Amazonia and the Anthropocene: What was the spatial extent and intensity of human landscape modification in the Amazon Basin at the end of prehistory?
Amazonia and the Anthropocene: What was the spatial extent and intensity of human landscape modification in the Amazon Basin at the end of prehistory?
复制标题
亚马逊流域和人类世：史前末期亚马逊盆地人类景观改变的空间范围和强度是多少？
DOI：
10.1177/0959683615588374
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
M. Bush
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
D. Piperno;C. McMichael;M. Bush
亚马逊地区史前人类景观改造的性质和空间尺度是一个经久不衰的问题。40多年前，考古学家发表了关于这些问题的原始概念，认为由于假定的环境限制，人类的影响很小。最近积累的经验数据表明，在亚马逊中部和南部的主要水道沿线有密集的永久定居点，玻利维亚季节性洪水泛滥的热带稀树草原地区的景观发生了深刻的变化。这些结果导致一些研究人员提出，在欧洲人到来之前，亚马逊地区的大部分地区都是人口稠密的，并且经过了改造，史前火灾和森林砍伐的规模如此之大，以至于哥伦比亚之后的重新造林是大气中二氧化碳水平降低和“小冰河期”开始的重要因素。从亚马逊西部部分地区直立的原生林地下取样的土壤调查得出的最新数据表明，古代人类活动短暂，那里的植被几乎没有受到干扰。这些问题是围绕人类世的分类和时间的持续讨论的核心，因为基于人类对环境的深刻改变和对全新世何时开始的考虑而提出的地质时代，需要来自亚马逊盆地等重要地区的可靠的古环境和考古数据。本文回顾了关于史前人类对亚马逊地区影响的争论和现有信息，提供了来自亚马逊西部的新数据，并试图根据现有的经验数据得出合理的结论。
The nature and spatial scale of prehistoric human landscape modifications in Amazonia are enduring questions. Original conceptions of the issues by archaeologists published more than 40 years ago posited little human influence because of putative environmental constraints. Empirical data accumulated more recently demonstrated dense, permanent settlements along major watercourses of the central and southern Amazon, and profound landscape alterations in seasonally flooded savanna regions of Bolivia. These results led some investigators to propose that most to all of Amazonia was heavily populated and modified before European arrival, and that prehistoric fires and forest clearing were of such a massive scale that post-Columbian reforestation was a significant contributor to decreasing atmospheric CO2 levels and the onset of the ‘Little Ice Age’. Recent data generated from investigations of soils sampled from underneath standing terra firme forests in parts of the western Amazon indicate ephemeral ancient human occupation and little vegetation disturbance there. These issues are central to ongoing discussions surrounding the classification and timing of the Anthropocene, because a geological epoch proposed on the basis of profound human alteration of environments and considerations of when during the Holocene it should begin, require robust paleo-environmental and archaeological data from major, critically important zones such as the Amazon Basin. This paper reviews debates and existing information on prehistoric human influences in Amazonia, provides new data from the western Amazon, and attempts to arrive at reasonable conclusions based on the available empirical data.
影响因子：
2.1
作者：
J. Barlow;J. Silveira;M. Cochrane
通讯作者：
J. Barlow;J. Silveira;M. Cochrane