Energetic efficiency and political expediency in Titicaca Basin raised field agriculture

Bandy, Matthew

doi:10.1016/j.jaa.2005.03.002

Cited by 58 publications

(39 citation statements)

References 21 publications

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“…Raised-field agriculture certainly had the capacity to support large and concentrated populations in the Guiana coast. A conservative estimate for a single annual crop, using the lowest maize productivity (2 t·ha −1 ) obtained from raised field experiments (5) and assuming 25% of fields in use (to allow for fallow periods, which were likely to have been necessary [41,42]), shows that maize agricultural production would have been able to support a minimum of 234 persons in Grand Macoua (75 ha of cultivable surface) assuming a maize equivalent of 160 kg consumption per person per year, the rest of the diet being supplied by other foods (43,44). This estimate is based on analysis of aerial photographs showing that raised-field patches cover 167 ha in Grand Macoua and that within these patches field surfaces account for ≈45% of total surface.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such self-organizing mechanisms could have increased the resilience of raised-field agroecosystems. Experiments in contemporary rehabilitation of raised-field agriculture show declining yields after several years (41,42); integration of fallow periods thus would have been necessary. Our results suggest that during fallow periods, selforganizing mechanisms could maintain mounds and enhance the concentration of resources within them, reducing the labor costs needed to restore raised fields in the following cultivation cycle.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our results suggest an important dimension that must be taken into account in attempts to rehabilitate raisedfield agriculture for food production today (52,53). These experiments have shown that social, cultural, and economic factors, such as the time cost of labor input, may limit contemporary acceptability (5,41,42,54) of systems whose agricultural productivity per hectare is unquestioned (see refs. 55-57 for lowland examples).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Self-organizing processes in fallows could reduce the labor costs of rehabilitating fields for the next cultivation cycle. Exploiting these processes could help us design systems more appropriate to contemporary social and technological environments, thus countering a recognized barrier to the usefulness of raised-field agriculture today (5,41,42,54). In these ecosystemstoday considered inhospitable for agriculture-understanding and imitating how pre-Columbian farmers coupled human and natural engineering could thus point to future applications in ecological engineering.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia

McKey

Rostain

Iriarte

et al. 2010

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

172

137

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The scale and nature of pre-Columbian human impacts in Amazonia are currently hotly debated. Whereas pre-Columbian people dramatically changed the distribution and abundance of species and habitats in some parts of Amazonia, their impact in other parts is less clear. Pioneer research asked whether their effects reached even further, changing how ecosystems function, but few in-depth studies have examined mechanisms underpinning the resilience of these modifications. Combining archeology, archeobotany, paleoecology, soil science, ecology, and aerial imagery, we show that pre-Columbian farmers of the Guianas coast constructed large raised-field complexes, growing on them crops including maize, manioc, and squash. Farmers created physical and biogeochemical heterogeneity in flat, marshy environments by constructing raised fields. When these fields were later abandoned, the mosaic of welldrained islands in the flooded matrix set in motion self-organizing processes driven by ecosystem engineers (ants, termites, earthworms, and woody plants) that occur preferentially on abandoned raised fields. Today, feedbacks generated by these ecosystem engineers maintain the human-initiated concentration of resources in these structures. Engineer organisms transport materials to abandoned raised fields and modify the structure and composition of their soils, reducing erodibility. The profound alteration of ecosystem functioning in these landscapes coconstructed by humans and nature has important implications for understanding Amazonian history and biodiversity. Furthermore, these landscapes show how sustainability of food-production systems can be enhanced by engineering into them fallows that maintain ecosystem services and biodiversity. Like anthropogenic dark earths in forested Amazonia, these self-organizing ecosystems illustrate the ecological complexity of the legacy of pre-Columbian land use.French Guiana | historical ecology | land-use legacy | raised-field agriculture | coupled human and natural systems S ome tropical landscapes long considered "pristine" are now known to have been densely occupied by humans in the past (1, 2), inspiring optimism that these environments and their biodiversity may be more resilient to intensive human use than often feared (3, 4). Among the most extensive apparently pristine landscapes are the forests and, by extension, the savannas of Amazonia. The extent to which Amazonian ecosystems were affected by preColumbian human activities is currently hotly debated. This controversy has bearings on much broader debates about how to conceptualize the history of forested and other tropical systems and the ecological footprint of past agriculture upon them (2, 5) and how to plan for the transition of these systems toward future global food, energy, and carbon needs (6-10). It still is argued whether the influence of pre-Columbian humans was minor and localized (11) or important and widespread (12, 13). The nature of this impact is also unclear. In addition to altering the species composition of commu...

