Time: Aug 18, 2020 03:00 PM Amsterdam, Berlin, Rome, Stockholm, check your time here
1. Message from the organisers (10 minutes)
2. Talks (15 minutes for each talk)
(1) The impact of human arrival on Tasmania, Australia: long-term baseline shifts, the creation of a novel ecosystem and the legacy of British Invasion
by Michael-Shawn Fletcher (University of Melbourne)
I use a 270, 000 year lake sediment archive to unpack the impact and ongoing legacy of the arrival of people to the temperate Island of Tasmania, Australia, more than 43, 000 years ago. I will demonstrate the immediate influence people had on the landscape, how they created a novel Holocene ecosystem and the impacts of the forced removal of their landscape management following the British Invasion.
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(2) A requiem for Africa’s “third millennium rain forest crisis”: reconsidering vegetation responses to climate change and anthropogenic influences in Congo Basin rain forests
by Chris Kiahtipes (University of South Florida)
A proposed forest perturbation in Central Africa at the onset of the Late Holocene (ca. 3,000 yr BP) has long influenced debates over climatic and anthropogenic influences African rain forest cover. Reviewing palynological records for the region, this presentation critiques the debate’s structural deficiencies and offers proposals to improve hypothesis building and testing in the future.
For details see 1) Kiahtipes, C. A. (2018). Microbotanical assessment of anthropogenic impacts in the Ngotto Forest, central African republic during the last millennium AD. In Plants and People in the African Past: Progress in African Archaeobotany (pp. 481–502). Springer International Publishing.; 2)Kiahtipes, C. A. (2019). Anthropogenic impacts in Africa’s rain forests: State of the art. In B. Eichhorn & A. Höhn (Eds.), Trees, Grasses and Crops: People and Plants in Sub-Saharan Africa and Beyond (pp. 257–270). Bonn: Verlag Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH.
*** Questions (10 minutes) & break (5 minutes) ***
(3) Human impacts and the biotic homogenization of Cabo Verdean islands
by Alvaro Castilla-Beltrán (University of Southampton)
The ecosystems of Cabo Verde underwent severe human impacts since first settlement by the Portuguese (1460 CE). Palaeoecological data from three islands shows reduction of native vegetation linked to the emergence of human-dominated landscapes. We discuss the role of land use, the spread of invasive species and reforestaton initiatives in the process of biotic homogenization of this archipelago.
(4) Climate and Human Interactions in the Amazon Rainforest Ecotone
by Yoshi Maezumi (University of Amsterdam)
Amazon rainforest ecotones (AREs) of the SE Amazon are transitional landscapes between the tropical forest and the seasonally flooded savannas of the Llanos de Moxos. AREs are hotspots for biodiversity, and harbor some of the earliest records of human occupation and plant domestication in the Amazon. There is increasing evidence that past indigenous land use and fire management strategies shaped the ecotonal boundaries of the ARE, particularly during periods of increased climate variability. To examine long-term human-environment interactions in ARE, we combine archaeology, archaeobotany, palaeoecology, and palaeoclimatology around Laguna Versalles in the Iténez Forest Reserve, Bolivia. Pollen and charcoal data indicate polycrop cultivation of Maize and Ipomoea and fire management after ca. 4500 cal yr BP. Phytolith data from archaeological soil profiles indicate Maize and Manihot cultivation predated the formation of ADE soils ~2400 cal yr BP. A new ceramic chronology identifies three phases, demonstrating the dynamic cultural history of the region. The first ceramic phase is synchronous with ADE formation, the construction of ditch and embankments, known as zanjas, and a double-ditch ring village, are associated with the final ceramic phase, mark an increasing demand for fortification that is consistent with a pattern found across Amazonia during this period. Settlement fortification is synchronous with the abandonment of crop cultivation around the lake and an intensification of crop cultivation in the enclosed ADE sites. Regional palaeoclimate records indicate increased variability in precipitation that may have contributed to increased social conflict. These data suggest polyculture agroforesty created resilient subsistence strategies that persisted despite pronounced climate variability and social conflict in the region. An analysis of remote sensing data indicate modern ADE forests have lower canopy moisture and increased drought susceptibility indicating past indigenous land use has an enduring legacy in the Amazon Rainforest Ecotone.
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