Article
Details
Citation
McMichael CNH, Bush MB, ter Steege H, Piperno DR, Gosling WD, Nascimento MN, Lombardo U, de Souza Coelho L, Le?o do Amaral I, de Almeida Matos FD, de Andrade Lima Filho D, Castilho CV, Wittmann F, Guevara-Andino JE & Sanna Freire Silva T (2025) Centuries of compounding human influence on Amazonian forests. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 122 (47), Art. No.: e2514040122. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2514040122
Abstract
Recent evidence suggests that the ecological footprints of pre-Columbian Indigenous peoples in Amazonia persist in modern forests. Ecological impacts resulting from European colonization c. 1550 CE and the Amazonian Rubber Boom c. 1850 to 1920 CE are largely unexplored but could be important additive influences on forest structure and tree species composition. Using environmental niche models, we show the highest probabilities of pre-Columbian and colonial occupation sites, and hence human-induced ecological influences, occurred in forests along rivers. In many areas, the predicted pre-Columbian and colonial distributions overlap spatially with the potential for superimposed ecological influences. Environmental gradients are known to structure Amazonian vegetation composition, but they are also strong predictors of past human influence, both spatially and temporally. Our comparisons of model outputs with relative abundances of Amazonian tree species suggest that pre-Columbian and colonial-period ecological legacies are associated with modern forest composition.
Keywords
Ecological Legacy; Hyperdominance; Indigenous Land use; Colonization; Tropical Forest
Notes
Additional authors:
William E. Magnusson, Rafael P. Salom?o, Oliver L. Phillips, Juan David Cardenas Revilla, Mariana Vict¨®ria Irume, Maria Pires Martins, Maria Teresa Fernandez Piedade, Jos¨¦ Ferreira Ramos, Nigel C. A. Pitman, Bruno Garcia Luize, Evlyn M¨¢rcia Moraes de Le?o Novo, Percy N¨²?ez Vargas, Thiago Sanna Freire Silva, Eduardo Martins Venticinque, Angelo Gilberto Manzatto, Neidiane Farias Costa Reis, Katia Regina Casula, Euridice N. Honorio Coronado, Juan Carlos Montero, Jochen Sch?ngart, Nicol¨¢s Casta?o Arboleda, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Charles Eugene Zartman, Rodolfo Vasquez, Bonifacio Mostacedo, John Terborgh, Layon O. Demarchi, Rafael L. Assis, Marcelo Brilhante de Medeiro, Adriano Costa Quaresma, Marcelo Fragomeni Simon, Ana Andrade, Jos¨¦ Lu¨ªs Camargo, Ted R. Feldpausch, Timothy J. Killeen, William F. Laurance, Susan G. W. Laurance, Lorena Maniguaje Rinc¨®n, Emanuelle de Sousa Farias, Henrique Eduardo Mendon?a Nascimento, Bruno Bar?ante Ladvocat Cintra, Tim R. Baker, Yuri Oliveira Feitosa, Hugo F. Mogoll¨®n, Alejandro Araujo-Murakami, Roel Brienen, Maria Aparecida Lopes, Jos¨¦ Leonardo Lima Magalh?es, Helder Lima de Queiroz, James A. Comiskey, Beatriz S. Marimon, Ben Hur Marimon-Junior, Gabriel Damasco, Freddie C. Draper, Roosevelt Garc¨ªa-Villacorta, Aline Lopes, Alberto Vicentini, Fernando Cornejo Valverde, Alfonso Alonso, Francisco Dallmeier, Leandro Valle Ferreira, Vitor H. F. Gomes, Daniel P. P. de Aguiar, Fernanda Antunes Carvalho, Rogerio Gribel, Marcelo Petratti Pansonato, Gerardo A. Aymard C., Paul V. A. Fine, Juan Carlos Licona, Boris Eduardo Villa Zegarra, Vincent Antoine Vos, Luzmila Arroyo, Carlos Cer¨®n, Marcos Silveira, Juliana Stropp, Doug Daly, William Milliken, Guido Pardo Molina, Marcos R¨ªos Paredes, Jos Barlow, Erika Berenguer, D¨¢rio Dantas do Amaral, Joice Ferreira, Eliana M. Jimenez, Bente Klitgaard, Maria Cristina Pe?uela Mora, Carlos A. Peres, Pablo R. Stevenson, Kyle G. Dexter, Anthony Di Fiore, Isau Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, Jos¨¦ Luis Marcelo Pena, Toby Pennington, Luciana de Oliveira Pereira, Juan Fernando Phillips, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres, Patricio von Hildebrand, Jana¨ªna Costa Noronha, Edelcilio Marques Barbosa, Fl¨¢via Rodrigues Barbosa, Luiz Carlos de Matos Bonates, Rainiellen de S¨¢ Carpandeo, Hilda Paulette D¨¢vila Doza, Alfredo Fuentes, Ricardo Z¨¢rate G¨®mez, Therany Gonzales, George Pepe Gallardo Gonzales, Yadvinder Malhi, Ires Paula de Andrade Miranda, Linder Felipe Mozombite Pinto, Adriana Prieto, Domingos de Jesus Rodrigues, Agust¨ªn Rudas, J. Sebasti¨¢n Tello, C¨¦sar I. A. Vela, Bianca Weiss Albuquerque, Angela Cano, Milena Holmgren, Marcelo Trindade Nascimento, Alexandre A. Oliveira, Maira Roc, Ademir R. Ruschel, Veridiana Vizoni Scudeller, Rodrigo Sierra, Miles R. Silman, Natalino Silva, Milton Tirado, Maria Natalia Uma?a, Corine Vriesendorp, Cl¨¢udia Baider, Henrik Balslev, Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, Casimiro Mendoza, Italo Mesones, Germaine Alexander Parada, Miguel N. Alexiades, William Farfan-Rios, Karina Garcia-Cabrera, Walter Palacios Cuenca, Susamar Pansini, Daniela Pauletto, Freddy Ramirez Arevalo, Adeilza Felipe Sampaio, Elvis H. Valderrama Sandoval, Luis Valenzuela Gamarra, Marcelo de Jesus Veiga Carim, Jos¨¦ Renan da Silva Guimar?es, John J. Pipoly III, Fernanda Coelho de Souza, Marcelino Carneiro Guedes, Jos¨¦ Julio de Toledo, Wegliane Campelo, Terry W. Henkel, Jean-Fran?ois Molino, Janaina Barbosa Pedrosa Costa, Ima C¨¦lia Guimar?es Vieira, Daniel Sabatier, Alvaro Duque, Daniel Zuleta, Thiago Trindade, Eduardo Kazuo Tamanaha, Fernando Ozorio de Almeida, and Kenneth J. Feeley
Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences: Volume 122, Issue 47
| Status | Published |
|---|---|
| Publication date | 30/11/2025 |
| Publication date online | 30/11/2025 |
| Date accepted by journal | 08/10/2025 |
| URL | |
| Publisher | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences |
| ISSN | 0027-8424 |
| eISSN | 1091-6490 |
People (1)
Senior Lecturer, Biological and Environmental Sciences