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Harris JA, Anyawire M, Mabulla A, Wood BM. Hadza Landscape Burning. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2024:10.1007/s12110-024-09475-5. [PMID: 39162965 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-024-09475-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/09/2024] [Indexed: 08/21/2024]
Abstract
We present the first published ethnographic description of landscape burning by Hadza hunter-gatherers of northern Tanzania and identify environmental, social, and cultural influences on Hadza landscape burning, thereby broadening the ethnographic record of anthropogenic burning practices described for hunter-gatherer communities. We report interview data collected in 2022 and 2023, describing their practices and attitudes regarding the causes and consequences of burning. We provide context by comparing our observations with those recorded for hunting and gathering populations in Africa, Australia, and North America. Hadza landscape burning is generally a solitary and male-dominated activity, contrary to ethnographic accounts of Indigenous landscape burning from North America and Australia. The primary goals stated by Hadza for landscape burning were improved hunting, reduced hazards from dangerous animals, and to reduce the density of livestock. Firsthand observations suggest that landscape burning has decreased over the past 20 years, and this historical trend is supported by interviews. Satellite imagery also suggests an overall decrease in burning activity in the region from 2001 to 2022. Among the Hadza, landscape burning is a culturally influenced and strongly gender-biased activity that is rapidly disappearing. Because burning can radically transform landscapes, these practices often generate or amplify conflicts of interest between groups with different land use strategies. Hadza report serious social conflict with pastoralists over landscape burning, and our study suggests this tension has constrained the practice in the past two decades.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jacob A Harris
- School of Interdisciplinary Forensics, Arizona State University, Glendale, USA.
| | | | - Audax Mabulla
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, University of Dar es Salaam, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
| | - Brian M Wood
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, USA
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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2
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Bliege Bird R, Bird DW, Martine CT, McGuire C, Greenwood L, Taylor D, Williams TM, Veth PM. Seed dispersal by Martu peoples promotes the distribution of native plants in arid Australia. Nat Commun 2024; 15:6019. [PMID: 39019861 PMCID: PMC11255322 DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50300-5] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/27/2023] [Accepted: 07/08/2024] [Indexed: 07/19/2024] Open
Abstract
Commensal relationships between wild plants and their dispersers play a key ecological and evolutionary role in community structure and function. While non-human dispersers are often considered critical to plant recruitment, human dispersers have received much less attention, especially when it comes to non-domesticated plants. Australia, as a continent historically characterized by economies reliant on non-domesticated plants, is thus a key system for exploring the ecological role of people as seed dispersers in the absence of agriculture. Here, we utilize a controlled observation research design, employing ecological surveys and ethnographic observations to examine how seed dispersal and landscape burning by Martu Aboriginal people affects the distribution of three preferred plants and one (edible, but non-preferred) control species. Using an information theoretic approach, we find that the three preferred plants show evidence of human dispersal, with the strongest evidence supporting anthropogenic dispersal for the wild bush tomato, Solanum diversiflorum.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Bliege Bird
- The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, University Park, PA, 16801, USA.
| | - Douglas W Bird
- The Pennsylvania State University, Department of Anthropology, University Park, PA, 16801, USA
| | | | - Chloe McGuire
- Far Western Anthropological Research Group, 2727 Del Rio Pl, Davis, CA, 95618, USA
| | - Leanne Greenwood
- Dja Dja Wurrung Clans Aboriginal Corporation, Bendigo, Australia
| | - Desmond Taylor
- Martu Elder, Kulyakartu Aboriginal Corporation, 76 Wittenoom St, East Perth, WA, 6004, Australia
| | - Tanisha M Williams
- Department of Plant Biology, University of Georgia, 2502 Miller Plant Sciences, Athens, GA, 30602-7271, USA
| | - Peter M Veth
- The University of Western Australia, School of Social Sciences and ARC Centre of Excellence for Indigenous and Environmental Histories and Futures, Crawley, WA, Australia
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3
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Xi S, Liu H, Zhang J, Hu L, Wang W. Key factors affecting NH 3-N in the Huaihe River Basin due to human activities. ENVIRONMENTAL GEOCHEMISTRY AND HEALTH 2024; 46:218. [PMID: 38849659 DOI: 10.1007/s10653-024-01967-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/10/2024] [Accepted: 03/25/2024] [Indexed: 06/09/2024]
Abstract
Human activity factors have a significant impact on changes in ammonia nitrogen (NH3-N) content in rivers. Existing research mainly focuses on human activity factors as type factors, and lacks research on the key factors affecting river NH3-N among human activity factors. Therefore, this paper aims to study the key factors affecting human activities on NH3-N in the Huaihe River through various statistical analysis methods. The study found that changes in NH3-N content in the Huaihe River are mainly affected by land use patterns in the basin. There are two different ways in which land use affects NH3-N in rivers: direct effects and indirect effects. We also studied the main pathways through which changes in key factors in human activities affect NH3-N in the Huaihe River by constructing a structural equation model. The results showed that crop sowing area and afforestation area have a significant direct effect on NH3-N in the Huaihe River. In addition, crop sowing area and afforestation area can also affect river NH3-N by regulating the amount of nitrogen fertilizer and human excrement. This study is of great significance for understanding how human activities regulate NH3-N content in rivers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shanshan Xi
- School of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, 292, Ziyun Rd., Shushan District, Hefei City, 230601, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Provincial Institute of Ecological Civilization, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Province Tongyuan Environmental Environment Co. Ltd, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China
| | - Hao Liu
- School of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, 292, Ziyun Rd., Shushan District, Hefei City, 230601, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China.
- Anhui Provincial Institute of Ecological Civilization, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China.
| | - Jiamei Zhang
- School of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, 292, Ziyun Rd., Shushan District, Hefei City, 230601, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Provincial Institute of Ecological Civilization, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China
| | - Lechang Hu
- School of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, 292, Ziyun Rd., Shushan District, Hefei City, 230601, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Provincial Institute of Ecological Civilization, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China
| | - Wei Wang
- School of Environmental and Energy Engineering, Anhui Jianzhu University, 292, Ziyun Rd., Shushan District, Hefei City, 230601, Anhui Province, People's Republic of China
- Anhui Provincial Institute of Ecological Civilization, Hefei, Anhui, People's Republic of China
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4
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Greenler SM, Lake FK, Tripp W, McCovey K, Tripp A, Hillman LG, Dunn CJ, Prichard SJ, Hessburg PF, Harling W, Bailey JD. Blending Indigenous and western science: Quantifying cultural burning impacts in Karuk Aboriginal Territory. ECOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS : A PUBLICATION OF THE ECOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2024; 34:e2973. [PMID: 38616644 DOI: 10.1002/eap.2973] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/09/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2024] [Indexed: 04/16/2024]
Abstract
The combined effects of Indigenous fire stewardship and lightning ignitions shaped historical fire regimes, landscape patterns, and available resources in many ecosystems globally. The resulting fire regimes created complex fire-vegetation dynamics that were further influenced by biophysical setting, disturbance history, and climate. While there is increasing recognition of Indigenous fire stewardship among western scientists and managers, the extent and purpose of cultural burning is generally absent from the landscape-fire modeling literature and our understanding of ecosystem processes and development. In collaboration with the Karuk Tribe Department of Natural Resources, we developed a transdisciplinary Monte Carlo simulation model of cultural ignition location, frequency, and timing to simulate spatially explicit cultural ignitions across a 264,399-ha landscape within Karuk Aboriginal Territory in northern California. Estimates of cultural ignition parameters were developed with Tribal members and knowledge holders using existing interviews, historical maps, ethnographies, recent ecological studies, contemporary maps, and generational knowledge. Spatial and temporal attributes of cultural burning were explicitly tied to the ecology of specific cultural resources, fuel receptivity, seasonal movement patterns, and spiritual practices. Prior to colonization, cultural burning practices were extensive across the study landscape with an estimated 6972 annual ignitions, averaging approximately 6.5 ignitions per Indigenous fire steward per year. The ignition characteristics we document align closely with data on historical fire regimes and vegetation but differ substantially from the location and timing of contemporary ignitions. This work demonstrates the importance of cultural burning for developing and maintaining the ecosystems present at the time of colonization and underscores the need to work collaboratively with Indigenous communities to restore ecocultural processes in these systems.
