Phytolith assemblages reflect variability in human land use and the modern environment

Phytoliths preserved in soils and sediments can be used to provide unique insights into past vegetation dynamics in response to human and climate change. Phytoliths can reconstruct local vegetation in terrestrial soils where pollen grains typically decay, providing a range of markers (or lack thereo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Vegetation history and archaeobotany 2024-03, Vol.33 (2), p.221-236
Main Authors: Witteveen, Nina H., White, Cheryl, Sanchez Martinez, Barbara A., Booij, Roemer, Philip, Annemarie, Gosling, William D., Bush, Mark B., McMichael, Crystal N. H.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anthropology
Archaeology
Biogeosciences
Climate Change
Datasets
Earth and Environmental Science
Earth Sciences
Forests
Human impact
Land use
Original Article
Paleontology
Pollen
Rainforests
Reforestation
Remote sensing
Satellite imagery
Sediments
Shifting cultivation
Soils
Vegetation
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Summary:Phytoliths preserved in soils and sediments can be used to provide unique insights into past vegetation dynamics in response to human and climate change. Phytoliths can reconstruct local vegetation in terrestrial soils where pollen grains typically decay, providing a range of markers (or lack thereof) that document past human activities. The ca. 6 million km 2 of Amazonian forests have relatively few baseline datasets documenting changes in phytolith representation across gradients of human disturbances. Here we show that phytolith assemblages vary on local scales across a gradient of (modern) human disturbance in tropical rainforests of Suriname. Detrended correspondence analysis showed that the phytolith assemblages found in managed landscapes (shifting cultivation and a garden), unmanaged forests, and abandoned reforesting sites were clearly distinguishable from intact forests and from each other. Our results highlight the sensitivity and potential of phytoliths to be used in reconstructing successional trajectories after site usage and abandonment. Percentages of specific phytolith morphotypes were also positively correlated with local palm abundances derived from UAV data, and with biomass estimated from MODIS satellite imagery. This baseline dataset provides an index of likely changes that can be observed at other sites that indicate past human activities and long-term forest recovery in Amazonia.
ISSN:0939-6314
1617-6278
DOI:10.1007/s00334-023-00932-2