Comparative Legacies of Human Land Use in the Brazilian Atlantic Forest

热带森林一直被认为是过去人类存在的“原始”屏障。然而，最近的大量考古研究，应用了一些最新的测量、建模和生物分子技术，显示了人类占领和管理这些生物多样性栖息地的悠久历史。热带文化遗产现在被认为是制定更有效的热带森林政策和保护工作的关键。然而，在许多关键区域，关于百年及以上热带森林的长期人类历史的比较资料仍然有限。该项目旨在了解人类土地利用对巴西大西洋森林的长期影响，巴西大西洋森林是21世纪最受威胁的热带森林之一。它将着重于人类活动对其生态和相关地球系统造成的变化，捕捉三个重点时期之间环境影响的时间和程度。这些代表了生存和人口制度的主要转变：前哥伦布时期（公元1500年之前）、殖民地时期（公元1500-1700年）和早期工业时期（公元1700-1808年）。该项目将产生人口统计信息、定居数据和多代理古生态记录的新组合，以创建人类如何在生物群系尺度上塑造大西洋森林的第一个深时间视角。考古、历史和生态领域知识的比较分析将为气候科学、生态系统恢复和旨在保护这一关键但受到威胁的环境的政策目标提供长期的土地利用数据和“可用的过去”。该项目将综合多方面的“古文化”和古生态数据，以比较不同的土地利用制度如何长期影响巴西南部和中部的大西洋森林。这项研究的新颖之处在于考古和历史数据的创造和整合，这些数据可以为将过去的人类活动纳入保护政策和气候模型的持续努力提供信息。考虑1800年前的人类活动是他们发展的下一个合乎逻辑的步骤，但主要的方法挑战仍然存在，这使得准确的土地使用历史模型比以往任何时候都更加重要。该项目针对这一领域的两个突出问题：第一，无法系统地比较史前和历史土地利用和人口数据；第二，难以将环境和植被变化与过去土地利用等驱动因素直接联系起来。所提出的方法可以转移到其他环境中，从而可以对全球热带地区的长期人类影响进行关键的比较。除了对环境足迹的估计之外，该项目还将更好地了解大西洋森林中土地利用强度和生物多样性之间的协同作用和权衡。

Tropical forests have long been considered ‘pristine’ barriers to past human presence. However, a wealth of recent archaeological research, applying some of the latest surveying, modelling, and biomolecular techniques is showing the long history of human occupation and management of these biodiverse habitats. Tropical cultural heritage is now acknowledged as being critical for the development of more effective policy and conservation efforts in tropical forests the world over. Nevertheless, comparative information on the long-term human history of tropical forests at the centennial scale and above remains limited in many key regions.The project aims to understand how long-term human land-use has impacted the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, one of the most threatened tropical forests in the 21st century. Focusing on changes to its ecology, and associated earth systems, caused by human activity, it will capture the timing and extent of environmental impacts between three focal periods. These represent major transitions in subsistence and demographic regimes: Pre-Columbian (before AD1500), Colonial (AD1500-1700), and Early Industrial (AD1700-1808). The project will produce a novel combination of demographic information, settlement data, and multi-proxy palaeoecological records to create the first deep time perspective on how humans have shaped the Atlantic Forest at a biome scale. The comparative analysis of archaeological, historical, and ecological domain knowledge will produce long-term land use data and a ‘usable past’ for climate science, ecosystem restoration, and policy goals that aim to protect this crucial, but threatened, environment into the future.The project will synthesise multifaceted “palaeocultural” and palaeoecological data to compare how different land use regimes have impacted the Atlantic Forest of southern and central Brazil over the long term. The novelty of this research lies in the creation and integration of archaeological and historical data that can inform ongoing efforts to incorporate past human activity into conservation policy and climate models. Accounting for pre-1800 human activity is the next logical step in their development yet major methodological challenges remain, making accurate models of land use history more important than ever. This project targets two prominent problems in this arena: first, the inability to systematically compare prehistoric and historic land use and population data, and second, the difficulty of directly linking environmental and vegetational change to drivers such as past land use. The proposed approach is transferable to other settings, enabling crucial comparisons of the long-term human impacts across the global tropics to take place. Beyond estimates of environmental footprints, the project will also provide a greater understanding of synergies and trade-offs between land use intensity and biodiversity in the Atlantic Forest.