A late Holocene paleoenvironmental reconstruction from Agua Caliente, southern Belize, linked to regional climate variability and cultural change at the Maya polity of Uxbenká

2014 ◽  
Vol 82 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan K. Walsh ◽  
Keith M. Prufer ◽  
Brendan J. Culleton ◽  
Douglas J. Kennett
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Cultural Change ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Climate Interactions ◽  
Initial Clearance ◽  
Maya Collapse

AbstractWe report high-resolution macroscopic charcoal, pollen and sedimentological data for Agua Caliente, a freshwater lagoon located in southern Belize, and infer a late Holocene record of human land-use/climate interactions for the nearby prehistoric Maya center of Uxbenká. Land-use activities spanning the initial clearance of forests for agriculture through the drought-linked Maya collapse and continuing into the historic recolonization of the region are all reflected in the record. Human land alteration in association with swidden agriculture is evident early in the record during the Middle Preclassic starting ca. 2600 cal yr BP. Fire slowly tapered off during the Late and Terminal Classic, consistent with the gradual political demise and depopulation of the Uxbenká polity sometime between ca. 1150 and 950 cal yr BP, during a period of multiple droughts evident in a nearby speleothem record. Fire activity was at its lowest during the Maya Postclassic ca. 950–430 cal yr BP, but rose consistent with increasing recolonization of the region between ca. 430 cal yr BP and present. These data suggest that this environmental record provides both a proxy for 2800 years of cultural change, including colonization, growth, decline, and reorganization of regional populations, and an independent confirmation of recent paleoclimate reconstructions from the same region.

scholarly journals Holocene history of fire, vegetation and land use from the central Pyrenees (France)

2012 ◽  
Vol 77 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
Damien Rius ◽  
Boris Vanniére ◽  
Didier Galop
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Landscape Management ◽  
Fire Regimes ◽  
Fire Frequency ◽  
Subsequent Reduction ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
History Of ◽  
In Fire ◽  
Central Pyrenees

Located on a mountain pass in the west-central Pyrenees, the Col d'Ech peat bog provides a Holocene fire and vegetation record based upon nine 14C (AMS) dates. We aim to compare climate-driven versus human-driven fire regimes in terms of frequency, fire episodes distribution, and impact on vegetation. Our results show the mid-Holocene (8500–5500 cal yr BP) to be characterized by high fire frequency linked with drier and warmer conditions. However, fire occurrences appear to have been rather stochastic as underlined by a scattered chronological distribution. Wetter and colder conditions at the mid-to-late Holocene transition (4000–3000 cal yr BP) led to a decrease in fire frequency, probably driven by both climate and a subsequent reduction in human land use. On the contrary, from 3000 cal yr BP, fire frequency seems to be driven by agro-pastoral activities with a very regular distribution of events. During this period fire was used as a prominent agent of landscape management.

scholarly journals Geoarchaeological and paleoenvironmental reconstruction of the Late Quaternary climate- environmental-human nexus in the Kurdistan region of Iraq

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luca Forti ◽  
Eleonora Regattieri ◽  
Anna Maria Mercuri ◽  
Ilaria Mazzini ◽  
Andrea Pezzotta ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Quaternary ◽  
Climatic Variability ◽  
Archaeological Sites ◽  
Paleoenvironmental Reconstruction ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Quaternary Climate ◽  
Geochemical Analyses ◽  
Sandy Sediments ◽  
Origin Of Agriculture

<p>During the late Quaternary, Iraqi Kurdistan was the scenario of several fundamental human-related<br>events including the dispersion of Homo in Asia and Europe, the origin of agriculture, the beginning<br>of urbanization, and the formation of the first state entities. We present the initial results of a<br>geoarchaeological investigation in this area, which aims to reconstruct a detailed framework of the<br>relationship between climatic changes, landscape responses, human adaptation, and settlement<br>distribution during the Late Quaternary. Paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic data were collected<br>from two key areas: the territory of the Navkur and Faideh plains, in northern Kurdistan, and a portion<br>of the Erbil plain, in southern Kurdistan. In the two regions, the Land of Niniveh and MAIPE<br>archaeological missions are operating. Remote sensing, GIS analyses, and geomorphological survey<br>are the tools used for the geomorphological reconstruction of ancient hydrology (fluvial pattern) and<br>the evolution of distinct landforms. Geochemical and geochronological analyses on speleothems from<br>the Zagros piedmont caves of same region provide information on Holocene climatic variability in<br>the area. Whereas environmental settings and human land use are investigated on the basis of<br>sedimentological, palynological, micropaleontological, and geochemical analyses of a fluvio-<br>lacustrine sequences preliminary dated between 40 and 9 ka BP. The lacustrine sequence is composed<br>by clayey and silt-sandy sediments alternating calcareous and organic matter-rich layers.<br>Environmental and geomorphological data have been compared with archaeological information<br>(mostly the chronological distribution of the archaeological sites) to interpret exploitation of natural<br>resources, the settlement dynamics and shift in land use. </p>

