Persistent effects of pre-Columbian plant domestication on Amazonian forest composition

C. Levis, F. R. C. Costa, F. Bongers, M. Peña-Claros, C. R. Clement, A. B. Junqueira, E. G. Neves, E. K. Tamanaha, F. O. G. Figueiredo, R. P. Salomão, C. V. Castilho, W. E. Magnusson, O. L. Phillips, J. E. Guevara, D. Sabatier, J.-F. Molino, D. Cárdenas López, A. M. Mendoza, N. C. A. Pitman, A. DuqueP. Núñez Vargas, C. E. Zartman, R. Vasquez, A. Andrade, J. L. Camargo, T. R. Feldpausch, S. G. W. Laurance, W. F. Laurance, T. J. Killeen, H. E. Mendonça Nascimento, J. C. Montero, B. Mostacedo, I. L. Amaral, I. C. Guimarães Vieira, R. Brienen, H. Castellanos, J. Terborgh, M. de Jesus Veiga Carim, J. R. da Silva Guimarães, L. de Souza Coelho, F. D. de Almeida Matos, F. Wittmann, H. F. Mogollón, G. Damasco, N. Dávila, R. García-Villacorta, E. N. H. Coronado, T. Emilio, D. de Andrade Lima Filho, J. Schietti, P. Souza, N. Targhetta, J. A. Comiskey, B. S. Marimon, B.-H. Marimon, D. Neill, A. Alonso, L. Arroyo, F. A. Carvalho, F. C. de Souza, F. Dallmeier, M. P. Pansonato, J. F. Duivenvoorden, P. V. A. Fine, P. R. Stevenson, A. Araujo-Murakami, G. A. Aymard C., C. Baraloto, D. D. do Amaral, J. Engel, T. W. Henkel, P. Maas, P. Petronelli, J. D. Cardenas Revilla, J. Stropp, D. Daly, R. Gribel, M. Ríos Paredes, M. Silveira, R. Thomas-Caesar, T. R. Baker, N. F. da Silva, L. V. Ferreira, C. A. Peres, M. R. Silman, C. Cerón, F. C. Valverde, A. Di Fiore, E. M. Jimenez, M. C. Peñuela Mora, M. Toledo, E. M. Barbosa, L. C. de Matos Bonates, N. C. Arboleda, E. de Sousa Farias, A. Fuentes, J.-L. Guillaumet, P. Møller Jørgensen, Y. Malhi, I. P. de Andrade Miranda, J. F. Phillips, A. Prieto, A. Rudas, A. R. Ruschel, N. Silva, P. von Hildebrand, V. A. Vos, E. L. Zent, S. Zent, B. B. L. Cintra, M. T. Nascimento, A. A. Oliveira, H. Ramirez-Angulo, J. F. Ramos, G. Rivas, J. Schöngart, R. Sierra, M. Tirado, G. van der Heijden, E. V. Torre, O. Wang, K. R. Young, C. Baider, A. Cano, W. Farfan-Rios, C. Ferreira, B. Hoffman, C. Mendoza, I. Mesones, A. Torres-Lezama, M. N. U. Medina, T. R. van Andel, D. Villarroel, R. Zagt, M. N. Alexiades, H. Balslev, K. Garcia-Cabrera, T. Gonzales, L. Hernandez, I. Huamantupa-Chuquimaco, A. G. Manzatto, W. Milliken, W. P. Cuenca, S. Pansini, D. Pauletto, F. R. Arevalo, N. F. Costa Reis, A. F. Sampaio, L. E. Urrego Giraldo, E. H. Valderrama Sandoval, L. Valenzuela Gamarra, C. I. A. Vela, H. ter Steege

    Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Abstract

    The marks of prehistoric human societies on tropical forests can still be detected today. Levis et al. performed a basin-wide comparison of plant distributions, archaeological sites, and environmental data. Plants domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples are much more likely to be dominant in Amazonian forests than other species. Furthermore, forests close to archaeological sites often have a higher abundance and richness of domesticated species. Thus, modern-day Amazonian tree communities across the basin remain largely structured by historical human use.Science, this issue p. 925The extent to which pre-Columbian societies altered Amazonian landscapes is hotly debated. We performed a basin-wide analysis of pre-Columbian impacts on Amazonian forests by overlaying known archaeological sites in Amazonia with the distributions and abundances of 85 woody species domesticated by pre-Columbian peoples. Domesticated species are five times more likely than nondomesticated species to be hyperdominant. Across the basin, the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species increase in forests on and around archaeological sites. In southwestern and eastern Amazonia, distance to archaeological sites strongly influences the relative abundance and richness of domesticated species. Our analyses indicate that modern tree communities in Amazonia are structured to an important extent by a long history of plant domestication by Amazonian peoples.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)925-931
    Number of pages7
    JournalScience
    Volume355
    Issue number6328
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2017

