Pre-Columbian soil fertilization and current management maintain food resource availability in old-growth Amazonian forests

Abstract

Aims The extent and persistence of pre-Columbian human legacies in old-growth Amazonian forests are still controversial, partly because modern societies reoccupied old settlements, challenging the distinction between pre-and post-Columbian legacies. Here, we compared the effects of pre-Columbian vs. recent landscape domestication processes on soils and vegetation in two Amazonian regions. Methods We studied forest landscapes at varying distances from pre-Columbian and current settlements inside protected areas occupied by traditional and indigenous peoples in the lower Tapajós and the upper-middle Madeira river basins. By conducting 69 free-listing interviews, participatory mappings, guided-tours, 27 forest inventories, and soil analysis, we assessed the influences of pre-Columbian and current activities in soils and plant resources surrounding the settlements.

Indigenous Knowledge and Forest Succession Management in the Brazilian Amazon: Contributions to Reforestation of Degraded Areas

“…In the Amazon region, although the origin of anthropogenic forests is still under debate, evidence shows that there is an important contribution of indigenous food production systems and local communities to the generation and maintenance of biodiversity (Clement, 1999;Miller and Nair, 2006;Balée, 2010;Shepard and Ramirez, 2011;Sutherland et al, 2013;Tengö et al, 2014Tengö et al, , 2017. Forest and agricultural management often leads to changes in species composition and in soils (Smith, 1980;Balée, 1993;Heckenberger and Neves, 2009;Arroyo-Kalin, 2010;Junqueira et al, 2011;Woods et al, 2013;Schmidt et al, 2014;Levis et al, 2018Levis et al, , 2020, and are based on a deep knowledge of ecological dynamics and on social and cultural rules (Berkes and Berkes, 2009). The shifting cultivation practiced by indigenous Amazonian peoples depends on the multifunctional management of the landscape during the cultivation phase (van Vliet et al, 2012;Mukul, 2016), which includes the simultaneous cultivation of several cultivated/domesticated and semi-domesticated species (Hett et al, 2012).…”

Reframing Pre-European Amazonia through an Anthropocene Lens

“…Maezumi et al (2018) demonstrated evidence of 4,500 years of polycultural agroforestry in the lower Tapaj os basin and documented enrichment of fruit-bearing forest species. Levis et al (2020) demonstrated that forest enrichment with such species is associated with pre-European soil fertilization and this legacy might extend far beyond localized former occupation sites as evidenced by TM.…”

“…It is becoming increasingly evident that these anthrosols are deeply intertwined with vegetation patterns in Amazonia and illustrate the degree to which forests are domesticated. Changes in soil properties due to past human activities lead to differentiation in vegetation patterns of contemporary home gardens, swiddens, secondary, and old-growth forests (Junqueira, Shepard, and Clement 2010;Junqueira et al 2011;Lins et al 2015;Quintero-Vallejo et al 2015;Junqueira et al 2016;Junqueira et al 2017;Maezumi et al 2018;Levis et al 2020). For example, Junqueira, Shepard, and Clement (2010;Junqueira et al 2017) demonstrated that secondary forest growth on anthrosols conserves agrobiodiversity and that old-growth forests on anthrosols concentrate plant species domesticated to some degree.…”

“…Their predominance along bluffs might also reflect modern-day accessibility. The extent to which ADEs are found in interfluves, away from major perennial water sources (e.g., McMichael et al 2012;Bush et al 2015;Piperno, McMichael, and Bush 2015), is still debated, but the increasing evidence is that they are found in the interfluves and throughout the region (Franco-Moraes et al 2019;AmazonArch 2020;Levis et al 2020). Although the spatial extent of TP has been intensively studied and is estimated to cover from 0.1 percent up to 3 percent of the Amazon basin (Madari et al 2004;McMichael et al 2014), the spatial extent of TM has not yet been evaluated.…”

“…The first two are legacies of long-term and cumulative activities of Native Amazonians (Denevan 2007;Clement et al 2015a;Levis et al 2018), and the third is a form of landesque capital, because earthworks were intentionally produced and their creation involves permanent changes to the landscape in accordance with economic, social, and ritual purposes (Håkansson and Widgren 2014;Arroyo-Kalin 2016). The interactions of these three types of domesticated landscapes result in feedback mechanisms that are not yet fully understood but are the topic of ongoing research regarding their persistence through time (Levis et al 2020). Anthropogenic earthworks were identified before anthrosols, but research on anthrosols in turn contributed to the further identification of earthworks.…”