Bronwen S Whitney

Biographic Data

ID3434155
NAMEBronwen S Whitney
GIVEN NAMESBronwen S
FAMILY NAMEWhitney
SIGNATUREWHITNEY B S
AFFILIATIONSNorthumbria University
ORCID0000-0002-2329-9645
VERIFIEDYes
TOTAL WORKS17
TOTAL CITATIONS135
AUTHOR COUNT17
EDITOR COUNT0
FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR2012
LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR2026
H-INDEX6

  • Forest change in the northern Yucatan lowlands (Mexico) during Maya cultural periods

    Open AccessAdam Bermingham, Bronwen S Whitney et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2026References: 66

    Palaeoecological records from the Maya lowlands indicate that there is an emerging pattern of complex vegetation change across the Terminal Classic Period, a time that was characterised by frequent droughts and collapse of major Maya centres. To fully understand the extent of anthropogenic influences on Yucatan forest composition in space and time, more palaeoecological records are needed, as well as a better understanding of the relationship bet…

  • Island resource exploitation by the ancient Maya during periods of climate stress, Ambergris Caye, Belize

    Open AccessAdam Bermingham, Bronwen S Whitney et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science…2021References: 8

    Ancient Maya societies experienced a period of reorganisation and change in settlement patterns associated with social and climate instability at the end of the Classic period (750-1000 CE) and the subsequent Postclassic period (1200-1500 CE). Although it has been proposed that severe droughts and the breakdown of Classic political systems caused a migration of populations towards the coast, we have little evidence of the nature of land-use at co…

  • Insights into past land-use and vegetation change in the Llanos de Moxos (Bolivia) using fungal non-pollen palynomorphs

    Open AccessNicholas J D Loughlin, Francis E Mayle et al.ARTICLEJournal of Archaeological Science2021Cited by: 4References: 20

    Here we document a 1000-year fungal record from the raised-field region of the Llanos de Moxos, a seasonally inundated forest-savanna mosaic in the Bolivian Amazon. Fungi are extremely sensitive to changes in vegetation due to their close relationship with the local environment, providing a useful proxy for past local vegetation and land-use change. Here the remains of fungal non-pollen palynomorphs (NPPs) are identified from a sediment core take…

  • Long-term impacts of mid-Holocene drier climatic conditions on Bolivian tropical dry forests

    Open AccessHeather Plumpton, Heather J Plumpton et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2020

    The Bolivian Chiquitano dry forest is the largest block of intact seasonally dry tropical forest in South America and is a priority ecoregion for conservation due to its high threat status. However, the long-term impacts of drier climatic conditions on tropical dry forests are not well understood, despite climate models predicting increased droughts over Bolivia in the coming century. In this paper, we assess the impacts of drier climatic conditi…

  • A Tale of Maize, Palm, and Pine

    Open AccessElizabeth A C Rushton, Bronwen S Whitney et al.ARTICLEQuaternary2020

    The environmental impact of the ancient Maya, and subsequent ecological recovery following the Terminal Classic decline, have been the key foci of research into socio-ecological interactions in the Yucatán peninsula. These foci, however, belie the complex pattern of resource exploitation and agriculture associated with post-Classic Maya societies and European colonisation. We present a high-resolution, 1200-year record of pollen and charcoal data…

  • Ecosystem turnover in palaeoecological records

    Open AccessHeather Plumpton, Bronwen S Whitney et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2019Cited by: 3References: 8

    Identification of ecosystem turnover in the palaeo-vegetation record is important for understanding the resilience of ecosystems to past environmental change. There is uncertainty over the ability of different types of palaeo-vegetation proxies to detect ecosystem turnover. The aim of this paper is to compare the sensitivity of two palaeo-vegetation proxies – pollen and phytoliths – to changes within and between three key tropical South American …

  • Constraining pollen-based estimates of forest cover in the Amazon

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, T Luke Smallman et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2018Cited by: 10References: 21

    Pollen dispersal and deposition (PDD) modelling has been instrumental in reconstructing historical vegetation in temperate regions, but its application has been limited in the tropics where there is greatest uncertainty in past land cover change. Here, we apply PDD modelling to Amazonian savanna and forested ecosystems. Empirical pollen data from lakes situated in southwestern Amazonia were used to calibrate the PDD model for a two-component land…