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Affiliation(s)
- Skye M Greenler
- Oregon State University College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
| | - Frank K Lake
- U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Research Station, Arcata, California, USA
| | - William Tripp
- Karuk Tribe, Department of Natural Resources, Orleans, California, USA
| | | | - Analisa Tripp
- Karuk Tribe, Department of Natural Resources, Orleans, California, USA
| | | | | | - Susan J Prichard
- University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Seattle, Washington, USA
| | - Paul F Hessburg
- University of Washington School of Environmental and Forest Sciences, Seattle, Washington, USA
- U.S. Forest Service PNW Research Station, Wenatchee, Washington, USA
| | - Will Harling
- Mid Klamath Watershed Council, Orleans, California, USA
| | - John D Bailey
- Oregon State University College of Forestry, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
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Hussain ST, Baumann C. The human side of biodiversity: coevolution of the human niche, palaeo-synanthropy and ecosystem complexity in the deep human past. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2024; 379:20230021. [PMID: 38583478 PMCID: PMC10999276 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2023.0021] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/28/2023] [Accepted: 12/18/2023] [Indexed: 04/09/2024] Open
Abstract
Today's biodiversity crisis fundamentally threatens the habitability of the planet, thus ranking among the primary human challenges of our time. Much emphasis is currently placed on the loss of biodiversity in the Anthropocene, yet these debates often portray biodiversity as a purely natural phenomenon without much consideration of its human dimensions and frequently lack long-term vistas. This paper offers a deep-time perspective on the key role of the evolving human niche in ecosystem functioning and biodiversity dynamics. We summarize research on past hunter-gatherer ecosystem contributions and argue that human-environment feedback systems with important biodiversity consequences are probably a recurrent feature of the Late Pleistocene, perhaps with even deeper roots. We update current understandings of the human niche in this light and suggest that the formation of palaeo-synanthropic niches in other animals proffers a powerful model system to investigate recursive interactions of foragers and ecosystems. Archaeology holds important knowledge here and shows that ecosystem contributions vary greatly in relation to different human lifeways, some of which are lost today. We therefore recommend paying more attention to the intricate relationship between biodiversity and cultural diversity, contending that promotion of the former depends on fostering the latter. This article is part of the theme issue 'Ecological novelty and planetary stewardship: biodiversity dynamics in a transforming biosphere'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Shumon T. Hussain
- MESH – Center for Multidisciplinary Environmental Studies in the Humanities & Institute of Prehistoric Archaeology, University of Cologne, Weyertal 59, 50937 Cologne, Germany
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Moesgård Allé 20, 8270 Højbjerg, Denmark
- BIOCHANGE – Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 116, 8000 Aarhus C, Denmark
| | - Chris Baumann
- Biogeology Research Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Hölderlinstrasse 12, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, PL 64 (Gustaf Hällströmin katu 2), 00014 Helsinki, Finland
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Watchorn DJ, Doherty TS, Wilson BA, Garkaklis MJ, Driscoll DA. How do invasive predators and their native prey respond to prescribed fire? Ecol Evol 2024; 14:e11450. [PMID: 38783847 PMCID: PMC11112300 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.11450] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/17/2023] [Revised: 04/30/2024] [Accepted: 05/07/2024] [Indexed: 05/25/2024] Open
Abstract
Fire shapes animal communities by altering resource availability and species interactions, including between predators and prey. In Australia, there is particular concern that two highly damaging invasive predators, the feral cat (Felis catus) and European red fox (Vulpes vulpes), increase their activity in recently burnt areas and exert greater predation pressure on the native prey due to their increased exposure. We tested how prescribed fire occurrence and extent, along with fire history, vegetation, topography, and distance to anthropogenic features (towns and farms), affected the activity (detection frequency) of cats, foxes, and the native mammal community in south-eastern Australia. We used camera traps to quantify mammal activity before and after a prescribed burn and statistically tested how the fire interacted with these habitat variables to affect mammal activity. We found little evidence that the prescribed fire influenced the activity of cats and foxes and no evidence of an effect on kangaroo or small mammal (<800 g) activity. Medium-sized mammals (800-2000 g) were negatively associated with prescribed fire extent, suggesting that prescribed fire has a negative impact on these species in the short term. The lack of a clear activity increase from cats and foxes is likely a positive outcome from a fire management perspective. However, we highlight that their response is likely dependent upon factors like fire size, severity, and prey availability. Future experiments should incorporate GPS-trackers to record fine-scale movements of cats and foxes in temperate ecosystems immediately before and after prescribed fire to best inform management within protected areas.
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Affiliation(s)
- Darcy J. Watchorn
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus)Deakin UniversityGeelongVictoriaAustralia
| | - Tim S. Doherty
- School of Life and Environmental SciencesThe University of SydneySydneyNew South WalesAustralia
- Biodiversity and Conservation ScienceDepartment of Biodiversity, Conservation and AttractionsWoodvaleWestern AustraliaAustralia
| | - Barbara A. Wilson
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus)Deakin UniversityGeelongVictoriaAustralia
| | | | - Don A. Driscoll
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus)Deakin UniversityGeelongVictoriaAustralia
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7
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Page AE, Ringen EJ, Koster J, Borgerhoff Mulder M, Kramer K, Shenk MK, Stieglitz J, Starkweather K, Ziker JP, Boyette AH, Colleran H, Moya C, Du J, Mattison SM, Greaves R, Sum CY, Liu R, Lew-Levy S, Kiabiya Ntamboudila F, Prall S, Towner MC, Blumenfield T, Migliano AB, Major-Smith D, Dyble M, Salali GD, Chaudhary N, Derkx IE, Ross CT, Scelza BA, Gurven MD, Winterhalder BP, Cortez C, Pacheco-Cobos L, Schacht R, Macfarlan SJ, Leonetti D, French JC, Alam N, Zohora FT, Kaplan HS, Hooper PL, Sear R. Women's subsistence strategies predict fertility across cultures, but context matters. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2024; 121:e2318181121. [PMID: 38346210 PMCID: PMC10907265 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2318181121] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 10/19/2023] [Accepted: 12/27/2023] [Indexed: 02/15/2024] Open
Abstract
While it is commonly assumed that farmers have higher, and foragers lower, fertility compared to populations practicing other forms of subsistence, robust supportive evidence is lacking. We tested whether subsistence activities-incorporating market integration-are associated with fertility in 10,250 women from 27 small-scale societies and found considerable variation in fertility. This variation did not align with group-level subsistence typologies. Societies labeled as "farmers" did not have higher fertility than others, while "foragers" did not have lower fertility. However, at the individual level, we found strong evidence that fertility was positively associated with farming and moderate evidence of a negative relationship between foraging and fertility. Markers of market integration were strongly negatively correlated with fertility. Despite strong cross-cultural evidence, these relationships were not consistent in all populations, highlighting the importance of the socioecological context, which likely influences the diverse mechanisms driving the relationship between fertility and subsistence.
