Maezumi S Yoshi, Elliott Sarah, Robinson Mark, Betancourt Carla Jaimes, Gregorio de Souza Jonas, Alves Daiana, Grosvenor Mark, Hilbert Lautaro, Urrego Dunia H, Gosling William D, Iriarte José
Department of Ecosystem and Landscape Dynamics, Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands 1090N.
Department of Archaeology and Anthropology, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Fern Barrow, Poole BH12 5BB, UK.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2022 Apr 25;377(1849):20200499. doi: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0499. Epub 2022 Mar 7.
The southwestern Amazon Rainforest Ecotone (ARE) is the transitional landscape between the tropical forest and seasonally flooded savannahs of the Bolivian Llanos de Moxos. These heterogeneous landscapes harbour high levels of biodiversity and some of the earliest records of human occupation and plant domestication in Amazonia. While persistent Indigenous legacies have been demonstrated elsewhere in the Amazon, it is unclear how past human-environment interactions may have shaped vegetation composition and structure in the ARE. Here, we examine 6000 years of archaeological and palaeoecological data from Laguna Versalles (LV), Bolivia. LV was dominated by stable rainforest vegetation throughout the Holocene. Maize cultivation and cultural burning are present after 5700 cal yr BP. Polyculture cultivation of maize, manioc and leren after 3400 cal yr BP predates the formation of Amazonian Dark/Brown Earth (ADE/ABE) soils (approx. 2400 cal yr BP). ADE/ABE formation is associated with agroforestry indicated by increased edible palms, including and sp., and record levels of burning, suggesting that fire played an important role in agroforestry practices. The frequent use of fire altered ADE/ABD forest composition and structure by controlling ignitions, decreasing fuel loads and increasing the abundance of plants preferred by humans. Cultural burning and polyculture agroforestry provided a stable subsistence strategy that persisted despite pronounced climate change and cultural transformations and has an enduring legacy in ADE/ABE forests in the ARE. This article is part of the theme issue 'Tropical forests in the deep human past'.
亚马逊雨林西南部生态交错带（ARE）是玻利维亚莫克索斯平原热带森林与季节性洪水泛滥的稀树草原之间的过渡地带。这些多样化的景观蕴藏着高度的生物多样性，以及亚马逊地区人类居住和植物驯化的一些最早记录。虽然在亚马逊其他地方已经证明了持续存在的原住民遗产，但尚不清楚过去的人类与环境相互作用如何塑造了ARE的植被组成和结构。在这里，我们研究了来自玻利维亚韦尔萨耶斯湖（LV）的6000年考古和古生态数据。在全新世期间，LV主要被稳定的雨林植被所覆盖。公元前5700年之后出现了玉米种植和文化焚烧。公元前3400年之后玉米、木薯和勒伦的混合作物种植早于亚马逊深色/棕色土壤（ADE/ABE）的形成（约公元前2400年）。ADE/ABE的形成与农林业有关，这表现为可食用棕榈树（包括 属和 属）增加以及焚烧记录达到峰值，这表明火在农林业实践中发挥了重要作用。频繁使用火通过控制点火、减少燃料负荷和增加人类偏爱的植物数量，改变了ADE/ABD森林的组成和结构。文化焚烧和混合作物农林业提供了一种稳定的生存策略，尽管气候发生了显著变化和文化出现了转变，但这种策略依然持续存在，并在ARE的ADE/ABE森林中留下了持久的遗产。本文是主题为“人类深层历史中的热带森林”的一部分。
