Out of Amazonia: Late-Holocene climate change and the Tupi–Guarani trans-continental expansion

The late-Holocene expansion of the Tupi–Guarani languages from southern Amazonia to SE South America constitutes one of the largest expansions of any linguistic family in the world, spanning ~4000 km between latitudes 0°S and 35°S at about 2.5k cal. yr BP. However, the underlying reasons for this expansion are a matter of debate. Here, we compare continental-scale palaeoecological, palaeoclimate and archaeological datasets, to examine the role of climate change in facilitating the expansion of this forest-farming culture. Because this expansion lies within the path of the South American Low-Level Jet, the key mechanism for moisture transport across lowland South America, we were able to explore the relationship between climate change, forest expansion and the Tupi–Guarani. Our data synthesis shows broad synchrony between late-Holocene increasing precipitation and southerly expansion of both tropical forest and Guarani archaeological sites – the southernmost branch of the Tupi–Guarani. We conclude that climate change likely facilitated the agricultural expansion of the Guarani forest-farming culture by increasing the area of forested landscape that they could exploit, showing a prime example of ecological opportunism.

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CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACTS ON LATIN AMERICAN FARMLAND VALUES: THE ROLE OF FARM TYPE.

Revista de Economia e Agronegócio ◽

10.25070/rea.v6i2.126 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

S. Niggol Seo ◽

Robert Mendelsohn

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South America ◽

Latin American ◽

Climate Sensitivity ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

South American ◽

Farm Type ◽

Farmland Values

This paper examines climate change impacts on South American agricultureusing a set of Ricardian regressions estimated across different samples of farms in SouthAmerica. Regressions are run for the whole sample and for subsamples of crop-only,mixed, and livestock-only farms. The results indicate that climate sensitivity varies agreat deal across each type of farm. The analysis also reveals that the impacts will varysubstantially across South America. The hot and wet Amazon and Equatorial regionsare likely to lose the most from warming scenarios whereas the more temperate highelevation and southern regions of South America will likely gain.

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Reassessing the role of climate change in the Tupi expansion (South America, 5000–500 BP)

Journal of The Royal Society Interface ◽

10.1098/rsif.2021.0499 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 18 (183) ◽

Author(s):

Jonas Gregorio de Souza ◽

Francisco Silva Noelli ◽

Marco Madella

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South America ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Diffusion Processes ◽

Null Model ◽

Central Place ◽

Tropical Lowland ◽

And Linguistics ◽

Demic Diffusion

The expansion of forest farmers across tropical lowland South America during the Late Holocene has long been connected to climate change. The more humid conditions established during the Late Holocene are assumed to have driven the expansion of forests, which would have facilitated the dispersal of cultures that practised agroforestry. The Tupi, a language family of widespread distribution in South America, occupies a central place in the debate. Not only are they one of the largest families in the continent, but their expansion from an Amazonian homeland has long been hypothesized to have followed forested environments wherever they settled. Here, we assess that hypothesis using a simulation approach. We employ equation-based and cellular automaton models, simulating demic-diffusion processes under two different scenarios: a null model in which all land cells can be equally settled, and an alternative model in which non-forested cells cannot be settled or delay the expansion. We show that including land cover as a constraint to movement results in a better approximation of the Tupi expansion as reconstructed by archaeology and linguistics.

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Mid- and late Holocene fluvial dynamics in the tropical Guapi-Macacu catchment, Southeast Brazil: The role of climate change and human impact

Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology ◽

10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.03.015 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 426 ◽

pp. 308-318 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

André Kirchner ◽

Udo Nehren ◽

Hermann Behling ◽

Jürgen Heinrich

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Human Impact ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Southeast Brazil ◽

Fluvial Dynamics

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Regional Climate Modeling over South America: A Review

Advances in Meteorology ◽

10.1155/2013/504357 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 2013 ◽

pp. 1-13 ◽

Cited By ~ 43

Author(s):

