McMichael, C.N.H., Bush, M.B., Steege, H.T. et al. (174 more authors) (2025) Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (47). e2514040122. ISSN: 0027-8424
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that the ecological footprints of pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples in Amazonia persist in modern forests. Ecological impacts resulting from European colonization c. 1550 CE and the Amazonian Rubber Boom c. 1850 to 1920 CE are largely unexplored but could be important additive influences on forest structure and tree species composition. Using environmental niche models, we show the highest probabilities of pre-Columbian and colonial occupation sites, and hence human-induced ecological influences, occurred in forests along rivers. In many areas, the predicted pre-Columbian and colonial distributions overlap spatially with the potential for superimposed ecological influences. Environmental gradients are known to structure Amazonian vegetation composition, but they are also strong predictors of past human influence, both spatially and temporally. Our comparisons of model outputs with relative abundances of Amazonian tree species suggest that pre-Columbian and colonial-period ecological legacies are associated with modern forest composition.
Metadata
| Item Type: | Article |
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| Authors/Creators: |
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| Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | Copyright © 2025 the Author(s). Published by PNAS. This article is distributed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License 4.0 (CC BY-NC-ND). |
| Keywords: | ecological legacy, hyperdominance, Indigenous land use, colonization, tropical forest |
| Dates: |
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| Institution: | The University of Leeds |
| Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Geography (Leeds) |
| Date Deposited: | 22 Dec 2025 11:15 |
| Last Modified: | 22 Dec 2025 11:15 |
| Published Version: | https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2514040122 |
| Status: | Published |
| Publisher: | National Academy of Sciences |
| Identification Number: | 10.1073/pnas.2514040122 |
| Related URLs: | |
| Sustainable Development Goals: | |
| Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:235726 |
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