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Affiliation(s)
- Abigail E. Page
- Division of Psychology, Brunel University of London, LondonUB8 3PN, United Kingdom
- Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LondonWC1E 7HT, United Kingdom
| | - Erik J. Ringen
- University of Zürich, Zürich8050, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zürich, Zürich8050, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution, University of Zürich, Zürich8050, Switzerland
| | - Jeremy Koster
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Monique Borgerhoff Mulder
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616
| | - Karen Kramer
- Department of Anthropology, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT84112
| | - Mary K. Shenk
- Department of Anthropology, Penn State College of the Liberal Arts, State College, PA16801
| | - Jonathan Stieglitz
- Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, Universite Toulouse 1 Capitole, Toulouse31080, France
| | | | - John P. Ziker
- Department of Anthropology, Boise State University, Boise, ID83725
| | - Adam H. Boyette
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Heidi Colleran
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Cristina Moya
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Davis, CA95616
| | - Juan Du
- State Key Laboratory of Grassland Agro-Ecosystem, College of Ecology, Lanzhou University, Lanzhou730000, China
| | - Siobhán M. Mattison
- Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | - Russell Greaves
- Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | - Chun-Yi Sum
- Anthropology Department, Boston University, Boston, MA02215
| | - Ruizhe Liu
- Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | - Sheina Lew-Levy
- Department of Psychology, Durham University, DurhamDH1 3LE, United Kingdom
| | - Francy Kiabiya Ntamboudila
- Faculté des Lettres, Arts, et Sciences Humaines, Département d’anthropologie, Marien Ngouabi University, Brazzaville, Congo
| | - Sean Prall
- Department of Anthropology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO65201
| | - Mary C. Towner
- Department of Integrative Biology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, OK74078
| | - Tami Blumenfield
- Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | | | - Daniel Major-Smith
- Population Health Sciences, Bristol Medical School, University of Bristol, BristolBS8 2PS, United Kingdom
| | - Mark Dyble
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB2 3DZ, United Kingdom
| | - Gul Deniz Salali
- Department of Anthropology, University College London, LondonWC1H 0BW, United Kingdom
| | - Nikhil Chaudhary
- Department of Archaeology, University of Cambridge, CambridgeCB2 3DZ, United Kingdom
| | - Inez E. Derkx
- Department of Anthropology, Universität Zürich, Zürich8050, Switzerland
| | - Cody T. Ross
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig04103, Germany
| | - Brooke A. Scelza
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA90095
| | - Michael D. Gurven
- Department of Anthropology, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA93106
| | | | | | - Luis Pacheco-Cobos
- Facultad de Biología–Xalapa, Universidad Veracruzana, Zalapa-Enriquez91090, México
| | - Ryan Schacht
- Department of Anthropology, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC27858
| | | | - Donna Leonetti
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Settle, WA98105
| | - Jennifer C. French
- Department of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology, University of Liverpool, LiverpoolL69 7WZ, United Kingdom
| | - Nurul Alam
- Health Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka1213, Bangladesh
| | - Fatema tuz Zohora
- Health Systems and Population Studies Division, International Centre for Diarrheal Disease Research, Bangladesh, Dhaka1213, Bangladesh
| | - Hillard S. Kaplan
- Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | - Paul L. Hooper
- Department of Anthropology, The University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM87106
| | - Rebecca Sear
- Department of Population Health, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, LondonWC1E 7HT, United Kingdom
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Yates C, Evans J, Vernooij R, Eames T, Muir E, Holmes J, Edwards A, Russell-Smith J. Incentivizing sustainable fire management in Australia's northern arid spinifex grasslands. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 344:118384. [PMID: 37392692 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.118384] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/14/2023] [Revised: 06/11/2023] [Accepted: 06/11/2023] [Indexed: 07/03/2023]
Abstract
Fire management across Australia's fire-prone 1.2 M km2 northern savannas region has been transformed over the past decade supported by the inception of Australia's national regulated emissions reduction market in 2012. Today, incentivised fire management is undertaken over a quarter of that entire region, providing a range of socio-cultural, environmental, and economic benefits, including for remote Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) communities and enterprises. Building on those advances, here we explore the emissions abatement potential for expanding incentivised fire management opportunities to include a contiguous fire-prone region, extending to monsoonal but annually lower (<600 mm) and more variable rainfall conditions, supporting predominantly shrubby spinifex (Triodia) hummock grasslands characteristic of much of Australia's deserts and semi-arid rangelands. Adapting a standard methodological approach applied previously for assessing savanna emissions parameters, we first describe fire regime and associated climatic attributes for a proposed ∼850,000 km2 lower rainfall (600-350 mm MAR) focal region. Second, based on regional field assessments of seasonal fuel accumulation, combustion, burnt area patchiness, and accountable methane and nitrous oxide Emission Factor parameters, we find that significant emissions abatement is feasible for regional hummock grasslands. This applies specifically for more frequently burnt sites under higher rainfall conditions if substantial early dry season prescribed fire management is undertaken resulting in marked reduction in late dry season wildfires. The proposed Northern Arid Zone (NAZ) focal envelope is substantially under Indigenous land ownership and management, and in addition to reducing emissions impacts associated with recurrent extensive wildfires, development of commercial landscape-scale fire management opportunities would significantly support social, cultural and biodiversity management aspirations as promoted by Indigenous landowners. Combined with existing regulated savanna fire management regions, inclusion of the NAZ under existing legislated abatement methodologies would effectively provide incentivised fire management covering a quarter of Australia's landmass. This could complement an allied (non-carbon) accredited method valuing combined social, cultural and biodiversity outcomes from enhanced fire management of hummock grasslands. Although the management approach has potential application to other international fire-prone savanna grasslands, caution is required to ensure that such practice does not result in irreversible woody encroachment and undesirable habitat change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cameron Yates
- Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, 0909, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Jay Evans
- Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, 0909, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Roland Vernooij
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Tom Eames
- Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands
| | - Ed Muir
- Indigenous Desert Alliance, West Perth, 6005, Western Australia, Australia
| | - Jarrad Holmes
- PEC Consultants (People, Environment, Carbon), Lake Barrine, 4884, Queensland, Australia
| | - Andrew Edwards
- Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, 0909, Northern Territory, Australia
| | - Jeremy Russell-Smith
- Darwin Centre for Bushfire Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, 0909, Northern Territory, Australia.
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9
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Baumann C, Hussain ST, Roblíčková M, Riede F, Mannino MA, Bocherens H. Evidence for hunter-gatherer impacts on raven diet and ecology in the Gravettian of Southern Moravia. Nat Ecol Evol 2023; 7:1302-1314. [PMID: 37349568 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-023-02107-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/05/2022] [Accepted: 05/25/2023] [Indexed: 06/24/2023]
Abstract
The earlier Gravettian of Southern Moravia-the Pavlovian-is notable for the many raven bones (Corvus corax) documented in its faunal assemblages. On the basis of the rich zooarchaeological and settlement data from the Pavlovian, previous work suggested that common ravens were attracted by human domestic activities and subsequently captured by Pavlovian people, presumably for feathers and perhaps food. Here, we report independent δ15N, δ13C and δ34S stable isotope data obtained from 12 adult ravens from the Pavlovian key sites of Předmostí I, Pavlov I and Dolní Věstonice I to test this idea. We show that Pavlovian ravens regularly fed on larger herbivores and especially mammoths, aligning in feeding preferences with contemporaneous Gravettian foragers. We argue that opportunistic-generalist ravens were encouraged by human settlement and carcass provisioning. Our data may thus provide surprisingly early evidence for incipient synanthropism among Palaeolithic ravens. We suggest that anthropogenic manipulation of carrion supply dynamics furnished unique contexts for the emergence of human-oriented animal behaviours, in turn promoting novel human foraging opportunities-dynamics which are therefore important for understanding early hunter-gatherer ecosystem impacts.
