Contemporary distribution of Macrozamia dyeri (Zamiaceae) is correlated with patterns of Nyungar occupation in south‐east coastal Western Australia

Abstract

Indigenous societies' interactions with plants may result in contemporary distribution patterns that reflect these relationships, such as concentration of resource species close to occupation sites or transport routes. Seeds of the cycad, Macrozamia dyeri, are food of Nyungar First People of the southeastern Southwest Australian Floristic Region. Processing of seeds by leaching in soil or water enables detoxification and preservation of the pre-colonial staple, a Nyungar technique archaeologically dated to at least 13 000 years BP. We measured the distance of M. dyeri populations to cultural landscape features and registered heritage sites. We also compared within-population plant distribution characteristics to Nyungar occupation preferences around granite inselbergs. We found evidence of Nyungar influence on contemporary distribution of M. dyeri. Populations of M. dyeri occur close to surface water features in the west and granite outcrops in the east of Nyungar country, which corresponds closely to differential pre-colonial patterns of Nyungar occupation. M. dyeri population frequency was negatively correlated with distance to registered Nyungar sites, and 75% of all M. dyeri populations occur within 3.2 km of a registered Nyungar site. We found no correlation between habitat availability and size of granite populations, but found that Nyungar occupation preferences in relation to ground surface aspect, slope and landform type correlated with intra-population M. dyeri plant distribution, suggesting a mutualistic relationship with Nyungar people, has influenced the plant's distribution. We suggest that contemporary M. dyeri distribution is therefore useful for interpreting past location-specific Nyungar land practices to inform contemporary conservation management. Our findings demonstrate that along with edaphic, climate and other environmental factors, consideration of pre-colonial human dispersal and land practices is important for plant conservation in Australia, particularly for taxa with prolonged use by humans. Further, we suggest that analyses of long-lived Macrozamia elsewhere may be useful for interpreting past Aboriginal land practices.

Signatures of natural selection in a foundation tree along Mediterranean climatic gradients

“…The LES population, which is the northmost population, displays mixed affinity, being similar to both southern (green) and northern (yellow and red) populations. This is consistent with the northern areas harbouring ancestral variation in other co-occurring species (e.g., marri;Sampson et al, 2018), or could indicate possible historic human influence through Aboriginal movement of plantsLullfitz, Dabb, et al, 2020).…”

Overview and Investigation of Australian Aboriginal Lizard Traps

“…To create a distribution map of lizard traps (Figure 2), coordinates were collated from archaeological reports (Applied Archaeology Australia and South Coast NRM 2011; Greenfeld and Baldisseri 2012, 2013; Greenfeld and Gillies 2008; Guilfoyle et al 2009; Hallam 1970; McDonald, Hales, and Associates 1994; Western Australia Regional Forest Agreement 1997), journal articles (Bindon 1997; Bird 1985; Dortch et al 2010; Guislain et al 2020; Gunn 2006; Hopper et al 2016, 2021; Lullfitz et al 2017, 2020; Mitchell 2016, Mitchell et al 2013; Rossi 2014; Smith 1993), and the Aboriginal Heritage Inquiry System, Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage. These locations referred to either individual propped rocks, propped rock complexes, or granite outcrops which contain at least one propped rock.…”

A review of the de novo domestication and cultivation of edible Australian native plants as food crops

“…There is evidence for the intensive management and manipulation of Australian flora by people via practices such as the use of fire and the translocation of food plants (Hallam, 1989;Bowman, 1998;Clarke, 2011;Ens et al, 2017;Silcock, 2018;Lullfitz et al, 2020aLullfitz et al, , 2020bKeen, 2021;Fahey et al, 2022), and 'nonagricultural' cultures are also known to have engaged in 'niche constructive' behaviours that maintained or increased the productivity of their environments (Smith, 2011;Anderson, 2013;Lightfoot et al, 2013;Thompson et al, 2021aThompson et al, , 2021b. Such activities can result in lasting changes in the geographic distribution and genetic composition of plant taxa (Levis et al, 2017;Coughlan and Nelson, 2018;Levis et al, 2018;Pavlik et al, 2021).…”

“…Such activities can result in lasting changes in the geographic distribution and genetic composition of plant taxa (Levis et al, 2017;Coughlan and Nelson, 2018;Levis et al, 2018;Pavlik et al, 2021). This appears to have resulted in detectable changes in the genetics of some Australian taxa (Rangan et al, 2015;Lullfitz et al, 2020aLullfitz et al, , 2020b and may have also resulted in phenotypic changes. For example, it has been proposed that the large grain size in some native Australian Oryza may reflect human selection (Henry, 2019).…”