Silvina A. Solman

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

South America ◽

Climate Models ◽

Climate Modeling ◽

Regional Climate ◽

Regional Climate Change ◽

Regional Climate Models ◽

Regional Climate Modeling ◽

South American ◽

Sensitivity Studies

This review summarizes the progress achieved on regional climate modeling activities over South America since the early efforts at the beginning of the 2000s until now. During the last 10 years, simulations with regional climate models (RCMs) have been performed for several purposes over the region. Early efforts were mainly focused on sensitivity studies to both physical mechanisms and technical aspects of RCMs. The last developments were focused mainly on providing high-resolution information on regional climate change. This paper describes the most outstanding contributions from the isolated efforts to the ongoing coordinated RCM activities in the framework of the CORDEX initiative, which represents a major endeavor to produce ensemble climate change projections at regional scales and allows exploring the associated range of uncertainties. The remaining challenges in modeling South American climate features are also discussed.

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Dust deposition tracks late-Holocene shifts in monsoon activity and the increasing role of human disturbance in the Puna-Altiplano, northwest Argentina

The Holocene ◽

10.1177/0959683619895814 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 30 (4) ◽

pp. 519-536 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

James Hooper ◽

Samuel K Marx ◽

Jan-Hendrik May ◽

Liliana C Lupo ◽

Julio J Kulemeyer ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Late Holocene ◽

Human Impacts ◽

South American ◽

Dust Deposition ◽

The South ◽

Dust Source ◽

Dust Emissions ◽

Dust Flux ◽

Dry Conditions

The Puna-Altiplano plateau represents a regionally significant dust source, which is critically located at the nexus between the tropical and sub-polar synoptic systems that dominate the South American climate. Dust emissions in this region would therefore be expected to be sensitive to changes in these systems, in particular the strength and position of the South American Summer Monsoon (SASM). Here, we present a late-Holocene multi-proxy study where changes in dust flux, reconstructed from a high-altitude peat mire, are examined in light of climate variability and human impacts. Results show that for most the 4300 cal. yr BP record, dust flux sensitively tracked changes in SASM activity. Prior to 2600 cal. yr BP relatively high dust flux implies dry conditions prevailed across the Puna-Altiplao in association with reduced SASM activity. The chemistry of dust deposited at this time matched the large endorheic basins on the Puna, which host ephemeral lakes and terminal fans, indicating these were actively supplying dust to the airstream. After 2600 cal. yr BP, SASM activity increased while dust flux decreased and the dust chemistry changed, collectively implying the shutting down of the Puna-Altiplano as a significant dust source. Dust flux increased after 1000 cal. yr BP during the ‘Medieval Warm Period’, associated with a return to drier conditions and reactivation of dust sources across the endorheic basins of the Puna. Natural variability in dust flux was dwarfed, however, by the very significant increase in flux after 400 cal. yr BP following Spanish Colonisation and associated changing landuse practices. This finding attests to the globally significant role of humans on dust emissions.

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Israeli penetration in South America (1973-1947)

Journal Ishraqat Tanmawya ◽

10.51424/ishq.26.1 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 26 ◽

pp. 1-23

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Key Words ◽

Decision Makers ◽

The Political ◽

South American ◽

American Continent ◽

The South ◽

Political Decision ◽

South American Continent

This research is an attempt to uncover the reality and method of Israeli penetration in the South American continent, and aims to draw attention to the weaknesses and mistakes in the role of Arab communities that they had to play in South America, and the position of Arab governments towards that continent. The research was divided into two main axes, as the first dealt with the means of Israeli penetration in South America until 1947, providing a brief overview of the roots of the penetration in the South American continent and the methods it adopted in achieving this. While the second axis focused on the stance of the South American countries on the Arab-Israeli conflict (1947-1973). However, the Israeli infiltration was affecting the political decision-makers in that continent towards the decision to partition Palestine up to the October 1973 war. Key words: the penetration, Palestine, Israel, immigration, Arabs, America

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Latitude does not influence cavity entrance orientation of South American avian excavators

The Auk ◽

10.1093/ornithology/ukaa064 ◽

2021 ◽

Author(s):

Valeria Ojeda ◽

Alejandro Schaaf ◽

Tomás A Altamirano ◽

Bianca Bonaparte ◽

Laura Bragagnolo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Southern Hemisphere ◽