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Affiliation(s)
- Chris Baumann
- Department of Geosciences and Geography, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
- Biogeology Research Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
| | - Shumon T Hussain
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- BIOCHANGE - Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
- Center for Environmental Humanities (CEH), School of Culture and Society, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark.
| | | | - Felix Riede
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
- BIOCHANGE - Center for Biodiversity Dynamics in a Changing World, Department of Biology, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Marcello A Mannino
- Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark
| | - Hervé Bocherens
- Biogeology Research Group, Department of Geosciences, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
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10
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Ruscalleda-Alvarez J, Cliff H, Catt G, Holmes J, Burrows N, Paltridge R, Russell-Smith J, Schubert A, See P, Legge S. Right-way fire in Australia's spinifex deserts: An approach for measuring management success when fire activity varies substantially through space and time. JOURNAL OF ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT 2023; 331:117234. [PMID: 36646040 DOI: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2023.117234] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/12/2022] [Revised: 12/25/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 06/17/2023]
Abstract
Indigenous Australians used fire in spinifex deserts for millennia. These practices mostly ceased following European colonisation, but many contemporary Indigenous groups seek to restore 'right-way fire' practices, to meet inter-related social, economic, cultural and biodiversity objectives. However, measuring and reporting on the fire pattern outcomes of management is challenging, because the spatio-temporal patterns of right-way fire are not clearly defined, and because spatio-temporal variability in rainfall makes fire occurrence highly variable in these desert environments. We present an approach for measuring and reporting on fire management outcomes to account for spatio-temporal rainfall variability. The purpose is to support Indigenous groups to assess performance against their management targets, and lay the groundwork for developing an accredited method for valuing combined social, cultural and biodiversity outcomes. We reviewed fire management plans of desert Indigenous groups to identify spatial fire pattern indicators for right-way fire in spinifex deserts. We integrated annual rainfall surfaces with time-since fire mapping (using Landsat imagery) to create a new spatial dataset of accumulated rainfall-since-last-fire, that better represents post-fire vegetation recovery as categorised by local Indigenous people. The fire pattern indicators were merged into a single score using an environmental accounting approach. To strengthen interpretation, we developed an approach for identifying a control area with matching vegetation and fire history, up to the point of management. We applied these methods to a 125,000 ha case study area: Durba Hills, managed by the Martu people of Western Australia. Using a 20-year time series, we show that since right-way fire management at Durba Hills was re-introduced (2009), the fire pattern indicators have improved compared to those in the matched control area, and the composite result is closer to the fine-scaled mosaic of right-way fire pattern targets. Our approach could be used by Indigenous groups to track performance, and inform annual fire management planning. As the indicators are standardised for rainfall variation, results from multiple sites can be aggregated to track changes in performance at larger scales. Finally, our approach could be adapted for other fire-prone areas, both in Australia and internationally with high spatio-temporal rainfall variability, to improve management planning and evaluation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jaume Ruscalleda-Alvarez
- Research Institute of Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Darwin, NT, 0810, Australia.
| | - Hannah Cliff
- Indigenous Desert Alliance, 587 Newcastle St, West Perth, WA, 6005, Australia.
| | - Gareth Catt
- Indigenous Desert Alliance, 587 Newcastle St, West Perth, WA, 6005, Australia.
| | - Jarrad Holmes
- Indigenous Desert Alliance, 587 Newcastle St, West Perth, WA, 6005, Australia; PEC Consultants (People, Environment, Carbon), Lake Barrine, Qld, 4884, Australia.
| | - Neil Burrows
- Neil Burrows, FireNinti, 21 Sandra Way, Rossmoyne, WA, 6148, Australia.
| | - Rachel Paltridge
- Indigenous Desert Alliance, 587 Newcastle St, West Perth, WA, 6005, Australia.
| | - Jeremy Russell-Smith
- Research Institute of Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Darwin, NT, 0810, Australia.
| | | | - Peter See
- Country Needs People, Level 9, 121 Marcus Clarke Street, Canberra City, ACT, 2601, Australia.
| | - Sarah Legge
- Research Institute of Environment and Livelihoods, Charles Darwin University, Casuarina, Darwin, NT, 0810, Australia; Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, 2602, Australia.
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11
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Phelps LN, Andela N, Gravey M, Davis DS, Kull CA, Douglass K, Lehmann CER. Madagascar's fire regimes challenge global assumptions about landscape degradation. GLOBAL CHANGE BIOLOGY 2022; 28:6944-6960. [PMID: 35582991 PMCID: PMC9790435 DOI: 10.1111/gcb.16206] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/21/2022] [Accepted: 03/20/2022] [Indexed: 06/15/2023]
Abstract
Narratives of landscape degradation are often linked to unsustainable fire use by local communities. Madagascar is a case in point: the island is considered globally exceptional, with its remarkable endemic biodiversity viewed as threatened by unsustainable anthropogenic fire. Yet, fire regimes on Madagascar have not been empirically characterised or globally contextualised. Here, we contribute a comparative approach to determining relationships between regional fire regimes and global patterns and trends, applied to Madagascar using MODIS remote sensing data (2003-2019). Rather than a global exception, we show that Madagascar's fire regimes are similar to 88% of tropical burned area with shared climate and vegetation characteristics, and can be considered a microcosm of most tropical fire regimes. From 2003-2019, landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes (17%-44% excluding Madagascar), and on Madagascar at a relatively fast rate (36%-46%). Thus, high tree loss anomalies on the island (1.25-4.77× the tropical average) were not explained by any general expansion of landscape-scale fire in grassy biomes. Rather, tree loss anomalies centred in forests, and could not be explained by landscape-scale fire escaping from savannas into forests. Unexpectedly, the highest tree loss anomalies on Madagascar (4.77×) occurred in environments without landscape-scale fire, where the role of small-scale fires (<21 h [0.21 km2 ]) is unknown. While landscape-scale fire declined across tropical grassy biomes, trends in tropical forests reflected important differences among regions, indicating a need to better understand regional variation in the anthropogenic drivers of forest loss and fire risk. Our new understanding of Madagascar's fire regimes offers two lessons with global implications: first, landscape-scale fire is declining across tropical grassy biomes and does not explain high tree loss anomalies on Madagascar. Second, landscape-scale fire is not uniformly associated with tropical forest loss, indicating a need for socio-ecological context in framing new narratives of fire and ecosystem degradation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Leanne N. Phelps
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
- Tropical Diversity, Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghEdinburghUK
| | - Niels Andela
- School of Earth and Environmental SciencesCardiff UniversityCardiffUK
| | - Mathieu Gravey
- Institute of Earth Surface DynamicsUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
| | - Dylan S. Davis
- Department of AnthropologyThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Christian A. Kull
- Institute of Geography and SustainabilityUniversity of LausanneLausanneSwitzerland
| | - Kristina Douglass
- Department of AnthropologyThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
- Institutes of Energy and the EnvironmentThe Pennsylvania State UniversityUniversity ParkPennsylvaniaUSA
| | - Caroline E. R. Lehmann
- School of GeoSciencesUniversity of EdinburghEdinburghUK
- Tropical Diversity, Royal Botanic Garden EdinburghEdinburghUK
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12
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13
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Welker MH, Hughes JE, McClure SB. Cooperation and Cattle Herding in Eighteenth Century Acadia: Implications for Archaeological Studies of Agropastoralism. J ETHNOBIOL 2022. [DOI: 10.2993/0278-0771-42.1.69] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/03/2022]
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14