AMS14C Dating of Preclassic to Classic Period Household Construction in the Ancient Maya Community of Cahal Pech, Belize

Radiocarbon ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire E Ebert ◽  
Brendan J Culleton ◽  
Jaime J Awe ◽  
Douglas J Kennett
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Change ◽  
High Status ◽  
Discrete Events ◽  
Maya Lowlands ◽  
Sociopolitical Change ◽  
Ams Radiocarbon Dating ◽  
Residential Group ◽  
Terminal Classic ◽  
Preclassic Period ◽  
Maya Collapse

AbstractArchaeologists have traditionally relied upon relative ceramic chronologies to understand the occupational histories of large and socially complex polities in the Maya lowlands. High-resolution accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dating can provide independent chronological control for more discrete events that reflect cultural change through time. This article reports results of AMS14C dating of stratified sequences at the residential group Tzutziiy K’in, associated with the major Maya polity of Cahal Pech in the Belize Valley. Cahal Pech is one of the earliest permanently settled sites in the Maya lowlands (1200 cal BC), and was continuously occupied until the Terminal Classic Maya “collapse” (~cal AD 800). We use Bayesian modeling to build a chronology for the settlement, growth, and terminal occupation of Tzutziiy K’in, and compare our results to chronological data from the monumental site core at Cahal Pech. The analyses indicate that Tzutziiy K’in was first settled by the Late Preclassic period (350–100 cal BC), concurrent with the establishment of several other large house groups and the growth of the Cahal Pech site core. Terminal occupation by high-status residents at this house group occurred between cal AD 850 and 900. This study provides a framework for interpreting patterns of spatial, demographic, and sociopolitical change between households and the Cahal Pech site core.

scholarly journals The roles of climate and human land-use in the late Holocene rainforest crisis of Central Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 505 ◽  
pp. 30-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Germain Bayon ◽  
Enno Schefuß ◽  
Lydie Dupont ◽  
Alberto V. Borges ◽  
Bernard Dennielou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Central Africa ◽  
Human Land Use

scholarly journals Sensitivity of Holocene atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> and the modern carbon budget to early human land use: analyses with a process-based model

2011 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 69-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. D. Stocker ◽  
K. Strassmann ◽  
F. Joos
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Dynamic Global Vegetation Model ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Sink ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A Dynamic Global Vegetation model coupled to a simplified Earth system model is used to simulate the impact of anthropogenic land cover changes (ALCC) on Holocene atmospheric CO2 and the contemporary carbon cycle. The model results suggest that early agricultural activities cannot explain the mid to late Holocene CO2 rise of 20 ppm measured on ice cores and that proposed upward revisions of Holocene ALCC imply a smaller contemporary terrestrial carbon sink. A set of illustrative scenarios is applied to test the robustness of these conclusions and to address the large discrepancies between published ALCC reconstructions. Simulated changes in atmospheric CO2 due to ALCC are less than 1 ppm before 1000 AD and 30 ppm at 2004 AD when the HYDE 3.1 ALCC reconstruction is prescribed for the past 12 000 years. Cumulative emissions of 69 GtC at 1850 and 233 GtC at 2004 AD are comparable to earlier estimates. CO2 changes due to ALCC exceed the simulated natural interannual variability only after 1000 AD. To consider evidence that land area used per person was higher before than during early industrialisation, agricultural areas from HYDE 3.1 were increased by a factor of two prior to 1700 AD (scenario H2). For the H2 scenario, the contemporary terrestrial carbon sink required to close the atmospheric CO2 budget is reduced by 0.5 GtC yr−1. Simulated CO2 remains small even in scenarios where average land use per person is increased beyond the range of published estimates. Even extreme assumptions for preindustrial land conversion and high per-capita land use do not result in simulated CO2 emissions that are sufficient to explain the magnitude and the timing of the late Holocene CO2 increase.

scholarly journals Sensitivity of Holocene atmospheric CO<sub>2</sub> and the modern carbon budget to early human land use: analyses with a process-based model