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia

McKey

Rostain

Iriarte

et al. 2010

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

172

137

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“…Por lo que en el futuro el efecto del cambio climático es directa sobre las poblaciones rurales por las alteraciones del clima, que de por sí ya es hostil por su posición geográfica por encima de los 3,800 m.s.n.m., con rendimientos de producción cada vez más bajos y el cultivo de la papa permanente nunca fue posible en la cuenca del Titicaca, debido a la presencia de nematodos parasitaria del género Globodera, así como a otros factores (Bandy, 2005), por lo que es necesario analizar el comportamiento de las series históricas de temperaturas y precipitación, y determinar la relación que existe entre las variables climáticas y el rendimiento de los cultivos seleccionados en el periodo de veinte años en la cuenca Ramis.…”

Section: Introductionunclassified

Efectos Del Cambio Climático en La Agricultura De La Cuenca Ramis, Puno-Perú

Quispe¹

2015

Rev. Investig. Altoandin. - RIA -

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El cambio climático viene alterando las condiciones del clima local; siendo los parámetros más sensibles las temperaturas extremas y las precipitaciones pluviales; por ende se investiga los efectos del cambio climático en la agricultura de la cuenca Ramis evaluando el comportamiento de las variables climáticas y su consecuencia en la actividad agrícola del altiplano peruano. Se trabajó con las series históricas de temperaturas extremas y precipitaciones pluviales de 46 años de las diez estaciones meteorológicas seleccionados en base a longitud de las series, estaciones con datos faltantes y la consistencia, posteriormente se sistematizó, corrigió y completó en base del análisis de homogeneidad, luego se determinó las tendencias con las pruebas no paramétricas y paramétricas con 0.01, 0.05 y 0.10 niveles de significancia y análogamente la información de rendimientos de los cultivos. Las temperaturas máximas tienden a incrementar en 0.04ºC anualmente, las medias muestran un incremento anual de 0.025ºC con evidencia leve y las mínimas no muestran cambios significativos; mientras que las precipitaciones pluviales tienden a disminuir, y estos generan impactos significativos en los cultivos. Finalmente, que el cambio climático viene afectando a los parámetros de temperaturas y precipitaciones, y esto influye negativamente en el rendimiento de los cultivos en el ámbito de estudio así coinciden varios investigadores.

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Experts on the past, working in the present: what archeologists can contribute to current water management

Holt

2017

WIREs Water

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By definition, archeologists study the past-often the ancient past-and their work may not seem relevant to present-day problems in water management. However, the knowledge of both past practices and current conditions that archeologists gain through conducting research can have useful contemporary applications. The archeological conference Water and Power in Past Societies, held at the University at Buffalo in April 2015, highlighted these potential contributions in a panel discussion on 'what archaeology can contribute to contemporary water politics.' The main theme to emerge from the discussion was that archeologists' varied experiences make them well suited to inform and facilitate dialogue among conflicting perspectives. This opinion piece summarizes and builds on the themes of the panel discussion to outline ways in which archeologists may contribute to solving current water issues.

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Energetic efficiency and political expediency in Titicaca Basin raised field agriculture

Cited by 58 publications

References 21 publications

Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia

Pre-Columbian agricultural landscapes, ecosystem engineers, and self-organized patchiness in Amazonia

Efectos Del Cambio Climático en La Agricultura De La Cuenca Ramis, Puno-Perú

Experts on the past, working in the present: what archeologists can contribute to current water management

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