The Holocene

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Register here to gain access to SAGE's 500+ Journals Online

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow References
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Bush, M. B.
Right arrow Articles by Colinvaux, P. A.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
GeoRef
Right arrow GeoRef Citation
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
The Holocene, Vol. 10, No. 5, 543-553 (2000)
DOI: 10.1191/095968300672647521

Two histories of environmental change and human disturbance in eastern lowland Amazonia

Mark B. Bush

Department of Biological Sciences, Florida Institute of Technology, 150 W. University Boulevard, Melbourne, FL 32901, USA

Michael C. Miller

School of Biological Sciences, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, OH 45221, USA

Paulo E. De Oliveira

Chicago Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, IL 60601, USA

Paul A. Colinvaux

Marine Biological Laboratory, 7 MBL Street, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA

Two long palaeoecological records (pollen, diatoms, 14C, chemistry and charcoal) provide a detailed record of Holocene environmental conditions in the lowlands of the lower Amazon. Changes in the composition of the terra firme forest are evident but a forest cover is maintained throughout. Fluctuations in lake level and changes in seasonality are tracked in both sedimentary sequences. Rising early-Holocene sea levels and the consequent rise of local water tables probably caused the flooding of one of the sites. A stepped increase in precipitation is suggested with increases evident at 8800 yr BP, 7400 BP and between 6100 and 5800 yr BP. Increased storminess is suggested between|7400 yr BP and|6100 yr BP. Human disturbance is manifested in the palaeoecological records at one study site as early as 5500 yr BP (c. 6500 years ago), and an intensification, or onset, of agriculture is evident at c. 3350 yr BP. The terminating phase of the long record of disturbance is a period of forest regrowth that may correlate to the depopulation of Amazonia following Euro pean contact.

Key Words: Amazon • agriculture • Brazil • climate • ENSO • fire • Holocene • lake level • pollen • palaeoecology • precipitation • tropical • Zea


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?


This article has been cited by other articles:


Home page
 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USAHome page
M. E. D. Pohl, D. R. Piperno, K. O. Pope, and J. G. Jones
Microfossil evidence for pre-Columbian maize dispersals in the neotropics from San Andres, Tabasco, Mexico
PNAS, April 17, 2007; 104(16): 6870 - 6875.
[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]