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Doherty TS, Geary WL, Jolly CJ, Macdonald KJ, Miritis V, Watchorn DJ, Cherry MJ, Conner LM, González TM, Legge SM, Ritchie EG, Stawski C, Dickman CR. Fire as a driver and mediator of predator-prey interactions. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2022; 97:1539-1558. [PMID: 35320881 PMCID: PMC9546118 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12853] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/04/2021] [Revised: 03/15/2022] [Accepted: 03/16/2022] [Indexed: 01/08/2023]
Abstract
Both fire and predators have strong influences on the population dynamics and behaviour of animals, and the effects of predators may either be strengthened or weakened by fire. However, knowledge of how fire drives or mediates predator–prey interactions is fragmented and has not been synthesised. Here, we review and synthesise knowledge of how fire influences predator and prey behaviour and interactions. We develop a conceptual model based on predator–prey theory and empirical examples to address four key questions: (i) how and why do predators respond to fire; (ii) how and why does prey vulnerability change post‐fire; (iii) what mechanisms do prey use to reduce predation risk post‐fire; and (iv) what are the outcomes of predator–fire interactions for prey populations? We then discuss these findings in the context of wildlife conservation and ecosystem management before outlining priorities for future research. Fire‐induced changes in vegetation structure, resource availability, and animal behaviour influence predator–prey encounter rates, the amount of time prey are vulnerable during an encounter, and the conditional probability of prey death given an encounter. How a predator responds to fire depends on fire characteristics (e.g. season, severity), their hunting behaviour (ambush or pursuit predator), movement behaviour, territoriality, and intra‐guild dynamics. Prey species that rely on habitat structure for avoiding predation often experience increased predation rates and lower survival in recently burnt areas. By contrast, some prey species benefit from the opening up of habitat after fire because it makes it easier to detect predators and to modify their behaviour appropriately. Reduced prey body condition after fire can increase predation risk either through impaired ability to escape predators, or increased need to forage in risky areas due to being energetically stressed. To reduce risk of predation in the post‐fire environment, prey may change their habitat use, increase sheltering behaviour, change their movement behaviour, or use camouflage through cryptic colouring and background matching. Field experiments and population viability modelling show instances where fire either amplifies or does not amplify the impacts of predators on prey populations, and vice versa. In some instances, intense and sustained post‐fire predation may lead to local extinctions of prey populations. Human disruption of fire regimes is impacting faunal communities, with consequences for predator and prey behaviour and population dynamics. Key areas for future research include: capturing data continuously before, during and after fires; teasing out the relative importance of changes in visibility and shelter availability in different contexts; documenting changes in acoustic and olfactory cues for both predators and prey; addressing taxonomic and geographic biases in the literature; and predicting and testing how changes in fire‐regime characteristics reshape predator–prey interactions. Understanding and managing the consequences for predator–prey communities will be critical for effective ecosystem management and species conservation in this era of global change.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim S Doherty
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Heydon-Laurence Building A08, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
| | - William L Geary
- Biodiversity Strategy and Knowledge Branch, Biodiversity Division, Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning, 8 Nicholson Street, East Melbourne, VIC, 3002, Australia.,Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus), Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia
| | - Chris J Jolly
- School of Agricultural, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Gungalman Drive, Albury, NSW, 2640, Australia.,School of Natural Sciences, G17, Macquarie University, 205B Culloden Road, Macquarie Park, NSW, 2109, Australia
| | - Kristina J Macdonald
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus), Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia
| | - Vivianna Miritis
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Heydon-Laurence Building A08, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
| | - Darcy J Watchorn
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus), Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia
| | - Michael J Cherry
- Caesar Kleberg Wildlife Research Institute, Texas A&M University-Kingsville, 700 University Boulevard, MSC 218, Kingsville, TX, 78363, U.S.A
| | - L Mike Conner
- The Jones Center at Ichauway, 3988 Jones Center Drive, Newton, GA, 39870, U.S.A
| | - Tania Marisol González
- Laboratorio de Ecología del Paisaje y Modelación de Ecosistemas ECOLMOD, Departamento de Biología, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Edificio 421, Bogotá, 111321, Colombia
| | - Sarah M Legge
- Fenner School of Environment & Society, The Australian National University, Linnaeus Way, Canberra, ACT, 2601, Australia.,Centre for Biodiversity Conservation Science, University of Queensland, Level 5 Goddard Building, St Lucia, QLD, 4072, Australia
| | - Euan G Ritchie
- Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences (Burwood Campus), Deakin University, 75 Pigdons Road, Waurn Ponds, VIC, 3216, Australia
| | - Clare Stawski
- Department of Biology, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, NO-7491, Norway.,School of Science, Technology and Engineering, University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore DC, QLD, 4558, Australia
| | - Chris R Dickman
- School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Heydon-Laurence Building A08, The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, 2006, Australia
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15
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Blackwood EMJ, Rangers K, Bayley S, Bijlani H, Fensham RJ, Lindsay M, Noakes E, Wemyss J, Legge S. Pirra Jungku: Comparison of traditional and contemporary fire practices on Karajarri Country, Western Australia. ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION 2022. [DOI: 10.1111/emr.12527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022]
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16
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Schang K, Cox K, Trant AJ. Habitation Sites Influence Tree Community Assemblages in the Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada. Front Ecol Evol 2022. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.791047] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Identifying how past human actions have influenced their environment is essential for understanding the ecological factors that structure contemporary ecosystems. Intertidal resource use by Indigenous Peoples for thousands of years has led to habitation sites containing vast shell midden deposits and facilitating long-term impacts on soil chemistry and drainage. Here we examine how these shell middens have impacted various forest metrics, such as species diversity, community composition, canopy height, and regeneration recruitment to determine if forests on habitation sites differ from the surrounding matrix. We surveyed known habitation sites with archeological evidence indicating past year-round human occupation, within the Hakai Lúxvbálís Conservancy on Calvert and Hecate Islands within the Great Bear Rainforest along British Columbia’s Central Coast. Our results demonstrate that habitation sites exhibit lower tree species richness, less relative species abundances, as such, displayed lower Shannon diversity and inverse Simpson values. The composition of tree communities on habitation sites was statistically different, with western hemlock and western redcedar densities increasing on non-habitation sites. Conversely, regeneration diversity at habitation sites was more even and exhibited elevated Shannon diversity and inverse Simpson values. The community composition of regeneration was more consistent among habitation and non-habitation sites; however, western redcedar, western hemlock and Sitka spruce were more abundant at habitation sites. For all tree species, maximum height was higher within the habitation sites; however, this trend was the most notable in western redcedar and Sitka spruce, which increased by an average of 4.8 m relative to non-habitation sites. Collectively, our findings suggest that long-term habitation alters forest community compositions. The landscape alterations within habitation sites promote conditions needed to support diverse, even, and abundant regeneration communities and consequently increase the height of the dominant coastal tree species. Thus, our results offer evidence that long-term influence by Indigenous communities have a persistent influence on coastal forests.
