PreColumbian agriculture and forest disturbance in Costa Rica: palaeoecological evidence from two lowland rainforest lakes

Northrop, Lisa A.; Horn, Sally P.

doi:10.1177/095968369600600304

Cited by 38 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 32 publications

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“…High percentages of Cecropia pollen also appear to be associated with disturbance, either human or natural (Leyden, 1987;Bush and Colinvaux, 1990;1994;Northrop and Horn, 1996). At Laguna Zoncho, we interpret decreases in the pollen of Cecropia to indicate either the presence of a more mature forest or agricultural practices that suppressed forest regrowth.…”

Section: Interpretation Of Laguna Zoncho Pollen Spectramentioning

confidence: 84%

Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from Laguna Zoncho

2001

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We analysed pollen and charcoal in a lake-sediment core from Laguna Zoncho, a small mid-elevation lake in southernmost Costa Rica. The record provides evidence of 3000 years of human occupation, forest clearance, agriculture and fires in the area. Laguna Zoncho is located 2 km from the Las Cruces Biological Station, and results are relevant to understanding the likely extent of prehistoric disturbance within the premontane rain forests of this biological reserve. Pollen grains of Zea mays in the basal sediments of the Zoncho core constitute the oldest botanical evidence of maize cultivation in southern Costa Rica. The presence of maize pollen in almost every sample analysed indicates nearly continuous occupation of the lake basin for 3000 years. Charcoal abundances and percentages of pollen grains and spores of forest and disturbance taxa fluctuate strongly downcore, reflecting variable intensities of past human impact. Forest clearance and burning by indigenous people were most marked between 3240 and 460 cal. yr BP. Sediments deposited subsequently indicate forest regeneration and few, if any, fires. However, indigenous cultivation of maize continued on a small scale until European settlement in the twentieth century.

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Section: Interpretation Of Laguna Zoncho Pollen Spectramentioning

confidence: 84%

Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from Laguna Zoncho

2001

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“…Biomes are mainly accurately reconstructed for the present-day even though large areas of Latin America are covered with vegetation that has been altered by a long history of human land use (Behling, 1996;Binford et al, 1987;Fjeldså, 1992;Gnécco and Mohammed, 1994;Gnécco and Mora, 1997;Northrop and Horn, 1996). One possible reason for this may relate to the nature of the "modern" samples.…”

Section: Modern Reconstructionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Pollen-based biome reconstructions for Latin America at 0, 6000 and 18 000 radiocarbon years ago

et al. 2009

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Abstract. The biomisation method is used to reconstruct Latin American vegetation at 6000±500 and 18 000±1000 radiocarbon years before present (14C yr BP) from pollen data. Tests using modern pollen data from 381 samples derived from 287 locations broadly reproduce potential natural vegetation. The strong temperature gradient associated with the Andes is recorded by a transition from high altitude cool grass/shrubland and cool mixed forest to mid-altitude cool temperate rain forest, to tropical dry, seasonal and rain forest at low altitudes. Reconstructed biomes from a number of sites do not match the potential vegetation due to local factors such as human impact, methodological artefacts and mechanisms of pollen representivity of the parent vegetation. At 6000±500 14C yr BP 255 samples are analysed from 127 sites. Differences between the modern and the 6000±500 14C yr BP reconstruction are comparatively small; change relative to the modern reconstruction are mainly to biomes characteristic of drier climate in the north of the region with a slight more mesic shift in the south. Cool temperate rain forest remains dominant in western South America. In northwestern South America a number of sites record transitions from tropical seasonal forest to tropical dry forest and tropical rain forest to tropical seasonal forest. Sites in Central America show a change in biome assignment, but to more mesic vegetation, indicative of greater plant available moisture, e.g. on the Yucatán peninsula sites record warm evergreen forest, replacing tropical dry forest and warm mixed forest presently recorded. At 18 000±1000 14C yr BP 61 samples from 34 sites record vegetation reflecting a generally cool and dry environment. Cool grass/shrubland is prevalent in southeast Brazil whereas Amazonian sites record tropical dry forest, warm temperate rain forest and tropical seasonal forest. Southernmost South America is dominated by cool grass/shrubland, a single site retains cool temperate rain forest indicating that forest was present at some locations at the LGM. Some sites in Central Mexico and lowland Colombia remain unchanged in the biome assignments of warm mixed forest and tropical dry forest respectively, although the affinities that these sites have to different biomes do change between 18 000±1000 14C yr BP and present. The "unresponsive" nature of these sites results from their location and the impact of local edaphic influence.

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“…(Baldi, 2001), indicating that some stretches of the humid Atlantic Coast were settled long before the forests on the isolated Aguacate Peninsula (Bocas del Toro) where Linares (1980c,e,f) did not detect archaeological sites older than ~1400 B.P. Northrop and Horn (1996) propose that a disturbance horizon identifiable in sediments from Lake Bonillita ~2560 B.P. represents a first incursion of maize-using farmers into the upper (Caribbean) Reventazdn Valley.…”

Section: Pottery and Culture Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Prehistory of Native Americans on the Central American Land Bridge: Colonization, Dispersal, and Divergence

Cooke

2005

J Archaeol Res

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PreColumbian agriculture and forest disturbance in Costa Rica: palaeoecological evidence from two lowland rainforest lakes

Cited by 38 publications

References 32 publications

Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from Laguna Zoncho

Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica: a 3000-year record of forest clearance, agriculture and fires from Laguna Zoncho

Pollen-based biome reconstructions for Latin America at 0, 6000 and 18 000 radiocarbon years ago

Prehistory of Native Americans on the Central American Land Bridge: Colonization, Dispersal, and Divergence

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