Kelly, TJ, Lawson, IT, Roucoux, KH et al. (4 more authors) (2018) Continuous human presence without extensive reductions in forest cover over the past 2500 years in an aseasonal Amazonian rainforest. Journal of Quaternary Science, 33 (4). pp. 369-379. ISSN 0267-8179
Abstract
The impact of pre‐Columbian indigenous communities on forest cover in Amazonia is highly contentious, particularly for the wettest forests. To contribute to this debate, we studied the vegetation and fire history of a site, Quistococha, which lies within the aseasonal forests of the northern Peruvian Amazon and is associated with independently dated pre‐Columbian and recent human occupation. Paired cores from swamp and lake environments were used to distinguish landscape‐scale changes in vegetation from local‐scale succession. An increased abundance of disturbance‐adapted taxa in the pollen record from the lake, but not swamp, since c. AD 1860 probably reflects extensive deforestation related to the expansion of the nearby city of Iquitos. However, previous persistent occupation of the site by pre‐Columbian indigenous communities, indicated by the charcoal record from the lake site, is not associated with evidence for similarly extensive disturbance of the landscape. The unique features of this site therefore demonstrate that occupation by indigenous communities over thousands of years was not associated with large‐scale deforestation. These results support an emerging model of persistent but localized impacts by pre‐Columbian indigenous communities on aseasonal Amazonian forests.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Kelly, T. J., Lawson, I. T., Roucoux, K. H., Baker, T. R., Honorio‐Coronado, E. N., Jones, T. D. and Rivas Panduro, S. (2018), Continuous human presence without extensive reductions in forest cover over the past 2500 years in an aseasonal Amazonian rainforest. J. Quaternary Sci.. . doi:10.1002/jqs.3019, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/jqs.3019. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Self-Archiving. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. |
Keywords: | charcoal; disturbance; Holocene; palaeoecology; palynology; peatland |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) > Ecology & Global Change (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 19 Jan 2018 13:57 |
Last Modified: | 14 Mar 2019 01:39 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Wiley |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/jqs.3019 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:126407 |