Hook a Worm to Catch a Man: Tracking Historical and Recent Human Settlement, Land use & Migration in Neotropical Rainforests using Ecosystem Engineers

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'Learning from the past to inform the present and inspire the future' - Atkins GroupThe anthropologic and archaeological study of pre-Columbian people of the Amazon Basin has revealed sophisticated agricultural practices. Notwithstanding the absence of historical written records, the biological evidence of these practices remains in the remarkable soils referred to as Amazonian 'dark earths' (ADEs), or "Terra Preta do Indio", produced by these ancient civilisations to promote highly productive and sustainable agriculture. With increasing global demand for food, energy and carbon, it is crucial to understand and learn from past land use systems. We can also learn from the influence of these historical practices on the associated biodiversity in order to appropriately manage the current and plan the future land uses. This understanding is essential for both economic and environmental sustainability, and to provide for the needs and aspirations of current and future generations, while simultaneously conserving the ecological fidelity of the resource base on which they depend. This is particularly important with respect to soils and their intrinsic and diverse living organisms, because they sustain plant production (thus, they are at the base of the human food production chain), and have important consequences for water quality and availability. Furthermore, soils are a vast storehouse for biodiversity including many invertebrate species that contribute a number of essential ecosystem services, although most of these species remain mostly unknown, unseen and disregarded. By promoting the interdisciplinary connection between anthropology/archaeology, soil ecology and genomics, we will be able propose to integrate and harness the research expertise of internationally renowned scientists to investigate both the relationship of ADEs to the associated extant biodiversity, reveal details of past and current anthropogenic impact on the natural surroundings, as well as new clues regarding settlement dynamics over a large part of Brazil. Therefore, this project's intention is to contribute to the knowledge of soil animal biodiversity and its relationship with soil fertility and land use changes in a mega-diverse biome (Amazonia). Our objectives will be accomplished by:1. Assessing the current soil biodiversity assemblages to gain knowledge about the functioning and potential role of soil ecosystem engineers, organic matter and nutrients to the formation of these extremely fertile soils; this novel approach will aid in understanding the origin and sustainable management of ADEs as well as highly weathered and acid soils under humid tropical conditions.2. Using DNA barcoding to describe the diversity of the ecosystem engineer community associated with past and recent settlements throughout the Amazonian Basin. 3. Using genomics of a peregrine species closely related with human landscape domestication to mirror the human exchanges and flow among the Neotropical rainforest associated with the migration of Amazonian Indians.This will be achieved by integrating the state-of-the-art methods in The state-of-the-art 'tools' that the collaborating network of scientists will bring to bear on the study objectives include invertebrate morphology, molecular genetics, and computational analyses with incorporation of pre-existent and new ecological, anthropological and environmental metadata. Furthermore, the proposed project will establish a collaborative network involving a multi-disciplinary, multi-institutional team of researchers in different areas of Brazil and, therefore, solidifying the connection between the European Community and Brazil, in particular between Cardiff University and Embrapa.