Holocene fire and occupation in Amazonia: records from two lake districts

Bush, Mark B.; Silman, Miles R.; Toledo, Mauro Bevilacqua de; Listopad, Claudia M.C.S.; Gosling, William D.; Williams, Christopher J.; Oliveira, Paulo Eduardo de; Krisel, Carolyn

doi:10.1098/rstb.2006.1980

Cited by 145 publications

(140 citation statements)

References 56 publications

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“…Thus, what appeared to be undisturbed forest to Neotropical ecologists was regenerating forest that was as young as 350 years old. Similar evidence, particularly from the Neotropics and the Amazon, has slowly accumulated that many forests have been disturbed in the distant past (Haberle and Ledru 2001, Anchukaitis and Horn 2005, Bush et al 2007, Kennedy and Horn 2008.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Understanding long‐term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change

Chapman

Struhsaker

Skorupa

et al. 2010

Ecological Applications

160

113

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Abstract. Understanding the causes of population declines often involves comprehending a complex set of interactions linking environmental and biotic changes, which in combination overwhelm a population's ability to persist. To understand these relationships, especially for long-lived large mammals, long-term data are required, but rarely available. Here we use 26-36 years of population and habitat data to determine the potential causes of group density changes for five species of primates in Kibale National Park, Uganda, in areas that were disturbed to varying intensities in the late 1960s. We calculated group density from line transect data and quantified changes in habitat structure (cumulative diameter at breast height [dbh] and food availability [cumulative dbh of food trees]) for each primate species, and for one species, we evaluated change in food nutritional quality. We found that mangabeys and black-and-white colobus group density increased, blue monkeys declined, and redtails and red colobus were stable in all areas. For blue monkeys and mangabeys, there were no significant changes in food availability over time, yet their group density changed. For redtails, neither group density measures nor food availability changed over time. For black-and-white colobus, a decrease in food availability over time in the unlogged forest surprisingly coincided with an increase in group density. Finally, while red colobus food availability and quality increased over time in the heavily logged area, their group density was stable in all areas. We suggest that these populations are in nonequilibrium states. If such states occur frequently, it suggests that large protected areas will be required to protect species so that declines in some areas can be compensated for by increases in adjacent areas with different histories.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Understanding long‐term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change

Chapman

Struhsaker

Skorupa

et al. 2010

Ecological Applications

160

113

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“…However, the fact that this phenomenon is especially noteworthy in the W sector would highlight the heterogeneous nature of this eventual humanization (Bush et al, 2007).…”

Section: Tablementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, current palaeoecological evidence does not support the idea of the whole Amazonia as a primarily anthropogenic landscape, as some archaeologists contend. The intensity of human disturbance seems to be unevenly distributed across the Amazon basin, thus hampering generalisations (Bush et al, 2007;Arroyo-Kalin, 2012;McMichael et al, 2012;Levis et al, 2012, ter Steege et al, 2013, Whitney et al, 2014and literature therein). Palms are among the plants more widely and intensely used by neotropical cultures through history, especially Attalea butyracea, A. phalerata and Mauritia flexuosa, which have been considered hyperdominant Amazon species (ter Steege et al, 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mauritia flexuosa palm swamp communities: natural or human-made? A palynological study of the Gran Sabana region (northern South America) within a neotropical context

Rull

Montoya

2014

Quaternary Science Reviews

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Mauritia flexuosa L.f. is one of the more widely distributed neotropical palms and is intensively used by humans. This palm can grow in tropical rainforests or can develop a particular type of virtually monospecific communities restricted to warm and wet lowlands of the Orinoco and Amazon basins. It has been proposed that, during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM), the Mauritia swamp communities were restricted to the core of the Amazon basin from where they expanded favoured by the Holocene warmer and wetter climates. It has also been suggested that some of these palm communities might have been the result of human dispersal during the last millennia. Here, we evaluate both hypotheses using the case study of the Venezuelan Gran Sabana (GS)

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“…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%

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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Holocene fire and occupation in Amazonia: records from two lake districts

Cited by 145 publications

References 56 publications

Understanding long‐term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change

Understanding long‐term primate community dynamics: implications of forest change

Mauritia flexuosa palm swamp communities: natural or human-made? A palynological study of the Gran Sabana region (northern South America) within a neotropical context

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

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