Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: a widespread pattern of anthrosol formation

Schmidt, Morgan; Py‐Daniel, Anne Rapp; Moraes, Claide de Paula; Valle, Raoni Bernardo Maranhão; Caromano, Caroline Fernandes; Texeira, Wenceslau G.; Barbosa, Carlos Augusto Palheta; Fonseca, João Aires da; Magalhães, Marcos Pereira; Santos, Diego Henriques; Silva, Renan da Silva e; Guapindaia, Vera; Moraes, Bruno; Lima, Helena Pinto; Neves, Eduardo Góes; Heckenberger, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.jas.2013.11.002

Cited by 129 publications

(159 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…ADE sites are widely dispersed across a mosaic of landscapes (figure 2) and have the potential to feed millions of inhabitants. ADEs are the result of human waste management in and around settlements, and intentional burning, mulching and composting in agricultural areas [53,55,56]. ADE sites appear in parts of the Amazon in the sixth millennia BP [57], but increase rapidly in number and size after ca 2500 BP, associated with the expansion of sedentary societies [58].…”

Section: Anthropogenic Soils and Earthworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest

Denevan²,

et al. 2015

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During the twentieth century, Amazonia was widely regarded as relatively pristine nature, little impacted by human history. This view remains popular despite mounting evidence of substantial human influence over millennial scales across the region. Here, we review the evidence of an anthropogenic Amazonia in response to claims of sparse populations across broad portions of the region. Amazonia was a major centre of crop domestication, with at least 83 native species containing populations domesticated to some degree. Plant domestication occurs in domesticated landscapes, including highly modified Amazonian dark earths (ADEs) associated with large settled populations and that may cover greater than 0.1% of the region. Populations and food production expanded rapidly within land management systems in the mid-Holocene, and complex societies expanded in resource-rich areas creating domesticated landscapes with profound impacts on local and regional ecology. ADE food production projections support estimates of at least eight million people in 1492. By this time, highly diverse regional systems had developed across Amazonia where subsistence resources were created with plant and landscape domestication, including earthworks. This review argues that the Amazonian anthrome was no less socio-culturally diverse or populous than other tropical forested areas of the world prior to European conquest.

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Section: Anthropogenic Soils and Earthworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest

Denevan²,

et al. 2015

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“…Fire was intensely managed by pre-Columbian peoples in homegardens or settlement areas for domestic activities, such as cooking and burning waste. This domestic use may have contributed in the long run to fertilize the soil, producing the Terra Preta de Índio (TPI or Amazonian Dark Earths -ADE) (Smith, 1980;Schmidt et al, 2014) found throughout the Amazon basin (McMichael et al, 2014). Fire was also managed in swiddens to improve soil fertility with intensive cultivation techniques in ancient times, forming fertile dark brown soils, a soil slightly less fertile than TPI (Denevan, 2001;Woods et al, 2013).…”

Section: Fire Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The improvement of soil conditions was observed for piquiá trees inside the forest, in which local people accumulate leaf litter under the trees (Alves et al, 2016), and for açaí, uxí, and peach palm through organic additives (Shanley et al, 2016). Also, extremely fertile TPI were probably created in pre-Columbian refuse heaps in which ash and charcoal, human and animal wastes, and ceramics accumulated (Woods and McCann, 1999;Schmidt et al, 2014). Although TPI soils were a product of sedentary human settlement and cannot be classified as a management practice, modern people usually take advantage of these fertile soils to cultivate crops (Junqueira et al, 2016b).…”

Section: Soil Improvementmentioning

confidence: 99%

How People Domesticated Amazonian Forests

et al. 2018

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For millennia, Amazonian peoples have managed forest resources, modifying the natural environment in subtle and persistent ways. Legacies of past human occupation are striking near archaeological sites, yet we still lack a clear picture of how human management practices resulted in the domestication of Amazonian forests. The general view is that domesticated forests are recognizable by the presence of forest patches dominated by one or a few useful species favored by long-term human activities. Here, we used three complementary approaches to understand the long-term domestication of Amazonian forests. First, we compiled information from the literature about how indigenous and traditional Amazonian peoples manage forest resources to promote useful plant species that are mainly used as food resources. Then, we developed an interdisciplinary conceptual model of how interactions between these management practices across space and time may form domesticated forests. Finally, we collected field data from 30 contemporary villages located on and near archaeological sites, along four major Amazonian rivers, to compare with the management practices synthesized in our conceptual model. We identified eight distinct categories of management practices that contribute to form forest patches of useful plants: (1) removal of non-useful plants, (2) protection of useful plants, (3) attraction of non-human animal dispersers, (4) transportation of useful plants, (5) selection of phenotypes, (6) fire management, (7) planting of useful plants, and (8) soil improvement. Our conceptual model, when ethnographically projected into the past, reveals how the interaction of these multiple management practices interferes with natural ecological processes, resulting in the domestication of Amazonian forest patches dominated by useful species. Our model suggests that management practices became more frequent as human population increased during the Holocene. In the field, we found that useful perennial plants occur in multi-species patches around archaeological sites, and that the dominant species are still Levis et al. Amazonian Forest Domestication managed by local people, suggesting long-term persistence of ancient cultural practices. The management practices we identified have transformed plant species abundance and floristic composition through the creation of diverse forest patches rich in edible perennial plants that enhanced food production and food security in Amazonia.

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“…ADEs are indicators of preColumbian fire activity and sedentary occupation and are one of the most distinct lines of evidence of human transformation of the Amazon (Glaser and Woods, 2004;Heckenberger and Neves, 2009). Previous studies suggest frequent burning played a fundamental role in producing ADE soils (Smith, 1980;Lehmann et al, 2003a;Glaser and Woods, 2004;Woods et al, 2009;Schmidt et al, 2014;Iriarte, 2016Iriarte, , 2017 and improving soil fertility (Denevan, 1992(Denevan, , 2001Woods et al, 2013). 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).…”

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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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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Dark earths and the human built landscape in Amazonia: a widespread pattern of anthrosol formation

Cited by 129 publications

References 28 publications

The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest

The domestication of Amazonia before European conquest

How People Domesticated Amazonian Forests

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

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