“An island of one’s own”: Plant resources, resilience and population dynamics of the Aeolian Archipelago through Prehistory (original) (raw)
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PLOS ONE, 2022
Knowledge of biodiversity in the past, and the timing, nature, and drivers of human-induced ecological change, is important for gaining deep time perspectives and for modern conservation efforts. The Marquesas Islands (Polynesia) are one of the world's most remote archipelagos and illustrate the vulnerability of indigenous bioscapes to anthropogenic activities. Characterised by high levels of endemism across many biotic groups, the full spectrum of the group's flora and fauna is nonetheless incompletely known. Several centuries of Polynesian settlement reshaped biotic communities in ways that are not yet fully understood, and historically-introduced mammalian herbivores have devastated the indigenous lowland flora. We report here on archaeological recovery of a diverse assemblage of plant and arthropod subfossils from a waterlogged deposit on the largest Marquesan island: Nuku Hiva. These materials offer new perspectives on the composition of lowland plant and arthropod communities pene-contemporaneous with human arrival. Bayesian analysis of multiple 14 C results from short-lived materials date the assemblages to the mid-12 th century AD (1129-1212 cal. AD, 95.4% HPD). Evidence for human activities in the catchment coincident with deposit formation includes Polynesian associated arthropods, microcharcoal, and an adzed timber. Plant macrofossils (seeds, fruits, vegetative structures) and microfossils (pollen, phytoliths) reveal coastal and lowland wet-moist forest communities unlike those observed today. Several apparently extinct taxa are identified, along with extant taxa currently constrained to high altitude and/or interior areas. A diverse inventory of subfossil arthropods-the first pre-18 th century records for the islands-includes more than 100 distinct taxa, with several new archipelago records and one previously unreported for eastern Polynesia. The assemblages provide new insights into lowland Marquesan forest communities coincident with human arrival, and portend the considerable anthropogenic transformations that followed. These records also have implications for human colonisation of the Marquesas Islands and East Polynesia at large.
" VOLCANIC EVENTS THAT HAVE MARKED THE ANTHROPIC HISTORY OF THE AEOLIAN ISLANDS"
Annals of Geophysics, 2019
Archaeological and historical studies, conducted since 1950, allow us to trace a hypothetical demographic framework in which three crises extended over time, attributed by scholars to unfavourable social-economic situations or to war aggression, can be observed. A comparison of these three crises with the volcanological record reveals a correlation suggesting that the volcanic events had an effect on local anthropic history.
Radiocarbon 54(3-4), 2012
Archaeological plant remains, used to establish a reliable chronology by radiocarbon dating, are used here to investigate trends in past rainfall intensity. The stable carbon isotope ratio in botanic remains depends on environmental conditions during the plant’s life. By comparing the δ13C and 14C of selected plant specimens from 3 protohistoric sites in the Aeolian Archipelago, it is possible to identify short-term changes in the rainfall intensity during the 2nd millennium BC. The climate signals inferred from carbon isotope analyses are compared to pollen data for the region and are found to be consistent with changes in vegetal cover. Finally, the climate signals are integrated with the history of the Aeolian communities and the resilience of settlers is evaluated.
Archaeology, Historical Ecology and Anthropogenic Island Ecosystems
In the face of environmental uncertainty due to anthropogenic climate change, islands are at the front lines of global change, threatened by sea level rise, habitat alteration, extinctions and declining biodiversity. Islands also stand at the forefront of scientific study for understanding the deep history of human ecodynamics and to build sustainable future systems. We summarize the long history of human interactions with Polynesian, Mediterranean, Californian and Caribbean island ecosystems, documenting the effects of various waves of human settlement and socioeconomic systems, from hunter–gatherer–fishers, to agriculturalists, to globalized colonial interests. We identify degradation of island environments resulting from human activities, as well as cases of human management of resources to enhance productivity and create more sustainable systems. These case studies suggest that within a general global pattern of progressive island degradation, there was no single trajectory of human impact, but rather complex effects based on variable island physiographies, human subsistence strategies, population densities , technologies, sociopolitical organization and decision-making.
Examining the relationship between total species richness and single island palaeo- and neo-endemics
Acta Oecologica, 2011
Recently, hypothesized that diversity begets speciation (DBS hypothesis). The relationship between total species richness and single island endemic diversity (as a proportion of the total species richness of the island) has been used as evidence for the DBS hypothesis. This relationship has been documented in oceanic archipelagos, but many criticisms have been raised on whether this relationship truly supports the DBS hypothesis. In this study we tested if this hypothesis holds in the Aegean archipelago (a continental archipelago with continuous human presence over millennia). Endemism in the Aegean includes mainly neo-endemic species but also relictual populations of formerly more widespread species (i.e. palaeo-endemics). Contrary to the DBS hypothesis, we found that total species richness was not significantly correlated to single island endemics (neither neo-endemics nor palaeo-endemics) as a proportion of the island flora. Furthermore, we found that neo-endemic diversity (either as species richness or as a proportion of the islands flora) is mainly correlated to island maximum elevation, while area and isolation were less important. So if this ratio is indeed an index of speciation, then an alternative explanation might be that elevation (interpreted as a proxy for habitat heterogeneity) is the driver of speciation in our case. Palaeo-endemics, on the other hand, were present in only six of the largest islands in the Aegean and their diversity was strongly correlated only with island area, perhaps implying that larger islands support larger population sizes that buffer stochastic extinctions risks.
Archeology, Deep History, and the Human Transformation of Island Ecosystems
Anthropocene, 2014
Island ecosystems and peoples face uncertain futures in the wake of predicted climate change, sea level rise, and habitat alteration in the decades and centuries to come. Archeological and paleoecological records provide important context for understanding modern environmental and sociopolitical developments on islands. We review and analyze human interactions with island ecosystems in Polynesia, the Caribbean, and California during the last several millennia. Our analysis demonstrates that human impacts on island ecosystems and cases of highly managed anthropogenic landscapes extend deep in the past, often beginning at initial settlement. There are important issues of scale and island physical characteristics, however, that make human ecodynamics on islands variable through space and time. These data demonstrate that current environmental problems have their roots in deeper time and suggest that the Anthropocene likely began by the onset of the Holocene, if not earlier.