    Bibliographical note

    M1 - 6328

    Funding

    This paper was made possible by the work of hundreds of different scientists and research institutions in the Amazon over the past 80 years. This work was supported by Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica/Amazon Conservation Association (ACCA/ACA); Alberta Mennega Stichting; ALCOA Suriname; Banco de la República; Centre for Agricultural Research in Suriname (CELOS Suriname); Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES) (Plano Nacional de Pós-Graduação); CAPES Ciencia sem Fronteiras (PVE 177/2012); Conselho Nacional de Desenvovimento Científico e Tecnológico of Brazil (CNPq) Projects CNPq/FAPEAM-INCT CENBAM (573721/2008-4), PPBio Manaus (CNPq 558318/2009-6), CNPq-PPBio-AmOc (457544/2012-0), CNPq-PQ (304088/2011-0 and 306368/2013-7), Hidroveg Universal CNPq (473308/2009-6), Projeto Cenarios FINEP/CNPq (52.0103/2009-2), CNPq-SWE (201573/2014-8), CNPq-SWE (207400/2014-8), CNPq Universal (307807-2009-6), CNPq Universal (479599/2008-4), CNPq Universal 458210/2014-5, and CNPq Universal 303851/2015-5; Colciencias; Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas (FAPEAM) projects with Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (09/53369-6 and 465/2010) and PRONEX-FAPEAM (1600/2006); Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation; Guyana Forestry Commission; Investissement d'Avenir grant of the French L'Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR) (Centre d'Étude de la Biodiversité Amazonienne: ANR-10-LABX-0025); Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas of Venezuela; Lincoln Park Zoo; Margaret Mee Amazon Trust; Margot Marsh Foundation; Marie Sklodowska-Curie/European Union's Horizon 2020 (706011); Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação (MCTI)-Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi-Proc. 407232/2013-3-PVE-MEC/MCTI/CAPES/CNPq; Miquel fonds; Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research WOTRO: grants WB85-335 and W84-581; Nuffic; Primate Conservation; Stichting het van Eeden-fonds; Shell Prospecting and Development of Peru; Tropenbos International; UniAndes; Variety Woods Guyana; U.S. National Science Foundation Projects (DEB-0918591, DEB-1258112, and DEB-1556338) and Wenner-Gren Foundation; Venezuela National Council for Scientific Research and Technology (CONICIT); Wageningen University (Interdisciplinary Research and Education Fund Terra Preta program and FOREFRONT program); Aarhus University; Wake Forest University; and WWF-Guianas and grants to RAINFOR from the Natural Environment Research Council (UK) and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation European Union. O.L.P. is supported by a European Research Council Advanced Grant and a Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award. We thank J. Chave, A. Vincentini, C. Vriesendorp, U. Lombardo, and H. Prümers for providing data and B. Monteiro Flores for constructive comments on the manuscript. A.B.J. and E.K.T. thank all archaeologists who contributed with archaeological coordinates. All data described in the paper are present in the main text and the supplementary materials, and custom R scripts used in analyses are provided in the supplementary materials. Additional data related to this paper can be obtained by contacting authors. C.L., H.t.S., F.R.C.C, F.B., M.P.-C, C.R.C., and A.B.J conceived the study and designed the analyses. C.L. and H.t.S. carried out most analyses. C.L., H.t.S., F.R.C.C, F.B., M.P.-C, C.R.C., A.B.J, and N.C.A.P. wrote the manuscript. All of the other authors contributed data, discussed further analyses, and commented on various versions of the manuscript. This is contribution 708 of the technical series of the Biological Dynamics of Forest Fragments Project (BDFFP).

    FundersFunder number
    CAPES Ciencia sem FronteirasPVE 177/2012
    CNPq UniversalUniversal 458210/2014-5, 479599/2008-4, Universal 303851/2015-5
    CNPq-PPBio-AmOc457544/2012-0
    CNPq-PQ306368/2013-7, 304088/2011-0
    CNPq-SWE207400/2014-8, 201573/2014-8, 307807-2009-6
    FAPEAM-INCT CENBAM573721/2008-4
    Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation European Union
    Guyana Forestry Commission
    Hidroveg Universal CNPq473308/2009-6
    Margaret Mee Amazon Trust
    Margot Marsh Foundation
    Museu Paraense Emílio Goeldi-Proc407232/2013-3
    PPBio Manaus558318/2009-6
    Projeto Cenarios FINEP52.0103/2009-2
    Venezuela National Council for Scientific Research and Technology
    National Science FoundationDEB-0918591, DEB-1556338, DEB-1258112
    Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation
    Wenner-Gren Foundation
    Amazon Conservation Association
    Wake Forest University
    Alberta Conservation Association
    Aarhus Universitet
    Departamento Administrativo de Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación (COLCIENCIAS)
    Horizon 2020 Framework Programme
    Alberta Mennega Stichting
    Natural Environment Research Council
    Royal Society
    European Research Council
    Agence Nationale de la RechercheANR-10-LABX-0025
    Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo1600/2006, 465/2010, 09/53369-6
    Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior
    Ministério da Ciência, Tecnologia e Inovação
    Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico
    Wageningen University and Research
    Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado do Amazonas
    Asociación para la Conservación de la Cuenca Amazónica
    Horizon 2020706011
    Instituto Venezolano de Investigaciones Científicas
    Consejo Nacional para Investigaciones Científicas y Tecnológicas
    Lung Foundation NetherlandsWB85-335, W84-581

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