Pre-Columbian Floristic Legacies in Modern Homegardens of Central Amazonia

Abstract

Historical ecologists have demonstrated legacy effects in apparently wild landscapes in Europe, North America, Mesoamerica, Amazonia, Africa and Oceania. People live and farm in archaeological sites today in many parts of the world, but nobody has looked for the legacies of past human occupations in the most dynamic areas in these sites: homegardens. Here we show that the useful flora of modern homegardens is partially a legacy of pre-Columbian occupations in Central Amazonia: the more complex the archaeological context, the more variable the floristic composition of useful native plants in homegardens cultivated there today. Species diversity was 10% higher in homegardens situated in multi-occupational archaeological contexts compared with homegardens situated in single-occupational ones. Species heterogeneity (β-diversity) among archaeological contexts was similar for the whole set of species, but markedly different when only native Amazonian species were included, suggesting the influence of pre-conquest indigenous occupations on current homegarden species composition. Our findings show that the legacy of pre-Columbian occupations is visible in the most dynamic of all agroecosystems, adding another dimension to the human footprint in the Amazonian landscape.

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

“…Modern vegetation surveys suggest pre-Columbian people have had a lasting legacy on modern forest composition by enhancing portions of useful (Levis et al, 2012;Lins et al, 2015) and/or edible forest taxa (Maezumi et al, 2018). Our data suggest preColumbian land management practices (e.g., enriching forests with edible plants) may account for the modern hyperdominance of useful plants in Amazon forests ter Steege et al, 2013;Clement et al, 2015;Almeida et al, in review).…”

“…As a result, disturbed ADE forests are more flammable and exhibit increased fire intensity (Cochrane, 2009;Alencar et al, 2015). Modern observations indicate that these structural changes can be observed in ADE forests that have no documented land use following European conquest, as well as in forests that have experienced continued exploitation following colonization (Lins et al, 2015;Quintero-Vallejo et al, 2015;Junqueira et al, 2017;Palace et al, 2017). These data suggest the structural characteristics associated with ADE forests are attributed to preColumbian, opposed to later human land use and that these structural changes persist in modern ADE forests.…”

Terras pretas: Approaches to formation processes in a new paradigm

“…Some researchers have tackled this problem by studying current terra preta formation, as observable in home gardens, where intensive management involving mixing of charred garden waste and decomposing plant remains results in fertile soil suitable for the cultivation of vegetables, fruits, and herbs (Fraser et al., ). The components and morphology of home gardens seem to correspond to that of archaeological habitation sites in terms of plant diversity (Lins et al., ), suggesting an analogous formation process. Fraser et al.…”

“…Though these cannot be automatically or unproblematically reproduced today, the study of terras pretas makes visible the lessons of indigenous past peoples. Terras pretas teach us that understanding the ecological processes in relation to contemporary and ancestral management practices is highly relevant to the development of sustainable farming systems in the Amazon (Lins et al., ).…”

Diversidade, estrutura genética e domesticação de piquiazeiros (<i>Caryocar villosum</i>) em duas localidades da Amazônia brasileira

“…Quintais são sistemas agroflorestais com plantas domesticadas e selvagens para usos múltiplos, encontrados em diversas partes do mundo, inclusive próximos a parques arqueológicos da Amazônia. A localização de quintais na Amazônia sugere que durante a conquista europeia e subsequente colonização do Brasil, muitos desses locais foram abandonados e hoje se encontram reocupados por populações modernas, devido aos seus solos ricos e localizações favoráveis (LINS et al, 2015). A reocupação de quintais tem levado ao restabelecimento da domesticação e seleção que ocorria antes do contato, pois populações tradicionais mantêm diversas culturas em seus quintais com o plantio e manejo de espécies selvagens (MARTINS, 1994) e entre as espécies encontradas em quintais pela Amazônia está o piquiá (ALVES; LEVIS; CLEMENT, 2016).…”