Legacies of Pre-Columbian land use on Latin American ecosystem composition and diversity: A case for paleoecology

Whitney, Bronwen S.; Cárdenas, Macarena L.

doi:10.22498/pages.25.2.84

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…During the last three decades, a combination of new archaeological/archaeobotanical projects in previously unexplored regions, the use of molecular data, the systematic application of microfossil botanical techniques, and associated palaeoecological research pioneered in the neotropics by Pearsall (1995Pearsall ( , 2016 and Piperno (1988Piperno ( , 2006 has radically changed our understanding of the timing, geographical origins, and diversity of food-producing systems in the neotropics (e.g., Carson et al, 2014;Iriarte et al, 2004;Kistler et al, 2018;Maezumi et al, 2018;Piperno et al, 2009;Robinson et al, 2018;Watling et al, 2017;Whitney et al, 2013). We cannot hope to cover all the methodologies and proxies used to study plant domestication and the development of agriculture in lowland SA (see also Mayle and Iriarte, 2014;Montoya et al, 2020;Whitney and C ardenas, 2017). Here we highlight only the most recent and pertinent methodologies, noting the advantages and limitations of each.…”

Section: Sources Of Evidence and Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

Iriarte

Elliott

Maezumi

et al. 2020

Quaternary Science Reviews

126

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During the last two decades, new archaeological projects which systematically integrate a variety of plant recovery techniques, along with palaeoecology, palaeoclimate, soil science and floristic inventories, have started to transform our understanding of plant exploitation, cultivation and domestication in tropical South America. Archaeobotanical studies are providing a far greater appreciation of the role of plants in the diets of early colonists. Since~13ka, these diets relied mainly on palm, tree fruits, and underground tubers, along with terrestrial and riverine faunal resources. Recent evidence indicates two areas of precocious plant cultivation and domestication: the sub-Andean montane forest of NW South America and the shrub savannahs and seasonal forests of SW Amazonia. In the latter area, thousands of anthropic keystone structures represented by forest islands show a significant human footprint in Amazonia from the start of the Holocene. While radiocarbon date databases show a decline in population during the middle Holocene, important developments happened during this epoch, including the domestication of cacao, the adoption of maize and the spread of manioc across the basin. The late Holocene witnessed the domestication of rice and the development of agricultural landscapes characterised by raised fields and Amazonian Dark Earths (ADEs). Our multi-proxy analysis of 23 late Holocene ADEs and two lakes from southern Amazonia provides the first direct evidence of field polyculture agriculture including the cultivation of maize, manioc, sweet potato, squash, arrowroot and leren within closed-canopy forest, as well as enrichment with palms, limited clearing for crop cultivation, and low-severity fire management. Collectively, the evidence shows that during the late Holocene Amazonian farmers engaged in intensive agriculture marked by the cultivation of both annual and perennial crops relying on organic amendments requiring soil preparation and maintenance. Our study has broader implications for sustainable Amazonian futures.

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Section: Sources Of Evidence and Methodologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

Iriarte

Elliott

Maezumi

et al. 2020

Quaternary Science Reviews

126

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“…They are frequently ecological interactions between plants and some edaphic characteristics such as nutrient dynamics (Bürgi et al, 2017). In addition, these changes in land use or human legacies encompass direct effects on ecosystems, for example, in domesticated landscapes such as the case of Araucaria angustifolia in Brazil, the forests of Theobroma cacao and Inga edulis in the Amazon (Whitney and Cárdenas, 2017). In contrast, human legacies also indirectly influence ecosystems, such as in the case of some disturbances, since they modify ecological processes and the physical environment (Bürgi et al, 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modern pollen rain in humid tropical mountain forests from eastern Mexico: A patch-dynamics approach

Jiménez-Zamora,

Espinosa,

Galicia

et al. 2024

The Holocene

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Modern pollen rains have demonstrated that human legacies represent crucial information on the performance of strategies for biological conservation. However, the potential use of pollen rains in aspects related to human disturbance and other cultural processes remains scarcely explored in forest patches of tropical mountain environments. Our study offers an ecological model for stratifying management intensities using moss polster contents in three patches of humid tropical mountain forests from eastern Mexico. Moss polsters were collected at 48 sites between ca. 1600 and 2000 m asl in three Mexican tropical montane cloud forests. Beta diversity, Shannon, and Jaccard indices were calculated for each location. Deciphering palynological data, historical documents, and diversity indicators, we found that the most disturbed patches had the lowest values in the Shannon index (abundance data) and beta diversity (incidence and abundance data) due to intensive agriculture over the last 20 years at least. On the other hand, we found that lower-elevation gradients with a high degree of management intensity and geographical affinity expressed greater similarity according to the Jaccard index for unseen shared species. In contrast, shade-tolerant plants and some hygrophilous trees within the old-growth forest determined the species turnover among higher-elevation gradients in conserved areas. For these reasons, our findings suggest that moss polster contents capture reliable sources of pollen rains around 20 years, as it was once mentioned in the palynological literature. We conclude that pollen rains and management intensity are comparable between ecosystems in long-term approaches and historical legacies.

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Contributions of Quaternary botany to modern ecology and biogeography

Birks

2019

Plant Ecology & Diversity

138

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Legacies of Pre-Columbian land use on Latin American ecosystem composition and diversity: A case for paleoecology

Cited by 3 publications

References 7 publications

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

The origins of Amazonian landscapes: Plant cultivation, domestication and the spread of food production in tropical South America

Modern pollen rain in humid tropical mountain forests from eastern Mexico: A patch-dynamics approach

Contributions of Quaternary botany to modern ecology and biogeography

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