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17
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Roebroeks W, MacDonald K, Scherjon F, Bakels C, Kindler L, Nikulina A, Pop E, Gaudzinski-Windheuser S. Landscape modification by Last Interglacial Neanderthals. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:eabj5567. [PMID: 34910514 PMCID: PMC8673775 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abj5567] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Accepted: 10/27/2021] [Indexed: 06/14/2023]
Abstract
Little is known about the antiquity, nature, and scale of Pleistocene hunter-gatherer impact on their ecosystems, despite the importance for studies of conservation and human evolution. Such impact is likely to be limited, mainly because of low population densities, and challenging to detect and interpret in terms of cause-effect dynamics. We present high-resolution paleoenvironmental and archaeological data from the Last Interglacial locality of Neumark-Nord (Germany). Among the factors that shaped vegetation structure and succession in this lake landscape, we identify a distinct ecological footprint of hominin activities, including fire use. We compare these data with evidence from archaeological and baseline sites from the same region. At Neumark-Nord, notably open vegetation coincides with a virtually continuous c. 2000-year-long hominin presence, and the comparative data strongly suggest that hominins were a contributing factor. With an age of c. 125,000 years, Neumark-Nord provides an early example of a hominin role in vegetation transformation.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wil Roebroeks
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Katharine MacDonald
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Fulco Scherjon
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Corrie Bakels
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Lutz Kindler
- MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, 56567 Neuwied, Germany
- Institute of Ancient Studies, Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Schönborner Hof, Schillerstraße 11, 55116 Mainz, Germany
| | - Anastasia Nikulina
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Eduard Pop
- Faculty of Archaeology, Leiden University, P.O. Box 9514, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
- Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, P.O. Box 9517, 2300 RA Leiden, Netherlands
| | - Sabine Gaudzinski-Windheuser
- MONREPOS Archaeological Research Centre and Museum for Human Behavioural Evolution, Schloss Monrepos, 56567 Neuwied, Germany
- Institute of Ancient Studies, Pre- and Protohistoric Archaeology, Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, Schönborner Hof, Schillerstraße 11, 55116 Mainz, Germany
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18
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Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene sites in the montane forests of New Guinea yield early record of cassowary hunting and egg harvesting. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2100117118. [PMID: 34580213 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2100117118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 07/14/2021] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
How early human foragers impacted insular forests is a topic with implications across multiple disciplines, including resource management. Paradoxically, terminal Pleistocene and Early Holocene impacts of foraging communities have been characterized as both extreme-as in debates over human-driven faunal extinctions-and minimal compared to later landscape transformations by farmers and herders. We investigated how rainforest hunter-gatherers managed resources in montane New Guinea and present some of the earliest documentation of Late Pleistocene through mid-Holocene exploitation of cassowaries (Aves: Casuariidae). Worldwide, most insular ratites were extirpated by the Late Holocene, following human arrivals, including elephant birds of Madagascar (Aepyornithidae) and moa of Aotearoa/New Zealand (Dinornithiformes)-icons of anthropogenic island devastation. Cassowaries are exceptional, however, with populations persisting in New Guinea and Australia. Little is known of past human exploitation and what factors contributed to their survival. We present a method for inferring past human interaction with mega-avifauna via analysis of microstructural features of archaeological eggshell. We then contextualize cassowary hunting and egg harvesting by montane foragers and discuss the implications of human exploitation. Our data suggest cassowary egg harvesting may have been more common than the harvesting of adults. Furthermore, our analysis of cassowary eggshell microstructural variation reveals a distinct pattern of harvesting eggs in late ontogenetic stages. Harvesting eggs in later stages of embryonic growth may reflect human dietary preferences and foraging seasonality, but the observed pattern also supports the possibility that-as early as the Late Pleistocene-people were collecting eggs in order to hatch and rear cassowary chicks.
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19
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Crabtree SA, White DA, Bradshaw CJA, Saltré F, Williams AN, Beaman RJ, Bird MI, Ulm S. Landscape rules predict optimal superhighways for the first peopling of Sahul. Nat Hum Behav 2021; 5:1303-1313. [PMID: 33927367 DOI: 10.1038/s41562-021-01106-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 16] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/16/2020] [Accepted: 03/24/2021] [Indexed: 02/02/2023]
Abstract
Archaeological data and demographic modelling suggest that the peopling of Sahul required substantial populations, occurred rapidly within a few thousand years and encompassed environments ranging from hyper-arid deserts to temperate uplands and tropical rainforests. How this migration occurred and how humans responded to the physical environments they encountered have, however, remained largely speculative. By constructing a high-resolution digital elevation model for Sahul and coupling it with fine-scale viewshed analysis of landscape prominence, least-cost pedestrian travel modelling and high-performance computing, we create over 125 billion potential migratory pathways, whereby the most parsimonious routes traversed emerge. Our analysis revealed several major pathways-superhighways-transecting the continent, that we evaluated using archaeological data. These results suggest that the earliest Australian ancestors adopted a set of fundamental rules shaped by physiological capacity, attraction to visually prominent landscape features and freshwater distribution to maximize survival, even without previous experience of the landscapes they encountered.
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Affiliation(s)
- Stefani A Crabtree
- Department of Environment and Society, Utah State University, Logan, UT, USA. .,The Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, USA. .,ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia. .,Université de Paris, INSERM U1284, Center for Research and Interdisciplinarity (CRI), Paris, France.
| | - Devin A White
- Autonomous Sensing and Perception, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA.,Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville, Knoxville, TN, USA
| | - Corey J A Bradshaw
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.,Global Ecology Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Frédérik Saltré
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia.,Global Ecology Partuyarta Ngadluku Wardli Kuu, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
| | - Alan N Williams
- Climate Change Research Centre, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.,ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.,EMM Consulting Pty Ltd, St Leonards, New South Wales, Australia
| | - Robin J Beaman
- College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
| | - Michael I Bird
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.,College of Science and Engineering, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
| | - Sean Ulm
- ARC Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia.,College of Arts, Society and Education, James Cook University, Cairns, Queensland, Australia
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20
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Davis DS, Douglass K. Remote Sensing Reveals Lasting Legacies of Land-Use by Small-Scale Foraging Communities in the Southwestern Indian Ocean. Front Ecol Evol 2021. [DOI: 10.3389/fevo.2021.689399] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Archaeologists interested in the evolution of anthropogenic landscapes have productively adopted Niche Construction Theory (NCT), in order to assess long-term legacies of human-environment interactions. Applications of NCT have especially been used to elucidate co-evolutionary dynamics in agricultural and pastoral systems. Meanwhile, foraging and/or highly mobile small-scale communities, often thought of as less intensive in terms of land-use than agropastoral economies, have received less theoretical and analytical attention from a landscape perspective. Here we address this lacuna by contributing a novel remote sensing approach for investigating legacies of human-environment interaction on landscapes that have a long history of co-evolution with highly mobile foraging communities. Our study is centered on coastal southwest Madagascar, a region inhabited by foraging and fishing communities for close to two millennia. Despite significant environmental changes in southwest Madagascar’s environment following human settlement, including a wave of faunal extinctions, little is known about the scale, pace and nature of anthropogenic landscape modification. Archaeological deposits in this area generally bear ephemeral traces of past human activity and do not exhibit readily visible signatures of intensive land-use and landscape modification (e.g., agricultural modifications, monumental architecture, etc.). In this paper we use high-resolution satellite imagery and vegetative indices to reveal a legacy of human-landscape co-evolution by comparing the characteristics – vegetative productivity and geochemical properties – of archaeological sites to those of locations with no documented archaeological materials. Then, we use a random forest (RF) algorithm and spatial statistics to quantify the extent of archaeological activity and use this analysis to contextualize modern-day human-environment dynamics. Our results demonstrate that coastal foraging communities in southwest Madagascar over the past 1,000 years have extensively altered the landscape. Our study thus expands the temporal and spatial scales at which we can evaluate human-environment dynamics on Madagascar, providing new opportunities to study early periods of the island’s human history when mobile foraging communities were the dominant drivers of landscape change.