  • Reassessing climate and pre-Columbian drivers of paleofire activity in the Bolivian Amazon

    Open AccessYoshi Maezumi, S Yoshi Maezumi et al.ARTICLEQuaternary International2017Cited by: 18References: 32

  • Out of Amazonia

    Open AccessJ Iriarte, Richard J Smith et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2016Cited by: 23References: 24

    The late-Holocene expansion of the Tupi-Guarani languages from southern Amazonia to SE South America constitutes one of the largest expansions of any linguistic family in the world, spanning ~4000 km between latitudes 0°S and 35°S at about 2.5k cal. yr BP. However, the underlying reasons for this expansion are a matter of debate. Here, we compare continental-scale palaeoecological, palaeoclimate and archaeological datasets, to examine the role of…

  • Pre-Columbian land use in the ring-ditch region of the Bolivian Amazon

    Open AccessJohn Carson, John F Carson et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2015Cited by: 23References: 47

    The nature and extent of pre-Columbian (pre-AD 1492) human impact in Amazonia is a contentious issue. The Bolivian Amazon has yielded some of the most impressive evidence for large and complex pre-Columbian societies in the Amazon basin, yet there remains relatively little data concerning the land use of these societies over time. Palaeoecology, when integrated with archaeological data, has the potential to fill these gaps in our knowledge. We pr…

  • Pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture and land use in the Bolivian Amazon

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Ruth Dickau et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2014Cited by: 39References: 23

    We present an integrated palaeoecological and archaeobotanical study of pre-Columbian raised-field agriculture in the Llanos de Moxos, a vast seasonally inundated forest-savanna mosaic in the Bolivian Amazon. Phytoliths from excavated raised-field soil units, together with pollen and charcoal in sediment cores from two oxbow lakes, were analysed to provide a history of land use and agriculture at the El Cerro raised-field site. The construction o…

  • Pre-Columbian landscape impact and agriculture in the Monumental Mound region of the Llanos de Moxos , lowland Bolivia

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Ruth Dickau et al.ARTICLEQuaternary Research2013

    We present a multiproxy study of land use by a pre-Columbian earth mounds culture in the Bolivian Amazon. The Monumental Mounds Region (MMR) is an archaeological sub-region characterized by hundreds of pre-Columbian habitation mounds associated with a complex network of canals and causeways, and situated in the forest–savanna mosaic of the Llanos de Moxos . Pollen, phytolith, and charcoal analyses were performed on a sediment core from a large la…

  • Sensitivity of Bolivian seasonally-dry tropical forest to precipitation and temperature changes over glacial–interglacial timescales

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Francis E Mayle et al.ARTICLEVegetation History and…2013References: 8

  • A 45,000-yr palaeoclimate record from the heart of tropical South America

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Bronwen WhitneyARTICLEQuaternary International2012

  • Pre-Columbian human land-use and impact in the Bolivian Amazon

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Bronwen WhitneyARTICLEQuaternary International2012

  • A late-Holocene vegetation history from the Maya lowlands, Lamanai, Northern Belize

    Open AccessElizabeth A C Rushton, Elizabeth AC Rushton et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2012Cited by: 6References: 16

    A 3 m core from the New River Lagoon, adjacent to the Maya city of Lamanai, Northern Belize, contains a continuous record of vegetation change between c. 1500 bc and ad 1500. Inferred changes in forest abundance and plant community assemblage build on previous palaeolimnological analysis of the same core reported by Metcalfe et al. (2009). A near-complete, abundant record of Zea mays grains provides a detailed account of field-based agriculture l…

  • An improved methodology for the recovery of Zea mays and other large crop pollen, with implications for environmental archaeology in the Neotropics

    Open AccessBronwen S Whitney, Elizabeth A C Rushton et al.ARTICLEThe Holocene2012Cited by: 9References: 24

    We present a simple sieving methodology to aid the recovery of large cultigen pollen grains, such as maize ( Zea mays L.), manioc ( Manihot esculenta Crantz), and sweet potato ( Ipomoea batatas L.), among others, for the detection of food production using fossil pollen analysis of lake sediments in the tropical Americas. The new methodology was tested on three large study lakes located next to known and/or excavated pre-Columbian archaeological s…