2 documents found, page 1 of 1
Growth rings of Brazil nut trees (Bertholletia excelsa) as a living record of h...
Caetano Andrade, Victor L.; Flores, Bernardo Monteiro; Levis, Carolina; Clement, Charles Roland; Roberts, Patrick; Schöngart, JochenThe Brazil nut tree (Bertholletia excelsa) is an iconic and economically valuable species that dominates vast swathes of the Amazon Basin. This species seems to have been an important part of human subsistence strategies in the region from at least the Early Holocene, and its current distribution may be a legacy of past human settlement. Because B. excelsa is a long-lived pioneer tree it requires natural or hum...
Tropical Trees as Time Capsules of Anthropogenic Activity
Caetano Andrade, Victor L.; Clement, Charles Roland; Weigel, Detlef; Trumbore, Susan Elizabeth; Boivin, Nicole L.; Schöngart, Jochen; Roberts, PatrickAfter the ice caps, tropical forests are globally the most threatened terrestrial environments. Modern trees are not just witnesses to growing contemporary threats but also legacies of past human activity. Here, we review the use of dendrochronology, radiocarbon analysis, stable isotope analysis, and DNA analysis to examine ancient tree management. These methods exploit the fact that living trees record informa...