The Environmental History of the Amazon Rain Forest

“S”号将从巴西亚马逊地区的湖泊中打捞沉积物岩芯。所有湖泊都是由与该项目有关的巴西人员进行地面勘察或从航天飞机图像中选择的，主要要求是湖泊与河流系统分离，最好是占据封闭的盆地。目标是跨越北部最后一次冰川时间的连续沉积序列。调查者将通过花粉和叶状体分析重建森林植物种群的历史。这些结果将被用来检验与以下假设有关的假设：北冰川时期热带雨林避难所的存在，热带雨林群落的持久性，热带低地冰川温度下降，热带雨林扰动的时间尺度和多样性的原因，长期(6000年)人类干扰对热带雨林的环境影响，并提出明智利用或保护亚马逊的战略。

The P.I.'s will raise sediment cores from lakes in the Brazilian Amazon. All lakes have been chosen by ground reconnaissance by Brazilian personnel in association with the project, or from shuttle imagery, the prime requirement being that the lakes be divorced from the river system, preferably occupying closed basins. The target is continuous sedimentary sequences spanning the time of the last glaciation in the north. The investigator will reconstruct histories of forest plant populations by pollen and phyolith analysis. The results will be used to test hypotheses relating to: the existence of rain forest refugia during northern glacial maxima, the permanence of rain forest communities, glacial temperature depression in the lowland tropics, rain forest perturbance time-scales and the causes of diversity, the environmental impact of long term (.6000 yr) human disturbance on the rain forests, and to suggest strategies of wise use or conservation for Amazonia.