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21
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Abstract
Large and severe wildfires are becoming increasingly common worldwide and are having extraordinary impacts on people and the species and ecosystems on which they depend. Indigenous peoples comprise only 5% of the world’s population but protect approximately 85% of the world’s biodiversity through stewardship of Indigenous-managed lands. Much of this is attributed to long-term and widespread relationships with and dependence on fire, which has been applied as a tool for managing landscapes for millennia. Fortunately, the revitalization of Indigenous fire stewardship is demonstrating the value of routinely applying controlled fire to adapt to changing environments while promoting desired landscapes, habitats, and species and supporting subsistence practices and livelihoods. Increasingly, severe wildfires have led to declines in biodiversity across all of Earth’s vegetated biomes [D. B. McWethy et al., Nat. Sustain. 2, 797–804 (2019)]. Unfortunately, the displacement of Indigenous peoples and place-based societies that rely on and routinely practice fire stewardship has resulted in significant declines in biodiversity and the functional roles of people in shaping pyrodiverse systems [R. Bliege Bird et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 117, 12904–12914 (2020)]. With the aim of assessing the impacts of Indigenous fire stewardship on biodiversity and species function across Earth’s major terrestrial biomes, we conducted a review of relevant primary data papers published from 1900 to present. We examined how the frequency, seasonality, and severity of human-ignited fires can improve or reduce reported metrics of biodiversity and habitat heterogeneity as well as changes to species composition across a range of taxa and spatial and temporal scales. A total of 79% of applicable studies reported increases in biodiversity as a result of fire stewardship, and 63% concluded that habitat heterogeneity was increased by the use of fire. All studies reported that fire stewardship occurred outside of the window of uncontrollable fire activity, and plants (woody and nonwoody vegetation) were the most intensively studied life forms. Three studies reported declines in biodiversity associated with increases in the use of high-severity fire as a result of the disruption of Indigenous-controlled fire regimes with the onset of colonization. Supporting Indigenous-led fire stewardship can assist with reviving important cultural practices while protecting human communities from increasingly severe wildfires, enhancing biodiversity, and increasing ecosystem heterogeneity.
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22
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Middle Pleistocene fire use: The first signal of widespread cultural diffusion in human evolution. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2021; 118:2101108118. [PMID: 34301807 PMCID: PMC8346817 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2101108118] [Citation(s) in RCA: 25] [Impact Index Per Article: 8.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/18/2022] Open
Abstract
Control of fire is one of the most important technological innovations within the evolution of humankind. The archaeological signal of fire use becomes very visible from around 400,000 y ago onward. Interestingly, this occurs at a geologically similar time over major parts of the Old World, in Africa, as well as in western Eurasia, and in different subpopulations of the wider hominin metapopulation. We interpret this spatiotemporal pattern as the result of cultural diffusion, and as representing the earliest clear-cut case of widespread cultural change resulting from diffusion in human evolution. This fire-use pattern is followed slightly later by a similar spatiotemporal distribution of Levallois technology, at the beginning of the African Middle Stone Age and the western Eurasian Middle Paleolithic. These archaeological data, as well as studies of ancient genomes, lead us to hypothesize that at the latest by 400,000 y ago, hominin subpopulations encountered one another often enough and were sufficiently tolerant toward one another to transmit ideas and techniques over large regions within relatively short time periods. Furthermore, it is likely that the large-scale social networks necessary to transmit complicated skills were also in place. Most importantly, this suggests a form of cultural behavior significantly more similar to that of extant Homo sapiens than to our great ape relatives.
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Thompson JC, Wright DK, Ivory SJ, Choi JH, Nightingale S, Mackay A, Schilt F, Otárola-Castillo E, Mercader J, Forman SL, Pietsch T, Cohen AS, Arrowsmith JR, Welling M, Davis J, Schiery B, Kaliba P, Malijani O, Blome MW, O'Driscoll CA, Mentzer SM, Miller C, Heo S, Choi J, Tembo J, Mapemba F, Simengwa D, Gomani-Chindebvu E. Early human impacts and ecosystem reorganization in southern-central Africa. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2021; 7:7/19/eabf9776. [PMID: 33952528 PMCID: PMC8099189 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.abf9776] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/02/2020] [Accepted: 03/17/2021] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Modern Homo sapiens engage in substantial ecosystem modification, but it is difficult to detect the origins or early consequences of these behaviors. Archaeological, geochronological, geomorphological, and paleoenvironmental data from northern Malawi document a changing relationship between forager presence, ecosystem organization, and alluvial fan formation in the Late Pleistocene. Dense concentrations of Middle Stone Age artifacts and alluvial fan systems formed after ca. 92 thousand years ago, within a paleoecological context with no analog in the preceding half-million-year record. Archaeological data and principal coordinates analysis indicate that early anthropogenic fire relaxed seasonal constraints on ignitions, influencing vegetation composition and erosion. This operated in tandem with climate-driven changes in precipitation to culminate in an ecological transition to an early, pre-agricultural anthropogenic landscape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica C Thompson
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA.
- Institute of Human Origins, P.O. Box 874101, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA
| | - David K Wright
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.
- State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xian, China
| | - Sarah J Ivory
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Systems Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA.
| | - Jeong-Heon Choi
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang, Republic of Korea
| | - Sheila Nightingale
- Department of Anthropology, City University of New York, Graduate Center, New York, NY, USA
| | - Alex Mackay
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Flora Schilt
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- Universidade do Algarve, Interdisciplinary Center for Archaeology and Evolution of Human Behavior (ICArEHB), FCHS, Campus Gambelas, J27, Faro 8005-139, Portugal
| | | | - Julio Mercader
- Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada
- Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
- Institut Català de Paleoecologia Humana i Evolució Social (IPHES), Zona Educacional, 4-Campus Sescelades URV (Edifici W3), 43007 Tarragona, Spain
| | | | - Timothy Pietsch
- Australian Rivers Institute, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia
| | - Andrew S Cohen
- Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - J Ramón Arrowsmith
- School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA
| | - Menno Welling
- Reinwardt Academy, Amsterdam University of the Arts, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- African Heritage Ltd., Box 622, Zomba, Malawi
| | | | | | - Potiphar Kaliba
- Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Oris Malijani
- Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | - Margaret W Blome
- Department of Geological Sciences, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA
| | - Corey A O'Driscoll
- Centre for Archaeological Science, School of Earth, Atmospheric and Life Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW, Australia
| | - Susan M Mentzer
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- School of Anthropology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, USA
| | - Christopher Miller
- Institute for Archaeological Sciences and Senckenberg Centre for Human Evolution and Palaeoenvironment, University of Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
- SFF Centre for Early Sapiens Behaviour (SapienCE), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
| | - Seoyoung Heo
- Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Korea Basic Science Institute, Ochang, Republic of Korea
| | - Jungyu Choi
- Gyeongju National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage, Gyeongju, Republic of Korea
| | - Joseph Tembo
- Malawi Department of Museums and Monuments, Lilongwe, Malawi
| | | | - Davie Simengwa
- Lanujos Social Research and Consultancy, Blantyre, Malawi
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Ready E, Price MH. Human behavioral ecology and niche construction. Evol Anthropol 2021; 30:71-83. [PMID: 33555109 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21885] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/12/2019] [Revised: 11/18/2020] [Accepted: 01/07/2021] [Indexed: 01/26/2023]
Abstract
