Assessing the Scale of Prehistoric Human Impact in the Neotropics Using Stable Carbon Isotope Analyses of Lake Sediments
A Test Case From Costa Rica
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4374296 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Chad S Lane (0000-0001-8934-5379), Sally P Horn (0000-0002-0575-3664), Zachary P Taylor (0000-0003-0736-570X), Claudia I Mora (0000-0003-2042-0208) |
| Year | 2009 |
| Volume | 20 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 120-133 |
| Publication date | 2009-03-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Latin American Antiquity (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1045-6635 • E-ISSN: 2325-5080 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s1045663500002546 |
| OpenAlex | W2274897912 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 10 |
| References cited | 54 |
Analyses of pollen and other terrestrial microfossils in sediment profiles from neotropical lakes can complement and extend archaeological studies by documenting the timing of prehistoric human disturbances within watersheds. However, assessing the scale of prehistoric human impact from sedimentary microfossil assemblages alone is often difficult. We explore here the utility of combining stable carbon isotope (δ13C) analyses of lake sediments and isotopie mixing models to improve our ability to gauge the extent of prehistoric human disturbance recorded in sediment profiles. Our test case involves the analysis o f a sediment core from Laguna Bonillita on the central Caribbean slope of Costa Rica that spans approximately the last 2,700 calendar years. Variations in the δ13C values of the Laguna Bonillita sediments suggest that human population growth and environmental impacts in the watershed were at their maximum ~cal yr 300 B.C. This finding is in keeping with archaeological evidence of rapid regional population growth at this time but differs from initial interpretations of the sediment record that were based on pollen and charcoal analyses alone. We believe that the use of stable carbon isotope data from sediment profiles can improve estimates of the scale of prehistoric human impact and in doing so improve the contributions of paleoecological research to archaeology
Archaeology · Biology · Geography · Isotopes of carbon · Population · Prehistory · Radiocarbon dating · Sediment · Sediment core · Sedimentary rock · Total organic carbon · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · Isotope Analysis in Ecology · Ecology · Geology · Paleontology
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS)
Compound-specific stable carbon and hydrogen isotope analyses of late-Holocene vegetation and precipitation change at Laguna Los Mangos, Costa Rica
Stable hydrogen isotope evidence of late-Holocene precipitation variability on the Caribbean slope of the Cordillera Central, Costa Rica
Response of diatom communities to climate and human disturbance
Maize pollen concentrations in Neotropical lake sediments as an indicator of the scale of prehistoric agriculture
A chironomid-based reconstruction of late-Holocene climate and environmental change for southern Pacific Costa Rica
Stable isotope analysis of vegetation history and land use change at Laguna Santa Elena in southern Pacific Costa Rica
Sensitivity of bulk sedimentary stable carbon isotopes to prehistoric forest clearance and maize agriculture
The Columbian Encounter and the Little Ice Age
Deriving Response Matrices from Central American Modern Pollen Rain
Climate change on the Yucatan Peninsula during the Little Ice Age
Cultural and Climatic History of Cobá, a Lowland Maya City in Quintana Roo, Mexico
A 4000-Year Lacustrine Record of Environmental Change in the Southern Maya Lowlands, Petén, Guatemala
Terminal Classic drought in the northern Maya lowlands inferred from multiple sediment cores in Lake Chichancanab (Mexico)
Carbon isotope fractionation in plants
Piston Corers for Peat and Lake Sediments
Southward Migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone Through the Holocene
Lacustrine Sedimentary Organic Matter Records of Late Quaternary Paleoclimates
Climate and the Collapse of Maya Civilization
Possible role of climate in the collapse of Classic Maya civilization
Lacustrine organic geochemistry—an overview of indicators of organic matter sources and diagenesis in lake sediments
Variations in the 13C/12C ratios of plants in relation to the pathway of photosynthetic carbon dioxide fixation
The Archaeology of lower Central America
PreColumbian agriculture and forest disturbance in Costa Rica
A Holocene vegetation history from lowland Guatemala
The intercept is a poor estimate of a calibrated radiocarbon age
Holocene climatic and human influences on lakes of the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
A 2860-year high-resolution pollen and charcoal record from the Cordillera de Talamanca in Panama
Pre-Columbian land-use history in Costa Rica
Phytoliths in the Reproductive Structures of Maize and Teosinte
Holocene Charcoal Stratigraphy from Laguna Tortuguero, Puerto Rico, and the Timing of Human Arrival on the Island
Intcal04 Terrestrial Radiocarbon Age Calibration, 0–26 Cal Kyr BP
Extended 14 C Data Base and Revised Calib 3.0 14 C Age Calibration Program
A 5000-year record of agriculture and tropical forest clearance in the Tuxtlas, Veracruz, Mexico
Two histories of environmental change and human disturbance in eastern lowland Amazonia
Data of maize in Talamanca, Costa Rica
A Comparison and Differentiation of Phytoliths from Maize and Wild Grasses
| Citations per year | 0.56 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2008 - 2024 (17) |
| Highly cited | No |