Identification of Anthropogenic Burning in the Paleoecological Record of the Northern Prairies
A New Approach
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8376691 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew Boyd (0000-0003-2997-5090), Matt Boyd (0000-0002-1387-5047, University of Manitoba, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2002 |
| Volume | 92 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 471-487 |
| Publication date | 2002-09-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Annals of the Association of American Geographers (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0004-5608 • E-ISSN: 1467-8306 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1467-8306.00300 |
| OpenAlex | W2136090533 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 32 |
| References cited | 10 |
Despite recent interest in the North American fire record, paleoecological evidence for the deliberate burning of grassland by hunter–gatherers has not previously been sought. Through the analysis of grass phytoliths preserved in a sequence of buried soil horizons in the Lauder Sandhills, southwestern Manitoba, Canada, this article reconstructs a local grassland fire record for the past 5,000 years. I propose that an apparent peak in fire frequency shortly after 2,500 14C years b.p. corresponds to the deliberate burning of prairie by Sonota–Besant (Plains Woodland) hunter–gatherers, rather than climatic “forcing.” This practice, which is clearly documented in the historic record, may have functioned as a means of making bison–herd movements more predictable and may have enabled higher human carrying capacities in the Plains Woodland period. This hypothesis is meant to stimulate multidisciplinary discussion on a significant, but neglected, topic
Archaeology · Biology · Ecosystem · Fire regime · Geography · Grassland · Historical record · Paleoecology · Period (music) · Physical geography · Woodland · Amazonian Archaeology and Ethnohistory · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Geology and Paleoclimatology Research · History
Locating story in place
Eligibility Testing at Three Prehistoric Sites at Lynch Creek, Lampasas County, Texas
Human Occupation and the Environment During the Holocene in the River Cauca Valley, Colombia
Determined to burn off the entire country
Discussion and Conclusions
Not up in smoke
Tracking Hunter-Gatherer Impact on Vegetation in Last Interglacial and Holocene Europe
Testing soil phytolith analysis as a tool to understand vegetation change in the sagebrush steppe and pinyon-juniper woodlands of the Great Basin Desert, USA
Can soil phytolith analysis and charcoal be used as indicators of historic fire in the pinyon-juniper and sagebrush steppe ecosystem types of the Great Basin Desert, USA
Burned phytoliths absorbing black carbon as a potential proxy for paleofire
Multiproxy lake sediment records at the northern and southern boundaries of the Aspen Parkland region of Manitoba, Canada
Anthropogenic burning and the Anthropocene in late-Holocene California
Phytolith taphonomy in the middle- to late-Holocene fluvial sediments of Ounjougou (Mali, West Africa)
New palaeoecological evidence for the potential role of fire in the Gran Sabana, Venezuelan Guayana, and implications for early human occupation
Paleoecology and geochronology of glacial Lake Hind during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition
Effect of fire on phytolith coloration
Archaeobotanical evidence of prehistoric maize (Zea mays) consumption at the northern edge of the Great Plains
Reassessing the northern limit of maize consumption in North America
Rethinking the Study of Landscape Management Practices Among Hunter-Gatherers in North America
Phytoliths from native plants and surface soils from the Upper Madeira river, SW Amazonia, and their potential for paleoecological reconstruction
Testing phytolith analysis approaches to estimate the prehistoric anthropogenic burning regime on the central California coast
Developing an approach for using the soil phytolith record to infer vegetation and disturbance regime changes over the past 200 years
Geoarchaeology and paleoenvironmental context of the Beacon Island site, an Agate Basin (Paleoindian) bison kill in northwestern North Dakota, USA
The potential role of humans in structuring the wooded landscapes of Mesolithic Ireland
Intra-Wetland Land Use in the Kankakee Marsh Region of Northwestern Indiana
Reconstructing a Prairie-Woodland Mosaic on the Northern Great Plains
Natural disasters and interregional interactions
Biogeography in the Annals
Retrospective on Nature–Society Geography
The "Pristine Myth" Revisited
Tabladito
Fire, Agency and Scale in the Creation of Aboriginal Cultural Landscapes
Predicted World Distribution of C3 and C4 Grass Phytoliths
Climatic Changes of the Last 18,000 Years
Morphological Classification of Grass Phytoliths
Chronology and geochemistry of late Holocene eolian deposits in the Brandon Sand Hills, Manitoba, Canada
Some Comments on the Causes and Effects of Fire in the Northern Grasslands Area of Canada and the Nearby United States, Ca. 1750–1900
Extended 14 C Data Base and Revised Calib 3.0 14 C Age Calibration Program
Ecological Islands And Vickers Focus Adaptive Transitions In The Pre-Contact Plains Of Southwestern Manitoba
The Pristine Myth
Phytolithic analysis of geological sediments from Panama
Saskatchewan River Rendezvous Centers and Trading Posts
| Unique citing works | 32 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,33 |
| Citation span | 2002 - 2026 (25) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 28 |