Original title: How People Domesticated Amazonian Forests
People in Amazonia have shaped forests for thousands of years to encourage useful plants, especially food plants. The researchers identified eight practices, including protecting useful plants, moving them, managing fire, and improving soil. They propose that these practices interacted with each other and with natural processes to form patches rich in useful plants. Field observations near archaeological sites found diverse patches of perennial plants whose dominant species are still managed by local people.
Imagine tending a shared garden over many years. Some plants are removed, others are protected or moved, and the soil and fire are managed to help useful plants thrive. No single action makes the garden; their combined effects change what grows there. In this paper, those garden choices stand for the many ways Amazonian people shaped forest patches over time.
The forests around old settlements hold useful plants that local people still manage today. Understanding how those patches formed shows how human practices helped support food production and food security in Amazonia over long periods.
The abstract presents a conceptual model and observations from 30 contemporary villages on or near archaeological sites. It does not establish exactly when each practice began, how much each one contributed, or whether the patterns found apply across all Amazonian forests.
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How People Domesticated Amazonian Forests — Carolina Levis, Bernardo M. Flores, Priscila Ambrósio Moreira et al. — Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution — doi:10.3389/fevo.2017.00171
Abstract licence: CC BY
Explanation generated by Synthesis from the abstract — it is not the original paper.