2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 921-952 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Stocker ◽  
K. Strassmann ◽  
F. Joos
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Carbon Sink ◽  
Atmospheric Co2 ◽  
Ice Age ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon ◽  
Dynamic Global Vegetation Model ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Terrestrial Carbon Sink ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. A Dynamic Global Vegetation model is used as part of a simplified Earth system model to simulate the impact of human land use on Holocene atmospheric CO2 and the contemporary carbon cycle. We show that suggested upward revisions of Holocene land use reconstructions imply a smaller contemporary terrestrial carbon sink and that early agricultural activities did only marginally contribute to the late Holocene CO2 rise of 20 ppm measured on ice cores. Scenarios are used to test the robustness of the results. Simulated changes in atmospheric CO2 due to land use are less than 1 ppm before 0 AD and 22 ppm by 2004 AD when prescribing the HYDE 3.1 land use reconstruction over the past 12 000 years. Cumulative emissions are with 50 GtC by 1850 and 177 GtC by 2004 AD comparable to earlier estimates. In scenario H2, agricultural area from HYDE 3.1 is scaled by a factor of two before 1700 AD, thereby taking into account evidence that land area used per person was higher before than during early industrialisation. Then, the contemporary terrestrial carbon sink, required to close the atmospheric CO2 budget, is reduced by 0.5 GtC yr−1. CO2 changes due to land use change exceed natural interannual variability only after 1000 AD and are less than 4 ppmv until 1850 AD. Simulated CO2 change remains small even in scenarios where average land use per person is unrealistically increased by a factor of 4 to 8 above published estimates. Our results falsify the hypothesis that humans are responsible for the late Holocene CO2 increase and that anthropogenic land use prevented a new ice age.

scholarly journals Influence of Late Holocene Climate Change and Human Land Use on Terrestrial and Aquatic Ecosystems in Southwest Madagascar

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alejandra I. Domic ◽  
Sean W. Hixon ◽  
Maria I. Velez ◽  
Sarah J. Ivory ◽  
Kristina G. Douglass ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Aquatic Ecosystems ◽  
Late Holocene ◽  
Freshwater Ecosystems ◽  
Dry Forest ◽  
Ecosystem Change ◽  
Human Land Use ◽  
Pastoral Communities ◽  
The Impact

Madagascar’s biota underwent substantial change following human colonization of the island in the Late Holocene. The timing of human arrival and its role in the extinction of megafauna have received considerable attention. However, the impacts of human activities on regional ecosystems remain poorly studied. Here, we focus on reconstructing changes in the composition of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems to evaluate the impact of human land use and climate variability. We conducted a paleoenvironmental study, using a sediment record that spans the last ∼1,145 years, collected from a lakebed in the Namonte Basin of southwest Madagascar. We examined physical (X-ray fluorescence and stratigraphy) and biotic indicators (pollen, diatoms and micro- and macro-charcoal particles) to infer terrestrial and aquatic ecosystem change. The fossil pollen data indicate that composition of grasslands and dry deciduous forest in the region remained relatively stable during an arid event associated with northward displacement of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) between ∼1,145 and 555 calibrated calendar years before present (cal yr BP). Charcoal particles indicate that widespread fires occurred in the region, resulting from a combination of climate drivers and human agency during the entire span covered by the paleorecord. Following settlement by pastoral communities and the disappearance of endemic megafauna ∼1,000 cal yr BP, grasslands expanded and the abundance of trees that rely on large animals for seed dispersal gradually declined. A reduction in the abundance of pollen taxa characteristic of dry forest coincided with an abrupt increase in charcoal particles between ∼230 and 35 cal yr BP, when agro-pastoral communities immigrated into the region. Deforestation and soil erosion, indicated by a relatively rapid sedimentation rate and high K/Zr and Fe/Zr, intensified between 180 and 70 cal yr BP and caused a consequent increase in lake turbidity, resulting in more rapid turnover of the aquatic diatom community. Land use and ongoing climate change have continued to transform local terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems during the last ∼70 years. The current composition of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems reflects the legacy of extinction of native biota, invasion of exotic species, and diminished use of traditional land management practices.

Influence of Late Holocene climate on Lake Eggers hydrology, McMurdo Sound

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-13
Author(s):  
E.J. Chamberlain ◽  
A.J. Christ ◽  
R.W. Fulweiler
Keyword(s):  
Late Holocene ◽  
Ross Sea ◽  
Regional Climate ◽  
Ice Cores ◽  
Lake Ice ◽  
Mcmurdo Sound ◽  
Ice Accumulation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Ground Penetrating ◽  
Western Ross Sea

Abstract Ice-covered lakes in Antarctica preserve records of regional hydroclimate and harbour extreme ecosystems that may serve as terrestrial analogues for exobiotic environments. Here, we examine the impacts of hydroclimate and landscape on the formation history of Lake Eggers, a small ice-sealed lake, located in the coastal polar desert of McMurdo Sound, Antarctica (78°S). Using ground penetrating radar surveys and three lake ice cores we characterize the ice morphology and chemistry. Lake ice geochemistry indicates that Lake Eggers is fed primarily from local snowmelt that accreted onto the lake surface during runoff events. Radiocarbon ages of ice-encased algae suggest basal ice formed at least 735 ± 20 calibrated years before present (1215 C.E.). Persisting through the Late Holocene, Lake Eggers alternated between periods of ice accumulation and sublimation driven by regional climate variability in the western Ross Sea. For example, particulate organic matter displayed varying δ15N ratios with depth, corresponding to sea ice fluctuations in the western Ross Sea during the Late Holocene. These results suggest a strong climatic control on the hydrologic regime shifts shaping ice formation at Lake Eggers.

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