Northern Hemisphere ◽

Spatial Scales ◽

Probability Model ◽

Selection Procedure ◽

Circular Data ◽

South American ◽

Key Driver

Abstract In the Northern Hemisphere, several avian cavity excavators (e.g., woodpeckers) orient their cavities increasingly toward the equator as latitude increases (i.e. farther north), and it is proposed that they do so to take advantage of incident solar radiation at their nests. If latitude is a key driver of cavity orientations globally, this pattern should extend to the Southern Hemisphere. Here, we test the prediction that cavities are oriented increasingly northward at higher (i.e. colder) latitudes in the Southern Hemisphere and describe the preferred entrance direction(s) of 1,501 cavities excavated by 25 avian species (n = 22 Picidae, 2 Trogonidae, 1 Furnariidae) across 12 terrestrial ecoregions (15°S to 55°S) in South America. We used Bayesian projected normal mixed-effects models for circular data to examine the influence of latitude, and potential confounding factors, on cavity orientation. Also, a probability model-selection procedure was used to simultaneously examine multiple orientation hypotheses in each ecoregion to explore underlying cavity-orientation patterns. Contrary to predictions, and patterns from the Northern Hemisphere, birds did not orient their cavities more toward the equator with increasing latitude, suggesting that latitude may not be an important underlying selective force shaping excavation behavior in South America. Moreover, unimodal cavity-entrance orientations were not frequent among the ecoregions analyzed (only in 4 ecoregions), whereas bimodal (in 5 ecoregions) or uniform (in 3 ecoregions) orientations were also present, although many of these patterns were not very clear. Our results highlight the need to include data from under-studied biotas and regions to improve inferences at macroecological scales. Furthermore, we suggest a re-analysis of Northern Hemisphere cavity orientation patterns using a multi-model approach, and a more comprehensive assessment of the role of environmental factors as drivers of cavity orientation at different spatial scales in both hemispheres.

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Climate change impacts on South American water balance from a continental-scale hydrological model driven by CMIP5 projections

Climatic Change ◽

10.1007/s10584-020-02667-9 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 159 (4) ◽

pp. 503-522 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

João Paulo Lyra Fialho Brêda ◽

Rodrigo Cauduro Dias de Paiva ◽

Walter Collischon ◽

Juan Martín Bravo ◽

Vinicius Alencar Siqueira ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Climate Change ◽

Water Balance ◽

Hydrological Model ◽

Climate Change Impacts ◽

South American ◽

Model Driven ◽

Continental Scale

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A mid-Holocene climate reconstruction for eastern South America

Climate of the Past ◽

10.5194/cp-9-2117-2013 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 9 (5) ◽

pp. 2117-2133 ◽

Cited By ~ 46

Author(s):

L. F. Prado ◽

I. Wainer ◽

C. M. Chiessi ◽

M.-P. Ledru ◽

B. Turcq

Keyword(s):

South America ◽

Late Holocene ◽

Austral Summer ◽

South Atlantic Convergence Zone ◽

Northeastern Brazil ◽

South American ◽

The South ◽

Holocene Climate ◽

Sea Temperature ◽

Summer Insolation

Abstract. The mid-Holocene (6000 calibrated years before present) is a key period in palaeoclimatology because incoming summer insolation was lower than during the late Holocene in the Southern Hemisphere, whereas the opposite happened in the Northern Hemisphere. However, the effects of the decreased austral summer insolation over South American climate have been poorly discussed by palaeodata syntheses. In addition, only a few of the regional studies have characterised the mid-Holocene climate in South America through a multiproxy approach. Here, we present a multiproxy compilation of mid-Holocene palaeoclimate data for eastern South America. We compiled 120 palaeoclimatological datasets, which were published in 84 different papers. The palaeodata analysed here suggest a water deficit scenario in the majority of eastern South America during the mid-Holocene if compared to the late Holocene, with the exception of northeastern Brazil. Low mid-Holocene austral summer insolation caused a reduced land–sea temperature contrast and hence a weakened South American monsoon system circulation. This scenario is represented by a decrease in precipitation over the South Atlantic Convergence Zone area, saltier conditions along the South American continental margin, and lower lake levels.

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