire exclusion. The formation of FLONA Reserve in 1974 A.D. is accompanied by the relocation of traditional populations and a fire suppression policy. Despite suppression efforts, biomass burning and fire severity in the past decade is higher than any other period in the record. This is attributed to combined climate and human factors which create optimal conditions for mega-fires in ADE forests and threatens to transform the Amazon from a net carbon sink to a net carbon source. To help mitigate the occurrence of mega-fires, a fire management policy reducing fire-use and careful fire management for farming may help to reduce fuel loads and the occurrence of mega-fires in fire-prone ADE forests. As both natural and anthropogenic pressures are projected to increase in the Amazon, this study provides valuable insights into the legacy of past human land use on modern ADE forest composition, structure, and flammability that can inform ecological benchmarks and future management efforts in the eastern Amazon.

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Section: Human Impacts In the Amazonmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Human Impacts In the Amazonmentioning

confidence: 99%

New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests

et al. 2018

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“…A likely source of past large-scale disturbances on these time scales is ancient people, who actively modified landscapes (27)(28)(29) and have been cultivating crops in some regions of the Amazon since at least 6,000 y ago (30,31). The Llanos de Moxos region in Bolivia contains abundant evidence of ancient people in the form of fish weirs, berms, and raised canals (28).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Ancient human disturbances may be skewing our understanding of Amazonian forests

McMichael

Matthews‐Bird

Farfán-Ríos

et al. 2017

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Although the Amazon rainforest houses much of Earth's biodiversity and plays a major role in the global carbon budget, estimates of tree biodiversity originate from fewer than 1,000 forest inventory plots, and estimates of carbon dynamics are derived from fewer than 200 recensus plots. It is well documented that the pre-European inhabitants of Amazonia actively transformed and modified the forest in many regions before their population collapse around 1491 AD; however, the impacts of these ancient disturbances remain entirely unaccounted for in the many highly influential studies using Amazonian forest plots. Here we examine whether Amazonian forest inventory plot locations are spatially biased toward areas with high probability of ancient human impacts. Our analyses reveal that forest inventory plots, and especially forest recensus plots, in all regions of Amazonia are located disproportionately near archaeological evidence and in areas likely to have ancient human impacts. Furthermore, regions of the Amazon that are relatively oversampled with inventory plots also contain the highest values of predicted ancient human impacts. Given the long lifespan of Amazonian trees, many forest inventory and recensus sites may still be recovering from past disturbances, potentially skewing our interpretations of forest dynamics and our understanding of how these forests are responding to global change. Empirical data on the human history of forest inventory sites are crucial for determining how past disturbances affect modern patterns of forest composition and carbon flux in Amazonian forests.Amazon | succession | carbon dynamics | hyperdominants | biomass

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“…This route is linked to the coastal Guianas, an ancient area of exchange of Amazonian crops with Mesoamerica (Schultes, 1984). Molecular data of early maize (Zea mays) introduction into South America support dispersal from Mesoamerica through the Caribbean, spreading along the lowlands of the northeastern coast of South America to finally reach Amazon Basin through river systems (Freitas et al, 2003;Bedoya et al, 2017), although the oldest archaeological remains of maize are western (Bush et al, 2016). This route also agrees with pineapple dispersal from the Guianas, where it was domesticated and introduced into Mexico (Coppens D'Eeckenbrugge and Duval, 2009).…”

Section: Hypotheses Of Treegourd Introduction Into Amazoniamentioning

confidence: 65%

Diversity of Treegourd (Crescentia cujete) Suggests Introduction and Prehistoric Dispersal Routes into Amazonia

et al. 2017

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The use and dispersal of domesticated plants may reflect patterns of early human diffusion of technologies and lifestyles. Treegourd (Crescentia cujete) has fruits with ancient utilitarian and symbolic value in the Neotropics. We assessed diversity based on chloroplast (SNPs), nuclear (SSR) markers, and fruit shapes of cultivated treegourds and wild relatives across Amazonia and Mesoamerica in order to discuss hypothesis of dispersal routes and diversification of fruits along its distribution. The haplotype network showed three distinct groups: Crescentia amazonica, wild Mesoamerican C. cujete, and cultivated C. cujete from Brazilian Amazonia and Mexico. Mexico and Brazil shared two haplotypes, with slightly different distributions in Amazonia. The most divergent haplotype is well-represented in Eastern Amazonia. Nuclear differentiation between Mesoamerican wild and cultivated C. cujete is relatively low (F ST = 0.35), compared with Amazonian cultivated (F ST = 0.45-0.61). Differentiation is also higher between wild C. amazonica and cultivated C. cujete (F ST = 0.57), but modest within cultivated C. cujete from Amazonia and Mexico (F ST = 0.04), with higher genetic similarity in northwestern Amazonia. Mexico and Amazonia showed similar chloroplast nucleotide diversity (4.66 × 10 −2 and 5.31 × 10 −2 , respectively), although sample sizes are very different. Except in Northwestern and Eastern Amazonia, we found ample genetic homogeneity of cultivated C. cujete across Amazonia, but highest morphological diversity in the Northwest, with fruit shapes that are absent in Mexico. We conclude that treegourds introduced into the Amazon Basin and Mexico share a common ancestry with a currently unknown origin. The patterns of genetic diversity across Amazonia allow two hypotheses of the routes of introduction: a northwestern introduction into the Negro and Solimões Rivers, and an eastern introduction from the coastal Guianas into the Amazonas River. The dispersal into Amazonia followed previously proposed routes of human and plant migrations. The contrasting fruit shape diversity suggests different utilitarian demands and cultural preferences for treegourd fruits between Mexico and Amazonia.Keywords: bignoniaceae, calabash, cuia, domestication, ethnobotany, historical ecology, phylogeography Moreira et al. Introduction and Dispersal of Treegourd INTRODUCTIONThe use and dispersal of domesticated plants may reflect the patterns of diffusion of human technologies and lifestyles since prehistoric times (Bellwood, 2005;Blench, 2012). Humans greatly expand plants' geographical distributions, which ultimately exerts different ecological and cultural pressures on the evolutionary pathways of plants (Rindos, 1984;Sodero Martins, 2005;Leclerc and Coppensd'Eeckenbrugge, 2012;Meyer and Purugganan, 2013). Various centers of domestication have been proposed in the Americas (Meyer et al., 2012) from where people exchanged plants (Heiser, 1965;Schultes, 1984; ColungaGarcíaMarín and Zizumbo-Villarreal, 2004). Amazonia is one of them (Clemen...

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A 6900-year history of landscape modification by humans in lowland Amazonia

Abstract: 2016-11-03T14:11:40

Cited by 95 publications

References 109 publications

New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests

New Insights From Pre-Columbian Land Use and Fire Management in Amazonian Dark Earth Forests

Ancient human disturbances may be skewing our understanding of Amazonian forests

Diversity of Treegourd (Crescentia cujete) Suggests Introduction and Prehistoric Dispersal Routes into Amazonia

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