We examine the relationship between niche construction theory (NCT) and human behavioral ecology (HBE), two branches of evolutionary science that are important sources of theory in archeology. We distinguish between formal models of niche construction as an evolutionary process, and uses of niche construction to refer to a kind of human behavior. Formal models from NCT examine how environmental modification can change the selection pressures that organisms face. In contrast, formal models from HBE predict behavior assuming people behave adaptively in their local setting, and can be used to predict when and why people engage in niche construction. We emphasize that HBE as a field is much broader than foraging theory and can incorporate social and cultural influences on decision-making. We demonstrate how these approaches can be formally incorporated in a multi-inheritance framework for evolutionary research, and argue that archeologists can best contribute to evolutionary theory by building and testing models that flexibly incorporate HBE and NCT elements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Elspeth Ready
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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Douglass K, Rasolondrainy T. Social memory and niche construction in a hypervariable environment. Am J Hum Biol 2021; 33:e23557. [DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23557] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/06/2020] [Revised: 12/04/2020] [Accepted: 12/10/2020] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Kristina Douglass
- Department of Anthropology Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania USA
- Institutes of Energy and the Environment Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania USA
- Rock Ethics Institute Pennsylvania State University University Park Pennsylvania USA
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Thompson JC, Wright DK, Ivory SJ. The emergence and intensification of early hunter-gatherer niche construction. Evol Anthropol 2020; 30:17-27. [PMID: 33341104 DOI: 10.1002/evan.21877] [Citation(s) in RCA: 10] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/15/2019] [Revised: 03/31/2020] [Accepted: 08/30/2020] [Indexed: 01/13/2023]
Abstract
Hunter-gatherers, especially Pleistocene examples, are not well-represented in archeological studies of niche construction. However, as the role of humans in shaping environments over long time scales becomes increasingly apparent, it is critical to develop archeological proxies and testable hypotheses about early hunter-gatherer impacts. Modern foragers engage in niche constructive behaviors aimed at maintaining or increasing the productivity of their environments, and these may have had significant ecological consequences over later human evolution. In some cases, they may also represent behaviors unique to modern Homo sapiens. Archeological and paleoenvironmental data show that African hunter-gatherers were niche constructors in diverse environments, which have legacies in how ecosystems function today. These can be conceptualized as behaviorally mediated trophic cascades, and tested using archeological and paleoenvironmental proxies. Thus, large-scale niche construction behavior is possible to identify at deeper time scales, and may be key to understanding the emergence of modern humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Jessica C Thompson
- Department of Anthropology, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA
| | - David K Wright
- Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway.,State Key Laboratory of Loess and Quaternary Geology, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Xi'an, China
| | - Sarah J Ivory
- Department of Geosciences and Earth and Environmental Sciences Institute, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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Bliege Bird R, Bird DW. Climate, landscape diversity, and food sovereignty in arid Australia: The firestick farming hypothesis. Am J Hum Biol 2020; 33:e23527. [PMID: 33107161 DOI: 10.1002/ajhb.23527] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/22/2020] [Revised: 09/29/2020] [Accepted: 10/08/2020] [Indexed: 12/29/2022] Open
Abstract
OBJECTIVE Climate change has long been recognized as a significant driver of dietary diversity and dietary quality. An often overlooked aspect of climate change are shifts in fire regimes, which have the potential to drastically affect landscape diversity, species distributions, and ultimately, human diets. Here, we investigate whether the fire regimes shaped by Indigenous Australians change landscape diversity in ways that improve dietary quality, considering both the diversity and the quantity of traditional foods in the diet. METHODS We use structural equation modeling to explore two causal models of dietary quality, one focused on the direct effects of climate change and resource depression, the other incorporating the dietary effects of landscape diversity, itself a product of fire-created patchiness. We draw on a focal camp dataset covering 10 years of observations of Martu foraging income in the Western Desert of Australia. RESULTS We find strong support for the hypothesis that fire-created patchiness improves diet quality. Climate change (cumulative 2-year rainfall) has only an indirect effect on dietary quality; the availability of traditional foods is mediated primarily through the landscape diversity shaped by fire. CONCLUSIONS Our model suggests that the loss of the indigenous fire mosaic may lead to worsening availability of traditional foods, measured as both caloric intake and diet diversity. Because the effects of rainfall are mediated through landscape diversity, increased rainfall may not compensate for the recent changes in fire regimes resulting from the loss of Aboriginal fire from the landscape.
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Affiliation(s)
- Rebecca Bliege Bird
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
| | - Douglas W Bird
- Department of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania, USA
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The emergence of locally adaptive institutions: Insights from traditional social structures of East African pastoralists. Biosystems 2020; 198:104257. [PMID: 32987143 DOI: 10.1016/j.biosystems.2020.104257] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/14/2020] [Revised: 09/17/2020] [Accepted: 09/18/2020] [Indexed: 01/23/2023]
Abstract
Humans inhabit the widest range of ecological and social niches of any mammal. Yet each ecological and social environment presents a set of challenges that we must solve in order to successfully inhabit it. We are able to do so by building institutions that can flexibly respond to changing circumstances. Institutions that solve adaptive challenges necessary for human sociality, such as how to resolve conflicts, find mates, and extract and distribute resources, are termed locally adaptive institutions. The design of locally adaptive institutions promotes coordination and cooperation among unrelated individuals, reflecting the constraints of the particular ecological and social challenges to which they are responsive. Institutions generally are enabled by a suite of social and psychological mechanisms, including norm compliance, self-interested design, selective imitation, and cultural group selection among others. The development of locally adaptive institutions are likely to be especially shaped by self-interested design in which agents are sensitive to the payoffs from various norms and choose to enforce and follow those which they anticipate to be most beneficial to themselves. Exogenous shocks, including the advent of material and cultural technologies, population pressures, or even group conflict can contribute to the modification of existing social institutions and the development of new social structures. Using several case examples from traditional east African pastoralist societies, I illustrate how ecological and social pressures shape the development of social norms that underlie locally adaptive social institutions and facilitate continued cooperation in the face of change at scales ranging from local to global.
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Modeling Incipient Use of Neolithic Cultigens by Taiwanese Foragers: Perspectives from Niche Variation Theory, the Prey Choice Model, and the Ideal Free Distribution. QUATERNARY 2020. [DOI: 10.3390/quat3030026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
The earliest evidence for agriculture in Taiwan dates to about 6000 years BP and indicates that farmer-gardeners from Southeast China migrated across the Taiwan Strait. However, little is known about the adaptive interactions between Taiwanese foragers and Neolithic Chinese farmers during the transition. This paper considers theoretical expectations from human behavioral ecology based models and macroecological patterning from Binford’s hunter-gatherer database to scope the range of responses of native populations to invasive dispersal. Niche variation theory and invasion theory predict that the foraging niche breadths will narrow for native populations and morphologically similar dispersing populations. The encounter contingent prey choice model indicates that groups under resource depression from depleted high-ranked resources will increasingly take low-ranked resources upon encounter. The ideal free distribution with Allee effects categorizes settlement into highly ranked habitats selected on the basis of encounter rates with preferred prey, with niche construction potentially contributing to an upswing in some highly ranked prey species. In coastal plain habitats preferred by farming immigrants, interactions and competition either reduced encounter rates with high ranked prey or were offset by benefits to habitat from the creation of a mosaic of succession ecozones by cultivation. Aquatic-focused foragers were eventually constrained to broaden subsistence by increasing the harvest of low ranked resources, then mobility-compatible Neolithic cultigens were added as a niche-broadening tactic. In locations less suitable for farming, fishing and hunting continued as primary foraging tactics for centuries after Neolithic arrivals. The paper concludes with a set of evidence-based archaeological expectations derived from these models.
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